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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Coulee Dam (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Coulee Dam. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Coulee Dam is primarily located in Douglas County. A portion of Coulee Dam extends into Grant County and Okanogan County.

To see how the shape of Washington's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Douglas County: Chelan, Grant, Kittitas, Lincoln & Okanogan.

Below are the counties that are near Coulee Dam. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Coulee Dam:

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Coulee Dam, see our County-by-County Page for Coulee Dam.

Cemeteries Near Coulee Dam ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Coulee Dam.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Coulee Dam covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Coulee Dam, with the one closest to Coulee Dam listed first.

  • Spring Canyon Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Lafollette Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lafollette Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lafollette Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Johns Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Johns Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Welsh Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Welsh Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Welsh Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Almira Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Almira Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Almira Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mold Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mold Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mold Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Wheat Ridge Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wheat Ridge Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wheat Ridge Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Tolonen Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tolonen Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tolonen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Coulee City Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Coulee City Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Coulee City Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Danish Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Danish Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Danish Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Andrews Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Andrews Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Andrews Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<5>

While we didn't find Coulee Dam in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Coulee Dam.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Coulee Dam, with the one closest to Coulee Dam listed first.

  • Hesseltine ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hesseltine. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hesseltine
    • Hesseltine is located in Lincoln County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Hesseltine
    • From Coulee Dam to Hesseltine
  • Almira
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Govan ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Govan have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Govan
    • Govan is located in Lincoln County
  • Wilbur
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Sherman ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sherman have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sherman
    • Sherman is located in Lincoln County
  • Creston
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Saint Andrews
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint Andrews have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Andrews
    • Saint Andrews is located in Douglas County

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Coulee Dam. See our List of 1890's Communities around Coulee Dam.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Coulee Dam ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 21 newspapers that have been published in the area around Coulee Dam.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Coulee Dam. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Coulee Dam and those printed in the larger area surrounding Coulee Dam.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<6> of Coulee Dam.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Coulee Dam:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Coulee Dam. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Douglas County: www.douglascountywa.net/

The official website for State of Washington: https://wa.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<5>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Coulee Dam, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Coulee Dam) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Coulee Dam. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.9686, Longitude: -118.9768    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025