Milan is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Spokane County,

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is named after the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

city of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Geography

Milan is a rural community located along the

Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...

in northern Spokane County. The

Little Spokane River The Little Spokane River is a major tributary of the Spokane River, approximately long, in eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a rural area of forested foothills and a farming valley north of the city of Spokane along the Idaho– ...

flows through flows through the community.

U.S. Route 2 U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected ...

runs north-south about a mile and a half west of Milan. Nearby communities include

Elk The elk (: ''elk'' or ''elks''; ''Cervus canadensis'') or wapiti, is the second 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. ...

, 5 miles upstream from Milan, and Deer Park, 7 miles to the west. Spokane, the region's largest city, is 23 miles to the south along U.S. Route 2. The community is located in a thin but deep valley that rises from 1,800 feet along the Little Spokane River up to 2,638 feet at the summit of Milan Hill just southeast of the town site. The foothills and mountains in the Milan area are part of the

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 Mic ...

. Milan is served by the Riverside School District. The schools are located just outside of town at the intersection of U.S. Route 2 and Deer Park-Milan Road.

History

In 1900, Milan was an important shipping point on the Great Northern Railway. There were two sawmills in the community, and two more within a couple of miles, which supplied lumber to the city of

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...

. James Conalton was Milan's postmaster and storekeeper at the time. Today Milan is a residential community with a few dozen buildings. At the intersection of U.S. Route 2 and Deer Park-Milan road, about a mile and a half from the original community, are commercial and public buildings including restaurants, a market and schools that serve the broader area.

References

Unincorporated communities in Spokane County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state) {{SpokaneCountyWA-geo-stub