Spokane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 539,339, making it the fourth-most populous county in Washington. The largest city and county seat is Spokane, the second largest city in the state after Seattle. The county is named after the Spokane tribe. Spokane County is part of the Spokane-Spokane Valley metropolitan statistical area, which is also part of the greater Spokane-Coeur d'Alene combined statistical area that includes nearby Kootenai County, Idaho.

History

The first humans to arrive in what is now Spokane County arrived between 12,000 and 8,000 years ago and were

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

societies who lived off the plentiful game in the area. Initially, the settlers hunted predominantly

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

and

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...

, but after the game migrated out of the region, the native people became dependent on gathering various roots, berries, and nuts, and harvesting fish.Ruby et al. (2006) pp. 5–6 The Spokane tribe, after which the county is named, means "Children of the Sun" or "sun people" in SalishanPhillips (1971), pp. 134–135 Explorer-geographer David Thompson, working as head of the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

's Columbia Department, became the first European to explore what is now the Inland Northwest.Stratton (2005), p. 19 After establishing the Kullyspell House and Saleesh House fur trading posts in what are now Idaho and Montana, Thompson then attempted to expand further west. He sent out two trappers, Jacques Raphael Finlay and Finan McDonald, to construct a fur-trading post on the Spokane River in Washington and trade with the local Indians. This post was established in 1810, at the confluence of the Little Spokane and Spokane Rivers, becoming the first enduring European settlement of significance in Washington. Known as the Spokane House, or simply "Spokane", it was in operation from 1810 to 1826. Spokane County was established by the Washington legislature effective January 29, 1858. It was annexed by Stevens County on January 19, 1864, and recreated on October 30, 1879. The first post office in the county was located at

Spokane Bridge Spokane Bridge is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and former census-designated place in Spokane County, in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Washington (state), Washington. The community is located on the banks of the ...

. The current Spokane county seat holder, Spokane, wrested the seat from Cheney in 1886.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which (0.9%) are covered by water. The lowest point in the county is the Spokane River behind

Long Lake Dam Long Lake Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Spokane River, between Lincoln County and Stevens County about northwest of Spokane in eastern Washington. It forms Long Lake (Washington), a long reservoir, and has a hydroelectric generating cap ...

(boundary of Stevens County) at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. (Virtually no change in elevation occurs between the dam and the mouth of the Little Spokane River inside Riverside State Park.) The highest point in the county is the summit of

Mount Spokane Mount Spokane levation ��previously known as Mount Baldy until 1912 due to its pronounced bald spot—is a mountain in the northwest United States, located northeast of Spokane, Washington. Its summit is the highest point in Spokane County, an ...

at . Spokane County has a complex geologic history and varied topography. To the west is the barren landscape of the Columbia Basin and to the east are the foothills of the Rockies—the Coeur d'Alene Mountains, which rise to the east in northern Idaho. Spokane County lies in a transition area between the eastern edge of the basaltic Channeled Scablands steppe plains to the west and the rugged, timbered Rocky Mountain foothills to the east. The area exhibits signs of the prehistoric geologic events that shaped the area and region such as the Missoula Floods, which ended 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. The geography to the southeast, such as the

Saltese Flats The Saltese Flats is a flat located in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The flats are occupied by the residual wetlands of the now-drained Saltese Lake. The term Saltese Flats is generally used to refer to both the flat and the occupyi ...

and

Saltese Uplands The Saltese Uplands Conservation Area is a 522 acre conservation area in Spokane County in the U.S. state of Washington. The conservation area covers the Saltese Uplands, which are situated on the western slope of the Holiday Hills, immediately t ...

is characterized as a shrub–steppe landscape with grassy hills and ravines. In ecology, as with the topography, the county is also in a transition area, roughly split between the Columbia Plateau ecoregion in the southwest portion, where it is at the eastern edge of the basaltic Channeled Scablands steppe plain and the Northern Rockies ecoregion in the northwest portion, which is the rugged and forested

Selkirk Mountains The Selkirk Mountains are a mountain range spanning the northern portion of the Idaho Panhandle, eastern Washington, and southeastern British Columbia which are part of a larger grouping of mountains, the Columbia Mountains. They begin at Mica Pe ...

Rivers

* Spokane River * Little Spokane River * Latah Creek * Deep Creek *

Cable Creek Cable Creek is a stream of approximately which rises in the U.S. state of Idaho and has its mouth across the state line in Washington. Geography Cable Creek flows roughly north to south from Cable Peak on the Mica Peak ridge at approximately 4,60 ...

Saltese Creek Saltese Creek is an approximately long stream in Spokane County, Washington, United States. Originally only , the lower of the stream, along with around of drainage canals were dug to drain Saltese Lake. The stream now functions as one of two p ...

Lakes and reservoirs

* Medical Lake *

West Medical Lake West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

* Liberty Lake *

Newman Lake Newman Lake—historically and alternatively known as Moab—is an unincorporated community in Spokane County, Washington, United States. Newman Lake, which took its name from early settler William Newman, is east-northeast of downtown Spokane. Ne ...

Shelley Lake Shelley Lake is a small lake located entirely in the city of Spokane Valley, in the U.S. state of Washington. The lake is surrounded on three sides by the 248 lot gated community of Shelley Lake Estates. The lake is kept full by Saltese Creek, w ...

Notable summits and peaks

Mount Kit Carson Mount Kit Carson is a mountain in the northwest United States, located in Spokane County, Washington, northeast of Spokane, with a summit elevation of above sea level. It is in Mount Spokane State Park, the largest of Washington's State Park ...

* Mica Peak * Krell Hill

Notable parks

* Dishman Hills Natural Conservation Area * Riverside State Park * Riverfront Park * Manito Park * Mount Spokane State Park

National protected area

* Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge

Major highways

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

* U.S. Route 2 *

U.S. Route 195 U.S. Route 195 (US 195) is a north–south United States Highway, of which all but 0.65 miles of its 94.02 miles (1.05 of 151.95 km) are within the state of Washington. The highway starts in rural Idaho north of the city ...

* U.S. Route 395 * State Route 27 * State Route 206 * State Route 290 * State Route 291 * State Route 902 * State Route 904

Adjacent counties

* Stevens County – northwest * Pend Oreille County – north * Bonner County, Idaho – northeast * Kootenai County, Idaho – east * Benewah County, Idaho – southeast *

Whitman County Whitman County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 47,973. The county seat is Colfax, and its largest city is Pullman. The county was formed from Stevens County in 1871. It is name ...

– south * Lincoln County – west

Demographics

2000 census

As of the 2000 census, 417,939 people, 163,611 households, and 106,019 families were in the county. The population density was . The 175,005 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 88.62% White, 2.00% African American, 1.40% Native American, 1.88% Asian, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 0.82% from other races, and 2.76% from two or more races; 2.77% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. About 22.0% were of German, 10.7% Irish, 9.9% English, 7.6% American, and 6.4% Norwegian ancestry. Of the 163,611 households, 32.4% had children under 18 living with them, 49.9% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.2% were not families. About 28.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.46, and the average family size was 3.02. In the county, the age distribution was 25.7% under 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 28.9% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females. there were 96.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.60 males. The median income for a household in the county was $37,308, and for a family was $46,463. Males had a median income of $35,097 versus $25,526 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,233. About 8.30% of families and 12.30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.20% of those under age 18 and 8.10% of those age 65 or over.

2010 census

As of the 2010 census, 471,221 people, 187,167 households, and 118,212 families were residing in the county. The population density was . The 201,434 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 89.2% White, 2.1% Asian, 1.7% African American, 1.5% American Indian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 1.2% from other races, and 3.8% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 4.5% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 27.0% were German, 15.4% were Irish, 13.5% were English, 6.9% were Norwegian, and 4.4% were

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. Of the 187,167 households, 30.9% had children under 18 living with them, 47.2% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% were not families; 28.6% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.44, and the average family size was 2.99. The median age was 36.8 years. The median income for a household in the county was $47,250 and for a family was $59,999. Males had a median income of $44,000 versus $33,878 for females. The per capita income for the county was $25,127. About 9.1% of families and 14.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.0% of those under age 18 and 8.5% of those age 65 or over.

Law and government

Spokane County is governed by a

partisan Partisan may refer to: Military * Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line Films * ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film * ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...

board of county commissioners, one from each of three districts. They run in a partisan

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

within their own district, then compete countywide in the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. Other elected officials include the

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

, auditor (who is also responsible for elections),

assessor An assessor may be: * ''Assessor'' (fish), a genus of fishes * Assessor (law), the assistant to a judge or magistrate * Assessor (Oxford), a senior officer of the University of Oxford * Assessor (property), an expert who calculates the value of pr ...

, treasurer, and

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

, which are also partisan offices. Spokane County has an appointed medical examiner. The current, as of October 2018, commissioners for Spokane County are Josh Kerns, Mary Kuney, and Al French, from the first, second, and third county districts, respectively. The current

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

is Ozzie D. Knezovich, who was appointed on April, 11th 2006. Transportation planning within the county is handled by the Spokane Regional Transportation Council, a metropolitan planning organization that was created in 1962. It distributes federal and state funds for transportation projects and updaties the long-range transportation plan for Spokane County. The county has voted Republican all but three times since 1948.

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

was the last Democrat to win a majority of the county's vote. It gave a plurality of votes to Bill Clinton in both elections. Democratic strength is concentrated in Spokane itself and in Cheney, which is home to

Eastern Washington University Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a public university in Cheney, Washington. It also offers programs at a campus in EWU Spokane at the Riverpoint Campus and other campus locations throughout the state. Founded in 1882, the university is ...

, while the suburban areas are heavily Republican.

Communities

Cities

* Airway Heights * Cheney * Deer Park * Liberty Lake * Medical Lake * Millwood * Spangle * Spokane (county seat) * Spokane Valley

Towns

* Fairfield *

Latah Latah is a condition in which abnormal behaviors result from a person experiencing a sudden shock or other external stressor almost exclusively having been observed in persons from Southeast Asia. When induced, the affected person typically engag ...

* Rockford * Waverly

Census-designated places

* Country Homes *

Fairchild Air Force Base Fairchild Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force base, located in the northwest United States in eastern Washington, approximately southwest of Spokane. The host unit at Fairchild is the 92nd Air Refueling Wing (92 ARW) assigned t ...

* Fairwood *

Four Lakes Four Lakes can refer to: *Four Lakes (Idaho) *A group of lakes in southern Wisconsin ** Lake Kegonsa ** Lake Mendota ** Lake Monona ** Lake Waubesa *Four Lakes, Washington Four Lakes is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Sp ...

Mead Mead () is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% ABV to more than 20%. The defining character ...

* Otis Orchards-East Farms * Town and Country

Unincorporated communities

* Amber * Buckeye * Chattaroy * Colbert * Deep Creek * Denison *

Duncan Duncan may refer to: People * Duncan (given name), various people * Duncan (surname), various people * Clan Duncan * Justice Duncan (disambiguation) Places * Duncan Creek (disambiguation) * Duncan River (disambiguation) * Duncan Lake (d ...

Dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

Elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

* Espanola * Freeman * Garden Springs * Geiger Heights * Glenrose *

Greenacres Greenacres can refer to: *Greenacres, California, a town in the Central Valley (United States) *Harold Lloyd Estate, 'Greenacres', the legendary 1920s Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills, California (United States) *Greenacres, Florida, town in th ...

* Green Bluff *

Hazard A hazard is a potential source of harm Harm is a moral and legal concept. Bernard Gert construes harm as any of the following: * pain * death * disability * mortality * loss of abil ity or freedom * loss of pleasure. Joel Feinberg giv ...

* Highland * Manito * Marshall *

Mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

* Milan *

Moab Moab ''Mōáb''; Assyrian: 𒈬𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Mu'abâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Ma'bâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒀊 ''Ma'ab''; Egyptian: 𓈗𓇋𓃀𓅱𓈉 ''Mū'ībū'', name=, group= () is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territo ...

* Mount Hope *

* Nine Mile Falls * Orchard Prairie * Peone * Plaza *

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

* Seven Mile *

Silver Lake Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

* Spring Valley * Stringtown *

Tyler Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

* Valleyford

Ghost towns/neighborhoods

* Babb * Coey * Darknell *

Dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

Freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

* Geib * Hite *

Lyons Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...

* Mock *

North Pine North Pine Sports Club is an Australian football (soccer) club from Dakabin, a suburb of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. The club currently play in the Capital League 1 after relegation from Brisbane Premier League in 2016. History North ...

* Rahm * Rodna * Saxby *

Scribner Scribner may refer to: Media * Charles Scribner's Sons, also known as Scribner or Scribner's, New York City publisher * ''Scribner's Magazine'', pictorial published from 1887–1939 by Charles Scribner's Sons, then merged with the ''Commentator ...

* Wallner

Education

School districts include:
Text list
/ref> * Central Valley School District * Cheney School District * Deer Park School District * East Valley School District (Spokane) * Freeman School District *

Great Northern School District The Great Northern School District No. 312 is a school district in Spokane County, Washington, United States. It covers a rural unincorporated area between Airway Heights and Spokane and has a single school, named Great Northern Elementary, tha ...

Liberty School District Liberty Elementary School District is a public school district based in Tulare County, California, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country pri ...

* Mead School District * Medical Lake School District * Newport School District * Nine Mile Falls School District * Orchard Prairie School District * Reardan-Edwall School District * Riverside School District *

Rosalia School District Rosalia or Rosalía (with diacritic) may refer to: Persons * Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), the patron saint of Palermo in Italy * Rosalia (given name) * Rosalía (born 1992), Spanish singer Places * 314 Rosalia, an asteroid * Rosalia, Pisidia, a ...

* Spokane Public Schools *

St. John School District ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

Tekoa School District Tekoa or Tekoah may refer to: * Tekoa, Washington, a town in the United States * Tekoa Mountain (Washington), a mountain near the town in Washington State * Tekoa Mountain, a ridge in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, United States * Tekoa, Gush Et ...

* West Valley School District (Spokane)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spokane, Washington 1858 establishments in Washington Territory Populated places established in 1858 Eastern Washington