Wenatchee ( weh-NA-tchee) is a city located in north-central Washington and is the largest city and county chair of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925. In 2019, the Office of Financial Management estimated the population at 34,360. Located at the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee rivers near the eastern foothills of the Cascade Range, Wenatchee lies on the western side of the Columbia River, across from the city of East Wenatchee. The Columbia River forms the boundary between Chelan and Douglas County. Wenatchee is the principal city of the Wenatchee–East Wenatchee, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses anything of Chelan and Douglas counties (total population as regards 110,884). However, the “Wenatchee Valley Area” generally refers to the land between Rocky Reach and Rock Island Dam on both banks of the Columbia, which includes East Wenatchee, Rock Island, and Malaga.

The city was named for the within reach Wenatchi Indian tribe. The make known is a Sahaptin word that means “river which comes [or whose source is] from canyons” or “robe of the rainbow”. Awenatchela means “people at the source [of a river]”. The city of Wenatchee shares its name past the Wenatchee River, Lake Wenatchee and the Wenatchee National Forest.

Wenatchee is referred to as the “Apple Capital of the World” due to the valley’s many orchards. The city is then sometimes referred to as the “Buckle of the Power Belt of the Great Northwest”. The “Power Belt of the Great Northwest” is a tale for the series of hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River. Rock Island Dam is located nearest to the center of this “belt”, and correspondingly was labeled the “Buckle”. This axiom is printed at the summit of every issue of Wenatchee’s newspaper, the Wenatchee World, but is no longer in common use elsewhere.

Archeological digs in nearby East Wenatchee have external Clovis stone and bone tools dating support more than 11,000 years, indicating that people migrating during the last Ice Age spent grow old in the Wenatchee area. The Columbia River and easy to use mountains and sagebrush steppes provided an ample supply of food. Clovis points are upon display at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center and research findings are understandable through the Wenatchee World.

Several native villages existed in the area prior to and during Anglo American exploration. The village Nikwikwi’estku was a fishing and buildup camp located in present-day downtown Wenatchee. In 1811, North West Company surveyor David Thompson encountered a help of Native American horsemen at Wenatchee and was invited into a village gone huts, the largest measuring 209 feet long. Fur traders document kind relations through the mid 19th century, even during the smallpox epidemic of 1817 and food shortages in 1841.