Douglas County (pop. 38,431) is south of Okanogan County. It is one of 12 Douglas counties, all named for Sen. Stephen Douglas (1813-1861) of Illinois.
He ran against Lincoln.
The county is bordered on the north and west by the Columbia River.
The central and eastern parts of the county are wheat-growing regions; the western part has many apple and cherry orchards.
Gala apple
The county seat of Douglas County is the city of Waterville (pop. 1,138), third-smallest county seat in Washington. Its population has consistently been between 850 and 1,200 since 1910.
Douglas County Courthouse (1905)
The Nifty Theater in Waterville dates from 1919.
America’s only Nifty Theater
Outside the Douglas County Museum in Waterville is a statue of a dowser – a man searching for water with a forked stick.
Life-size bronze
The largest city in Douglas County is East Wenatchee (pop. 13,190), located across the Columbia River from Wenatchee, which is in Chelan County.
The Sellar Bridge across the Columbia
The Pangborn-Herndon Memorial Site commemorates the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean – from Japan to East Wenatchee in 41 hours in 1931.
The aviators were Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon II.
Lincoln Rock State Park is just north of East Wenatchee.
The rock supposedly looks like Abe’s profile.
NEXT: CHELAN COUNTY
I LIKE the Nifty theater and Abe’s profile….thnx!
I really have to wonder if perhaps there is another Nifty theater of which there is no record. I also wouldn’t have guessed that all Douglas counties are named after Stephen. Although I can’t think of any other famous 19th century Douglases.