City of Wenatchee Chelan County, Washington
Mapped Location
City of Wenatchee: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.
Information
General information on City of Wenatchee
- Feature Type: Incorporated
Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for City of Wenatchee
A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| City of Wenatchee | Official |
| Wenatchee | Official |
Origin Notes and History of City of Wenatchee
References to City of Wenatchee that document the origin of its place name
WENATCHEE, the flourishing county seat of Chelan County, a lake, river, mountains and a National Forest, all wear this name from the Indian language of that vicinity. As early as 1805-1806, when Lewis and Clark were exploring and naming the "Columbia Valley", they heard of the Wenatchee River and the Indians living along its banks. They recorded both under the name of "Wahnaachee." (Elliott Coues, History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Volume III., pages 973, 1255.) Another early use of the name geographically is in the treaty concluded on June 9, 1855, by Isaac I. Stevens, Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Washington Territory, with the "Yakima Nation of Indians." Article X. of that treaty provides: . . . "there is also reserved and set apart from the lands ceded by this treaty, for the use and benefit of the aforesaid confederated tribes and bands, a tract of land not exceeding in quantity one township of six miles square, situated at the forks of the Pisquouse or Wenatshapam river, and known as the 'Wenatshapam fishery'." (Charles J. Kappler, Indian Affairs, Volume II., page 701.) The tribes and bands participating in that treaty included the "Pisquouse and Wenatshapam." The Bureau of American Ethnology says that Wenatchi is from a Yakima Indian word meaning "river issuing from a canyon," referring to a band of Pisquows who lived on the river now known as Wenatchee. (Handbook of American Indians, Volume II., page 932.) The river was often charted as "Pisquouse" or "Pischous", which, as shown, was the name of another band confederated with the Yakimas when the treaty was signed.
Related Catalog Titles
A Bibliography for City of Wenatchee, Chelan County, Washington
The Wenatchee Valley and its first peoples thrilling grandeur, unfulfilled promise by Richard D. Scheuerman, John Clement, Clifford E. Trafzer, Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center
Published by the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center, The Wenatchee Valley and its First Peoples: Thrilling Grandeur, Unfulfilled Promise by Richard D. Scheuerman, John Clement, and Clifford E. Trafzer examines the complex cultural history of Washington's mid-Columbia region. The book juxtaposes the awe-inspiring geography of the high-desert river valley with the tragic history of displacement experienced by its original indigenous inhabitants, particularly the Wenatchi people. Through historical accounts, archival photographs, and cultural analysis, the authors trace how rapid Euro-American settlement and irrigation projects transformed the landscape while frequently breaking solemn treaties. A keen insight drawn from the text is how the subtitle's reference to "unfulfilled promise" operates as a poignant critique of manifest destiny; it highlights how the modern agricultural bounty of the Wenatchee apple capital was built directly upon the unfulfilled legal and moral guarantees made to the valley's original stewards.
xxii, 145 pages : color illustrations, map, portraits ; 23 x 29 cm
CIRC [ 1 ]
A history of Wenatchee the apple capital of the world by John Arthur Gellatly
A history of central Washington including the famous Wenatchee, Entiat, Chelan and the Columbia Valleys with an index and eighty scenic-historical illustrations by Lindley M. Hull
Published in 1929 and compiled by Lindley M. Hull for the Pioneer Association of Central Washington, A History of Central Washington is a massive, 624-page regional chronicle detailing the settlement of the Wenatchee, Entiat, Chelan, and Columbia valleys. Divided into two primary sections—"The Story of Pioneer Settlements" and "The Development Period"—the volume combines eighty scenic-historical illustrations with exhaustive biographical sketches of early white homesteaders. The text meticulously documents the physical transformation of the region, emphasizing the construction of irrigation ditches, the establishment of commercial orchards, and the founding of local civic institutions. Like many pioneer-driven histories of the era, the book operates as a triumphalist civic monument celebrating the rugged endurance and capitalist successes of the region's Anglo-American founders.
A keen insight drawn from the work is how the narrative conceptually weaponizes agricultural "development" to morally legitimize colonial displacement. By framing the region's history fundamentally around the engineering of irrigation canals and the cultivation of profitable cash crops, Hull’s compilation equates valid land ownership exclusively with industrial-scale agrarian capitalism. This historiographical maneuver effectively reduces the original Indigenous inhabitants and their complex, pre-existing territorial claims to mere background frontier trivia, occasionally noting them only as transient obstacles or linguistic curiosities. Consequently, the aggressive ecological enclosure and demographic replacement of the region is structurally sanitized, demanding that readers view the settlement of central Washington not as an act of territorial conquest, but as the righteous, inevitable unlocking of a previously "wasted" landscape's true economic destiny.
624 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
CIRC [ 1 ]
Chelan County
- Appleyard
- Ardenvoir
- Azwell
- Berne
- Blewett (historical)
- City of Cashmere
- City of Chelan
- Chelan Falls
- Chiwaukum
- Chumstick
- Coles Corner
- Domke Lake Resort
- Dryden
- City of Entiat
- Entiat (historical)
- Farris
- Granite Falls
- Greens Landing
- Holden (historical)
- Hollywood Beach
- Lake Chelan Hills
- City of Leavenworth
- Lucerne
- Malaga
- Manson
- Maplecreek
- Merritt
- Monitor
- Moore
- Nason Creek
- Olds
- Peshastin
- Plain
- Shrine Beach
- Stayman
- Stehekin
- Sunnybank
- Sunnyslope
- Telma
- Trinity
- Wagnersburg
- City of Wenatchee
- Wenatchee Heights
- West Wenatchee
- Winesap
- Winton
Political Boundaries
Last updated: 2017-06-28