History of Clark County

Local history buffs call Clark County the "Cradle of Pacific Northwest History," reflecting the importance of the 628-square-mile southwestern Washington county as the scene of key historical developments. Here, the Lewis and Clark expedition arrived in 1805, the British Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Vancouver in 1825, and the town of Vancouver was incorporated in 1857. The county's location first made it an entrepot (trading center), then an agricultural area. The region developed in agriculture, lumber, and fishing, and later in shipbuilding and aluminum. In recent times, energy from hydroelectric projects on the Lewis and Columbia rivers has fueled development as a manufacturing center.

However, long before the first Euro-Americans arrived in what is now Clark County, Chinook Indians used its waterways as travel routes and took fish from them as diet mainstays. When the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped at Salmon Creek in eastern Clark County on its way upriver in 1806, several Chinook visited their camp. The explorers estimated the Indian population from The Dalles to the coast at several thousand. Then, beginning around 1830, a mysterious illness, characterized in historical accounts as "intermittent fever," possibly in reference to malaria or influenza, swept through the Indian and white populations along the river. All suffered, but the disease killed almost all of the Indians along the lower Columbia. It left only 30 to 40 Chinook survivors.

Clark County was then established by the Oregon Provisional Government on June 27, 1844. The district included all of what is now the state of Washington. In 1845, the provisional government changed "district" to "county," and in 1849 changed "Vancouver" to "Clarke" in honor of explorer William Clark of the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition. Years later in 1925, the Washington State Legislature corrected the county's name to Clark (removing the extraneous "e").

Over the years, Clark County developed into mostly an agricultural area. The 1890 census reported 907 farms and only 38 manufacturing establishments in the county. This county, known as the "Prune Capital of the World" in the 1920s, has moved on to a diversified economy. Its relationships to rivers, which was established in the early days, remains significant.

At one time, Clark County took in all of Washington State. Today, at 656.6 square miles, the county ranks 35th out of the 39 Washington counties in terms of size.

Forty miles of riverside locations along the Columbia River help Clark County to rate high in terms of livability despite its size. The diverse county offers a mixture of parks, rural farmlands, urban areas, and forests. Fishing, hunting, swimming, boating, camping, and hiking are just a few of the outdoor hobbies that continue to flourish in this versatile community.