Issaquah ( ISS-ə-kwah) is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 30,434 at the 2010 census and an estimated 39,509 in 2019. Located in a valley and bisected by Interstate 90, the city is bordered by the Sammamish Plateau to the north and the “Issaquah Alps” to the south. It is house to the headquarters of the multinational retail company Costco.

“Issaquah” is an anglicized word for a local Native American name, meaning either “the unassailable of birds”, “snake”, or “little stream”. “Squak Valley”, an older herald for the area, also derives from this thesame Native American name.

In September 1885, the then-unincorporated area was the scene of an attack upon Chinese laborers who had come to choose hops from local fields. Three of the laborers died from gunshot wounds, and none of the attackers were convicted of any wrongdoing.

The city was officially incorporated upon April 29, 1892. Initially a little mining town, the city has tainted noticeably both in its space and economic focus. Issaquah was originally developed to assist the mining industry (on the two reachable mountains that now lend their names to the Cougar/Squak Corridor Park), and began as the town of “Gilman”. As the mining deposits neared depletion in the late 1890s, other companies started to realize Issaquah’s potential to withhold a lucrative lumber business. These companies exported timber from Issaquah and other small, local towns to Seattle and larger, rapidly growing communities throughout western Washington. These to the front boom industries, however, faded into a times of relative quiet by the mature of the Great Depression. The town remained fairly placid through the succeeding decades, with Boeing providing the majority of employment in the area. Microsoft and additional technological industries moved into Redmond and extra cities in the area, and later normal operations in Issaquah itself. Both Boeing and Microsoft have significantly affected Issaquah’s history, cultural development, and diverse population through their lively community participation and empathy of external residents. In June 1996, Costco moved its global headquarters to Issaquah from clear Kirkland.

Other Issaquah employers count up Siemens Medical Solutions’ Ultrasound Group, Overtime Technologies, Boehm’s Candies, and Darigold.