Its Register listings are the US Post Office-Okanogan Main and the Okanogan County Courthouse. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1915 on, and the census since 1910.
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1888.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Okanogan’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Okanogan is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Okanogan’s overall grade.
Few Washington towns list much on the Register (a typical Washington town has 0.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Okanogan’s 12.1 sits above most of its state (87% of Washington towns have fewer) while its 3 historic buildings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.0 points). Two sources give 1888.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
A pair of 115 year old, 60-foot-long (18 m) murals were discovered during renovation of a 1907 commercial building in January 2022. The murals were initially tentatively attributed to Western photographer Frank S. Matsura as the building had been used as a theater several times and Matsura had played in the Okanogan County Band on stage there. The mural is painted on canvases split between the north and south walls, and a 1915 newspaper clipping found by the Okanogan County Historical Society provided coverage of plans for the murals. Then the Hub Theater, the building was planned to incorporate panoramic scenery murals in tans painted by a local artist. further investigation lead to attribution of the murals to a Wenatchee painter W.J. McConnon. The owners planned to take the murals down for restoration before rehanging them as the centerpiece of a historical exhibit.
Passages that mention Okanogan, cut from the printed page as they were published.
An illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington1904 · page 492Read the page →
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Sec. 8. That all the taxes levied and assessed by the board of county comrnissioners of the county of Stevens for the year 1887 upon persons or property within the boundaries of the said county of Okanogan shall be collected and paid into the treasury of the county of Stevens, provided, hozvcvcr, that the said county of Stevens shall credit said county of Okanogan with the amount of money collected for the taxes for
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
An illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington1904 · page 496Read the page →
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population of o\-er 2,500, on August 16, of this year, the county was classified in the 26th class. Two attempts were made at different periods to remove the capital of Okanogan from Conconully to Chelan, one in 1894; the last in 1898. At these periods the greater portion of the present Chelan county, was in Okanogan county, and therefore the town of
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Early Okanogan history. Gives an account of the first coming of the white men to this section and briefly narrates the events leading up to and attending the establishment of the first settlement in the State of Washington under the American flag, an even1911 · page 11Read the page →
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Alexander Ross in his "Adventures" gives us a full and complete account of this trip up the river, of the establishment of the post at the mouth of the Okanogan, and the course of events at Fort Okanogan during the first two years of its existence, and in a subsequent book entitled, "Fur Traders of the West," he gives us a very complete history of Fort Okanogan and surrounding country up till about 1816, for Ross was in charge at the post off and on pretty much all the time between 181 1 and 1816, when he was transferred
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Okanogan, 1888 to 1968
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Okanogan. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1957Okanogan sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Okanogan.
Every building
Okanogan, building by building, 1915–1922
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
In 1888, according to Wikidata. Okanogan’s post office opened in 1888, and the census of 1910 counted 611 people here.
How does Okanogan rank for history?
Okanogan is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Okanogan?
Two places: the US Post Office-Okanogan Main (listed 1991) and the Okanogan County Courthouse (1995).
How old are the homes in Okanogan?
20% of Okanogan’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.0 points), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1969.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (10), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1907
1909
1968
1968
1968
1968
