Washougal City Map Poster

About Washougal

The city is named after the Washougal River. Washougal was officially incorporated on November 20, 1891. The name "Washougal" comes from a Native American word meaning "river of many winds". It was first settled in 1844 by William Wallace Gray, who built a cabin and trading post at the mouth of Washougal River near its confluence with the Columbia River. In 1860, Captain George Bouchard established an Indian trading post called Fort Camas at this location to trade for camas root with local Indians; he later sold it to John Sager Jr., who renamed it Fort Vancouver (after his father's Hudson's Bay Company fort) and operated it until 1870 when he moved across the river into what became Clark County.[5] A town grew up around this area known as Vancouver or Lower Town because its site was lower than that of present-day downtown Vancouver.[6] By 1880 there were about 100 people living in Lower Town,[7][8] which had one store and two saloons but no schoolhouse or church.