Walla Walla, city, seat of Walla Walla County, southeastern Washington, on Mill Creek, near the Walla Walla River, in a wheat- and vegetable-producing region, near Oregon; incorporated 1862. Manufactures include processed food, farm equipment, forest products, and sporting goods. Whitman College (1859) and Washington State Penitentiary are here, and Walla Walla College (1892) is in nearby College Place. When members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the area in 1805, they recorded the Native American name Walla Walla, which means either “many waters” or “small, rapid stream.” Fort Walla Walla (a fur-trading post) was built near here in 1818, and the American missionary Marcus Whitman established a medical mission nearby in 1836. The community, which developed adjacent to a second Fort Walla Walla (1856), was known as Steptoeville until the present name was adopted in 1859. Population 25,618 (1980); 26,478 (1990); 29,686 (2000).
