Waterville, WA

Waterville is a Douglas County town of 1,134 people at the 2020 census, sitting in the dry wheat country of central Washington. It was founded in 1885, incorporated under a territorial charter in 1889, and chosen as the county seat in 1887. At 2,622 feet, it has the highest elevation of any incorporated town in Washington, which tells you something about the landscape: this is an upland place of broad fields, big skies, cold winters, and hot, dry summers.

The courthouse, built in 1905, still gives the town its civic center. The Waterville Museum and Douglas County Historical Society collect the area's pioneer, ranching, wheat, and transportation stories, while Pioneer Park, the municipal pool, and the Badger Mountain ski area add present-day places to go. The town school serves as another local institution, and Douglas County's offices keep people coming in from the surrounding farm country. Waterville is the kind of county seat where the wheat landscape belongs to the address as much as the streets do.