Marshall is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Spokane County,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, United States. Named in 1880 for early settler William H. Marshall, Marshall has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

with ZIP code 99020.

Geography

Marshall is south-southwest of downtown Spokane. Marshall lies approximately halfway between Cheney and Spokane on Cheney-Spokane Road. The surrounding area is mostly flat and rocky, as it is part of the

Columbia Plateau The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Columbia ...

, but the community itself is located in a half-mile wide valley carved by Marshall Creek. The creek flows north-northeast through the community to Latah Creek and provides the route for Cheney-Spokane Road between Marshall and Spokane. Multiple rail tracks pass through Marshall including Union Pacific and the

Lakeside Subdivision The Lakeside Subdivision is a railway line in eastern Washington running about from Sunset Junction, west of Spokane to Pasco. It is operated by BNSF Railway and is considered part of the Northern Transcon. The line is used by the Portland s ...

of the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

. The

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

arm of Amtrak's Empire Builder passes through, but does not stop in, Marshall on its way to and from the Spokane Intermodal Center. The area is home to many

ponderosa pines ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is th ...

and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

outcroppings. The community itself is mostly residential, but there is also a post office and community church. A quarry is located immediately north Cheney-Spokane Road.

History

The first road passing through what would become Marshall was laid in 1870. William Marshall, the town's namesake, arrived in 1878 and set up a sawmill two years later, which spurred growth in the community. The post office was established in March of the same year. The

Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (SP&S) was a railroad in the northwest United States. Incorporated in 1905, it was a joint venture by the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway to build a railroad along the north bank o ...

came through the town in the early 1900s. A school district was operated in Marshall until 1960 when it was merged with the Cheney school district. Marshall was the site of a train derailment on the Northern Pacific line in August 1921. From the early 1900s Marshall was one of the 47 townships in Spokane County that were each sent one representative to the county's government to represent the interests of the people of their township. The township included land that is now within the Spokane city limits.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Spokane County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state)