Washougal is a city in Clark County, Washington, United States. The population was 14,095 as of the 2010 Census.

Washougal was officially incorporated upon December 4, 1908. Its Mount Pleasant Grange Hall is the oldest continually used grange hall in Washington.

This small community is located on the Washington side of the Columbia River, with its lowlands and well-known prairie situated upon the west contact to the scenic Columbia River Gorge. Motorists who gate Washougal from the west upon the Lewis & Clark Highway can see Mount Hood rising above the Cascade Mountains framed by the columnar cliffs that signal the gateway of the Gorge. It is home to Excelsior High School and Washougal High School.

It can be adroitly stated that Washougal is the “crossroads to discovery” in the Pacific Northwest. Shortly after Capt. Robert Gray, a Boston fur trader, entered the mouth of the Columbia River in May 1792, the famed British swashbuckler George Vancouver traveled to the region to insist Gray’s discovery. In October 1792, Vancouver directed a pubertal Lieutenant named William Broughton to improvement a party of men in a long boat up the Columbia to explore its head waters. Broughton came as far as present day Washougal and landed near the east fall of Reed Island. He named Mount Hood after a British admiral and Point Vancouver after his commanding officer. Broughton incorrectly assumed the head waters of the Columbia originated from Mount Hood. In reality, the river originates some 1,000 miles to the north and east in Canada, but it would be 18 years forward-thinking before the entire river was charted by substitute famed British investor named David Thompson.

Captain Gray’s discovery of the Columbia opened trade surrounded by Europeans and Chinook Indians who lived along the lower Columbia amongst the Cascade region and the river’s mouth. U.S., British, Spanish and Russian fur traders bartered for sea otter and beaver skins in the late 18th century. Then, another important work of explorers visited the region in 1805–1806, but this work came from the east, which marked the first cross-continental expedition. These famed explorers were Meriwether Lewis & William Clark.