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Washington Counties

There are 39 counties in the state of Washington.

Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory and admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. The first counties were created from unorganized territory in 1845.

Pierce County, Washington

Pierce County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Tacoma
Year Organized: 1853
Square Miles: 1,676

Court House:

930 Tacoma Ave South, Room 1046
County-City Building
Tacoma, WA 98402-2102

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Pierce County was created 22 December 1852 from Thurston County

Pierce County, located in southwestern Washington abutting Puget Sound, encompasses an extremely wide range of elevations: from sea level on Puget Sound to 14,410 at the summit of Mount Rainier. The entire footprint of Mount Rainier, an active Cascade volcano encased in more than 35 square miles of snow and glacial ice, lies within the county's boundaries. Pierce County comprises 1,675 square miles, placing it 23rd in size among Washington's 39 counties. It is bounded by King County to the north, Yakima County to the east, Lewis County to the south, and the southern portion of Puget Sound to the west. As of 2004, Pierce County's estimated population was 744,000. The county's history includes the Puget Sound region's earliest non-Indian settlement at Fort Nisqually, the boom and bust of both hop-growing and coal mining, and the growth and development of Tacoma, the state's third-largest city. Pierce County has one deepwater harbor, Commencement Bay. Most of the county's population and economic base is located in the northwest near Tacoma. The central area along the foothills of Mount Rainier was mined for coal from the 1880s until the late 1930s. Logging and farming have also been significant industries.
File 8001: Full Text >

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,806 square miles (4,679 km²), of which, 1,679 square miles (4,348 km²) of it is land and 128 square miles (330 km²) of it (7.06%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

King County, Washington - north
Yakima County, Washington - east
Lewis County, Washington - south
Thurston County, Washington - west/southwest
Mason County, Washington - west/northwest
Kitsap County, Washington - north/northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Bonney Lake	city	Incorporated Area
- Buckley	city	Incorporated Area
- Carbonado	town	Incorporated Area
- Dupont	city	Incorporated Area
- Eatonville	town	Incorporated Area
- Edgewood	city	Incorporated Area
- Fife	city	Incorporated Area
- Fircrest	city	Incorporated Area
- Gig Harbor	city	Incorporated Area
- Lakewood	city	Incorporated Area
- Milton	city	Incorporated Area
- Orting	city	Incorporated Area
- Puyallup	city	Incorporated Area
- Roy	city	Incorporated Area
- Ruston	town	Incorporated Area
- South Prairie	town	Incorporated Area
- Steilacoom	town	Incorporated Area
- Sumner	city	Incorporated Area
- Tacoma (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- University Place	city	Incorporated Area
- Wilkeson	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

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