Clark

Formed August 20, 1845 (1^st county)

Clark County (503,309), Vancouver (190,888)

The Art Deco masonry courthouse was built in 1941.  The courthouse is on Franklin and 13^th streets.  The courthouse is three blocks south of Washington State Highway 501.  Walter Day Hilborn provided the designs.  There was a classic 1892 courthouse before.  A Corrections Center was added in 1983.  The county was created on August 20, 1845 as an original county (1^st county) and Vancouver has always been the county seat.  The county is named for explorer William Clark.  Vancouver was named for explorer Captain George Vancouver, the founder of Vancouver Island, Canada. 

Clark County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a clerk, a treasurer, an auditor, and an assessor (executive).  It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.)  Nine Superior Court Judges and Five District Court Judges serve Clark County (judicial.)  The county is on the southern border with Oregon.  The Columbia River forms its southern border.  Seattle, Washington is north and Portland, Oregon is south of the county.  The county center is 11.4 miles Northeast of Vancouver in Brush Prairie.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Cowlitz and Skamania counties and Oregon. 

The area of the county is 629 square miles.  It is 35 out of 39 in the state.  It ranks 5 out of 39 in population in the state.  It has a density of 800.2 persons per square mile making it 2 out of 39 in the state.  Clark County has 53.7% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 5 passes north to south through the county from Cowlitz County to Oregon.  Interstate Highway 205 originates and heads south into Oregon.  The county looks like a snail crawling north.  Vancouver is located on the southwest border of the county.  Vancouver is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 37.9% of the county population.  This county is in the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton Metropolitan Statistical Area.