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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.

Spokane County, Washington

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

County Seat: Spokane
Year Organized: 1858
Square Miles: 1,764

Court House:

1116 West Broadway Avenue
County Courthouse
Spokane, WA 99260-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The Spokane Native American tribe.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Abolished 19 January 1863 and merged with Stevens County. Recreated in 1879 from Stevens County. Spokane County was created 29 January 1858 from Walla Walla County

Spokane County is the most populous county in mainly rural Eastern Washington and home to the second largest city in the state. After settlement in the 1870s, Spokane became the hub for the mining, timber, and railroad industries of the Inland Northwest. In the surrounding areas, cattle ranging and especially wheat farming became important. Today, the city and county of Spokane serve as the medical, financial, and commercial center of a vast region stretching from the Cascades eastward into western Montana. Fairchild Air Force Base is the county's largest employer, and agriculture remains a factor.
File 7686: Full Text >

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,781 square miles (4,612 km²), of which, 1,764 square miles (4,568 km²) of it is land and 17 square miles (44 km²) of it (0.96%) is water. It is part of the Palouse, a wide and rolling prairie-like region of the middle Columbia basin. The lowest point in the county is the Spokane River behind Long Lake Dam (boundary of Stevens County) at 469 meters (1,538 feet) above sea level. (There is virtually no change in elevation between the dam and the mouth of the Little Spokane River inside Riverside State Park.) The highest point in the county is Mount Spokane at 1,793 meters (5,883 feet).

Neighboring Counties:

Pend Oreille County, Washington - north
Bonner County, Idaho - northeast
Kootenai County, Idaho - east
Benewah County, Idaho - southeast
Whitman County, Washington - south
Lincoln County, Washington - west
Stevens County, Washington - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Airway Heights	city	Incorporated Area
- Cheney	city	Incorporated Area
- Deer Park	city	Incorporated Area
- Fairfield	town	Incorporated Area
- Latah	town	Incorporated Area
- Liberty Lake	city	Incorporated Area
- Medical Lake	city	Incorporated Area
- Millwood	town	Incorporated Area
- Reardan	town	Incorporated Area
- Rockford	town	Incorporated Area
- Spangle	town	Incorporated Area
- Spokane (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Spokane Valley	city	Incorporated Area
- Waverly	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

Online High Schools

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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