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Adams, Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Clallam, Clark, Columbia, Cowlitz, Douglas, Ferry, Franklin, Garfield, Grant, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Klickitat, Lewis, Lincoln, Mason, Okanogan, Pacific, Pend Oreille, Pierce, San Juan, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Spokane, Stevens, Thurston, Wahkiakum, Walla Walla, Whatcom, Whitman, Yakima

Washington Counties

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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.

Yakima County, Washington

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

County Seat: Yakima
Year Organized: 1865
Square Miles: 4,296

Court House:

128 N 2nd Street, Courthouse
County Courthouse
Yakima, WA 98901-2639

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The Yakama Native American tribe.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Yakima County was created 21 January 1865 from Walla Walla

Yakima is the second largest county in Washington, covering 4,296 square miles (2.7 million acres), and ranks seventh in per-county population with 222,581 residents counted in the 2000 United States population census. The town of Yakima is the county seat. Yakima County encompasses most of the Yakama Indian Reservation, and federal, state, or tribal governments own nearly 200 million acres of land in the county. The location of many towns within Yakima County was largely determined by the Northern Pacific Railroad, along whose route the sites were chosen, named, platted, and eventually sold to settlers. Yakima County's primary industry is agriculture, bolstered by an annual average of 300 days of sunshine and nutrient-rich volcanic soil and enabled by Yakima River irrigation projects.
File 7651: Full Text >

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 4,312 square miles (11,167 km²), of which, 4,296 square miles (11,127 km²) of it is land and 15 square miles (40 km²) of it (0.36%) is water. The highest point in the county is Mount Adams at 12,277 feet (3,742 meters) above sea level.

Neighboring Counties:

Kittitas County, Washington - north
Grant County, Washington - northeast
Benton County, Washington - east
Klickitat County, Washington - south
Skamania County, Washington - west/southwest
Lewis County, Washington - west
Pierce County, Washington - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Grandview	city	Incorporated Area
- Granger	town	Incorporated Area
- Harrah	town	Incorporated Area
- Mabton	city	Incorporated Area
- Moxee	city	Incorporated Area
- Naches	town	Incorporated Area
- Selah	city	Incorporated Area
- Sunnyside	city	Incorporated Area
- Tieton	town	Incorporated Area
- Toppenish	city	Incorporated Area
- Union Gap	city	Incorporated Area
- Wapato	city	Incorporated Area
- Yakima (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Zillah	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."