Local city information for Wenatchee, WA

Wenatchee (; ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population was 27,856 at the 2000 census. Located at the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers near the eastern foothills of the Cascade Range, Wenatchee lies on the western side of the Columbia River, across from the city of East Wenatchee. The Columbia River forms the boundary between Chelan and Douglas County. Wenatchee is the principal city of the 'Wenatchee–East Wenatchee, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area', which encompasses all of Chelan and Douglas counties. However, the 'Wenatchee Area' generally refers to the land between Rocky Reach and Rock Island Dam on both banks of the Columbia, which includes East Wenatchee, Rock Island, and Malaga.

The city was named for the nearby Wenatchi Indian tribe. The name is a Salish word that means "river which comes whose source is from canyons" or "robe of the rainbow." Awenatchela means "people at the source a river ." The city of Wenatchee shares its name with the Wenatchee River, Lake Wenatchee and the Wenatchee National Forest.

Wenatchee is known as the "Apple Capital of the World" due to the valley's many orchards, which produce apples enjoyed around the world. The city is also sometimes referred to as the "Buckle of the Power Belt of the Great Northwest."


Archeological digs in nearby East Wenatchee have uncovered Clovis stone and bone tools dating back more than 11,000 years, indicating that people migrating during the last Ice Age spent time in the Wenatchee area. The Columbia River and nearby mountains and sagebrush steppes provided an ample supply of food. Clovis points are on display at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center and research findings are available through the Wenatchee World .

As early as 1811, fur traders from the Northwest Fur Company entered the Wenatchee valley to trap and trade with the Indians. In 1863, Father Respari, a Catholic priest, began his missionary work with the Indians. He was followed some 20 years later by Father De Grassi, who built a log cabin on the Wenatchee River near the present town of Cashmere. Throughout the 1800s other white settlers came to homestead the land. Wenatchee was platted in September 1888 and officially incorporated as a city on January 7, 1893. The 1900 U.S. Census counted 451 residents.

Great Northern Railway completed its railroad line between St. Paul, Minn. and Seattle in 1893. Its route through the Wenatchee Valley was quite significant to the development of this region. The railroad not only facilitated passenger travel to and from Wenatchee, but provided the opportunity for freight shipments of wheat, apples and other products to national markets.

By the early 1900s the Wenatchee Commercial Club was advertising the region as the "Home of the World's Best Apples." The tree fruit industry provided the economic backbone for the region for a century and still is an important source of revenue along with tourism and other industries.

On October 5, 1931, Clyde Pangborn and co-pilot Hugh Herndon landed their plane, the Miss Veedol, in the hills of East Wenatchee and became the first to fly non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. The 41 hour flight from Sabishiro Beach, Misawa, Aomori Prefecture, Japan won them the Harmon Trophy symbolizing the greatest achievement in flight for the year 1931.

In 1936, with the completion of Rock Island Dam, Wenatchee was protected from the summer flooding of the Columbia River and the first of 14 hydroelectric projects on the Columbia began generating power. The reservoirs behind the dams made it possible to irrigate thousands of additional acres in the Columbia Basin.

The so-called Wenatchee sex ring, an example of day care sexual abuse hysteria, occurred in 1994 and 1995.

Every year from the last week of April through the end of the first week of May, Wenatchee hosts the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival, which probably brings in the largest number of people Wenatchee sees annually, with the exception of all the migrant workers coming in to pick the crop. It features 2 relatively large parades, the Apple Blossom Youth Parade on the last Saturday in April and the Apple Blossom Grand Parade on the first Saturday in May, a food fair representing cuisine from around the world, and a travelling carnival.

According to CNN's Money Magazine, Wenatchee had the second fastest forecast real estate value growth for June 2006–June 2007 in the country.

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