Lincoln County, Washington

Lincoln County is a county in Washington, United States, about 35 miles west of Spokane in the Big Bend wheat country of the state’s Channeled Scablands. It had a population of 10,876 at the 2020 census, an estimated 11,982 by 2025, and covers 2,339 square miles (6,060 km2) centred near 47°34′N 118°25′W.

Davenport is the county seat and largest city; its postal code is 99122. The county holds 3 cities, 5 incorporated towns and 12 unincorporated communities, and it runs on Pacific Time. Its FIPS code is 53043.

Towns & Villages in Lincoln County

Lincoln County has 20 named places on record: 3 incorporated cities, 5 incorporated towns, and 12 unincorporated communities. Four of the unincorporated places — Fishtrap, Govan, Sherman and Telford — are rail-era settlements now reduced to a few structures or none at all. Unincorp. covers both these ghost towns and crossroads communities with no formal government of their own.

One name on this list is easy to confuse with the county itself: Lincoln is an unincorporated crossroads community in the county’s northeast, distinct from Lincoln County as a whole. Fort Spokane, a former Army post and boarding school at the county’s northwest corner, is a National Park Service historic site rather than a residential community, so it does not appear in the table above — see History below.

ZIP Codes

• 99122 — Davenport
• 99134 — Harrington (also serves 99154, a Harrington PO box ZIP)
• 99032 — Sprague
• 99103 — Almira
• 99117 — Creston (also serves 99147, a Creston PO box ZIP)
• 99144 — Odessa (also serves 99159, an Odessa PO box ZIP)
• 99029 — Reardan
• 99185 — Wilbur

Clark, Seven Bays, Mondovi, Lamona, Lincoln, Mohler, Irby and the four ghost towns have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered under the nearest incorporated town’s code. Edwall’s own postal code, 99008, lost its post office to flood damage in February 2014 and is no longer served locally.

Geography

Lincoln County sits on the Channeled Scablands, also called the Big Bend Plateau, a landscape of coulees and basalt benches carved by the Missoula Floods at the end of the last ice age. Elevations across the county range from about 1,500 to 2,500 feet. Of the county’s 2,339 square miles, 2,310 are land and 29 are water, about 1.2 percent — most of it Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam, which forms the county’s northwestern edge along the Columbia River. The Spokane River joins the Columbia at Fort Spokane in the county’s northwest corner, and Crab Creek crosses the county’s south-central townships on its way toward the Columbia in Grant County.

Ferry County lies to the north, Stevens County to the northeast, Spokane County to the east, Whitman County to the southeast, Adams County to the south, Grant County to the west, and Okanogan County to the northwest across the Columbia River. Ferry County, Stevens County, Spokane County, Whitman County, Adams County, Grant County and Okanogan County all border Lincoln County directly.

Demographics

Lincoln County had a population of 10,876 at the 2020 census, the fifth-least populated county in Washington, and the latest estimate puts it near 11,982 residents. Davenport and Odessa are the two largest communities, together holding roughly a quarter of the county’s population. Population density works out to about 4.7 people per square mile of land, among the lowest in the state and typical of the dryland wheat belt east of the Cascades.

Economy & Local Life

Agriculture drives the county’s economy, and wheat dominates it: Lincoln County ranks as the second-largest wheat-producing county in the United States, with production reaching as much as 25 million bushels in a strong year. Of roughly 900,000 acres of farmland, only about half is planted in any given year under the summer-fallow rotation that dryland wheat farming requires here, where annual precipitation runs as low as 8 to 20 inches depending on location. Davenport serves as a central grain-collection point, with elevators along the former Northern Pacific line. Odessa, settled largely by Volga Germans, holds Deutschesfest each year on the third weekend of September, a German-heritage festival with traditional food and the Sausage Bowl football game that draws visitors from well beyond the county.

History

The Washington Territorial legislature created Lincoln County from the western part of Spokane County on 24 November 1883; Douglas County was carved out of Lincoln’s western portion just four days later. Lawmakers had considered naming it Sprague County before settling on Lincoln, after the 16th president. The Northern Pacific Railway had reached the area that same year, and the Central Washington Railroad extended through Almira, Creston and Wilbur around 1889, hastening settlement across the plateau.

Sprague was the county’s first seat, but a fire destroyed most of its downtown on 3 August 1895; the Northern Pacific withdrew its support afterward, and voters moved the county seat to Davenport in 1896. Fort Spokane, established in 1880 as Camp Spokane at the meeting of the Columbia and Spokane rivers, served as a frontier Army post, then a boarding school for Native American children from 1899 to 1914, then a tuberculosis sanatorium until 1929. The National Park Service has managed the site since 1960 as part of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. In August 1902, outlaw Harry Tracy, the last surviving member of the Hole in the Wall Gang, was shot dead at a ranch near Creston after a manhunt spanning several states.

Getting There

No interstate crosses Lincoln County’s interior; Interstate 90 only clips the far south at Sprague, where it meets State Route 23. US Route 2 runs east–west through Reardan, Davenport and Wilbur, and State Route 25 runs north–south through Davenport toward the Canadian border. State Route 28 links Davenport, Harrington and Odessa, State Route 21 connects Odessa north to US 2 and south to I-90, and State Route 174 runs northwest from Wilbur toward Grand Coulee Dam.

• Spokane — about 35 miles east of Davenport
• Ritzville, Adams County — about 23 miles south of Sprague
• Grand Coulee Dam — about 14 miles north of Wilbur along Lake Roosevelt

Spokane International Airport, east of the county via US 2, is the nearest major commercial airport. No Amtrak route runs through Lincoln County; the closest station is in Spokane, on the Empire Builder line.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Lincoln County located?
It sits in eastern Washington’s Big Bend wheat country, about 35 miles west of Spokane, bordered by Ferry, Stevens, Spokane, Whitman, Adams, Grant and Okanogan counties.

What is the population of Lincoln County?
10,876 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 11,982.

How big is Lincoln County?
2,339 square miles (6,060 km2) in total, of which 2,310 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Lincoln County?
Davenport, which became the seat in 1896 after a fire destroyed the previous seat, Sprague.

How many towns and cities are in Lincoln County?
Eight incorporated places — Davenport, Harrington, Sprague, Almira, Creston, Odessa, Reardan and Wilbur — plus a dozen unincorporated communities and ghost towns.

What ZIP codes does Lincoln County use?
99122 for Davenport, 99134 and 99154 for Harrington, 99032 for Sprague, 99103 for Almira, 99117 and 99147 for Creston, 99144 and 99159 for Odessa, 99029 for Reardan, and 99185 for Wilbur.

What is Lincoln County known for?
Its wheat harvest — the second-largest of any county in the United States — and Fort Spokane, the frontier Army post turned Native American boarding school now preserved within the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Washington.