Whitman County County
The county was formed out of Stevens County on November 29, 1871. It is named after Marcus Whitman, a Presbyterian missionary who, with his wife Narcissa, was killed in 1847 by members of the Cayuse tribe.
Mapped Location
Whitman County: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.
Information
General information on Whitman County
- Feature Type: County
- County Seat: City of Colfax
- Established: Wednesday, November 29, 1871
Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Whitman County
A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Whitman County | Official |
Origin Notes and History of Whitman County
References to Whitman County that document the origin of its place name
WHITMAN COUNTY was organized by act of the Territorial Legislature approved November 29, 1871, and named in honor of the missionary, Dr. Marcus Whitman.
A Selected Bibliography of Whitman County, County
A compilation of essential readings detailing the history, geography, and culture of the region.
CELEBRATING PALOUSE COUNTRY a history of the landscape in text and images by RICHARD SCHEUERMAN
Enhanced with spectacular photographs from John Clement, travel through time among the Palouse Country’s beauty and expanse, starting with its First Peoples, then moving through distinct immigrant groups. Chapters cover events that prompted emigration, describe the settlers’ transitions and living conditions, chronicle significant people and families, discuss major influences that impacted the population, and recount how the communities grew and changed.
Desiderata
Cashup Davis the inspiring life of a secret mentor by Jeff Burnside , G. W. Davis
Enamored by the western frontier, British immigrant Cashup Davis, his wife Mary, and eleven children became one of the first white families to settle on the Palouse’s spectacular rolling hills in eastern Washington Territory. Living at first in a simple sod house, they turn their bunchgrass acreage into a farm, befriend Native Americans during a war ignited by the U.S. government’s treaty violations, and eventually open an immensely popular and prosperous stagecoach stop. But Cashup has another dream: he is resolutely determined to build a grand luxury hotel on one of the region’s highest points, the summit of Steptoe Butte. People tell him it is a ridiculous idea, but Cashup never listens to the doubters. He’s brash, confident, and full of charisma.
xv, 214 pages : illustrations, facsimiles, maps, portraits ; 23 cm
Desiderata
Wheat country railroad the Northern Pacific's Spokane & Palouse and competitors by Phil Beach
Phil Beach’s Wheat country railroad: the Northern Pacific's Spokane & Palouse and competitors explores the collaborative infrastructure development and profound economic integration of the uniquely fertile Palouse region in the inland Pacific Northwest. The narrative illustrates how the specific environmental realities of this expansive topography—defined by undulating, deep-loess hills, vast dry-land farming expanses, and profound geographic isolation from coastal maritime ports—required immense engineering resilience and shared daily adaptation from early agricultural communities. By detailing the gradual transition from isolated wheat farms relying on arduous overland wagon freight to the thoughtful engineering of complex, interwoven rail networks, the text highlights how the area's prosperity relied on cooperative responses to its immense natural abundance. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that patiently overcoming the logistical challenges of eastern Washington and collaboratively laying the vital steel corridors of the Spokane & Palouse were essential steps in transforming a remote frontier into a deeply rooted, highly connected agrarian heartland.
"A detailed history and reference work concerning railroads south of Spokane, Washington, and north of the Snake River."--Provided by publisher
xviii, 349 pages : illustrations, maps ; 29 cm
Desiderata
Postmarked Washington an encyclopedia of postal history covering eleven counties of eastern Washington based on the research of the late Guy Reed Ramsey and other sources by Bert Webber, Guy Reed Ramsey
Postmarked Washington: An Encyclopedia of Postal History Covering Eleven Counties of Eastern Washington, compiled by Bert Webber from the foundational research of the late Guy Reed Ramsey, is a comprehensive reference work detailing the region's early pioneer communication networks. The book meticulously catalogs the establishment, operation, and discontinuation of numerous frontier post offices across eastern Washington, highlighting the local postmasters who served these growing communities. Ultimately, it serves as an essential historical resource for genealogists, philatelists, and regional scholars researching the rural development and civic infrastructure of the Inland Northwest.
volumes <1> : illustrations ; 27 cm
Non-circulating [ 1 ]
Whitman County from Abbieville to Zion by Edith E. Erickson
The authors interest spread to Whitman County as she uncovered information and felt others might be intrigued by the number of places that had at one time been named and have since disappeared. In order to make this book accurate, she used a variety of sources ranging from postal records to interviews with people who at tented some of the small and now consolidated schools. Contains bibliography and maps
[2], xxiii, 140 pages : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm
Non-circulating [ 1 ]
Colfax 100 plus by Edith E. Erickson
Historic sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and Garfield counties, Washington Territory, and Umatilla County, Oregon by Frank T. Gilbert
Published in 1882, Frank T. Gilbert's expansive regional history chronicles the rapid transformation of the Inland Empire—spanning eastern Washington and northeastern Oregon—from indigenous territory and fur-trade outposts to an agrarian powerhouse. The narrative meticulously details the violent conflicts of the Cayuse and Yakima Indian Wars, the establishment of early pioneer settlements, and the subsequent explosion of the region's lucrative dry-land wheat economy. A keen insight drawn from the text is how it perfectly exemplifies the Gilded Age "subscription history" model, where the grand, often brutal narrative of westward conquest was explicitly monetized by pairing regional chronicles with flattering biographical portraits of the affluent farmers and merchants who financed the publication. Consequently, while the volume remains an indispensable civic and genealogical archive, its historical framing intentionally sanitizes the systematic displacement of Native American tribes to celebrate the inevitable triumph of white, capitalist agriculture in the Columbia Basin.
447, [2], [449]-488, [12], 66 pages, [63] leaves of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 31 cm
ONLINE Circulation [ 1 ]
Whitman County
- Town of Albion
- Almota
- Alpowa
- Armstrong
- Balder
- Belmont
- Busby
- Cashup
- Chambers
- City of Colfax
- Town of Colton
- Crabtree
- Diamond
- Donahue
- Dusty
- Eden
- Elberton
- Town of Endicott
- Ewan
- Ewartsville
- Fairbanks
- Fallon
- Town of Farmington
- Flaig
- Town of Garfield
- Glenwood
- Gordon
- Grinnell
- Harpole
- Hay
- Hooper
- Huntley
- Jerita
- Johnson
- Juno
- Kenova
- Kitzmiller
- Town of LaCrosse
- Ladow
- Lairds
- Town of Lamont
- Lancaster
- Lavista
- Leon
- Lone Pine
- Madson
- Town of Malden
- Manning
- McCoy
- Mockonema
- Moses
- Town of Oakesdale
- City of Palouse
- Pampa
- Pandora
- Parvin
- Penawawa
- Peyton
- Pine City
- City of Pullman
- Pullman Junction
- Purrington
- Revere
- Ridpath
- Ringo
- Riparia
- Risbeck
- Robinson
- Town of Rosalia
- Town of Saint John
- Seltice
- Shawnee
- Shreck
- Sokulk
- Staley
- Steptoe
- Sunset
- Sunshine
- Sutton
- Swift
- City of Tekoa
- Thera
- Thornton
- Union Center
- Town of Uniontown
- Walters
- Warner
- Wawawai (historical)
- Whelan
- Whitlow
- Wilcox
- Willard
- Wilma (historical)
- Winona
Political Boundaries
Last updated: 2025-09-23