City of Camas Clark County, Washington

Mapped Location

City of Camas: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

 

Information

General information on City of Camas

  • Feature Type: Incorporated

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for City of Camas

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name Description
City of Camas Official
Camas Official

 

Origin Notes and History of City of Camas

References to City of Camas that document the origin of its place name

Title Cover Image: Origin of Washington geographic names

CAMAS, a town in Clarke County. It is an old settlement and was formerly known as La Camas. The name is taken from that of a favorite food of the western Indians, Camassia esculenta, and other species related to the hyacinth. The word was derived from the Nootka Indian word chamass, meaning "fruit" or "sweet." It was adopted into the Chinook jargon as camas, kamass, lacamass and lakamass. For a time the town in Clarke County was known as La Camas, but on recent charts and in postoffice usage the name is Camas. Evidently the locality of Camas was a place where the Indians gathered supplies of the sweetish bulbs of the blue-flowered "Lakamass."

Edmond S. Meany in Origin of Washington Geographic Names
Meany, Edmond S., Origin of Washington Geographic Names, 1923 University of Washington, pp 33-34  |  Origin of Washington Geographic Names

 

Clark County

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2017-07-02