The number of farms increased by 7.0 percent from the 2012 Census. The total value of agricultural sales tends to be in the same range as the total wages earned for the county.ДЄs of the 2017 Agricultural Census, the county had 226 farms with an average size of 1,283 acres. While local government makes up the biggest share of that employment, which includes local education services, federal government employment is very significant for the area by providing stable and higher paying jobs.ДЇarmland occupies over two-thirds of the countyвЂ™s total land usage. The Garfield County workforce is employed primarily in government services (around 68.5 percent in total). Garfield County is the least populated county in the state of Washington, ranking 39 th among 39 Washington counties, with population of 2,225 people in 2019, or 3.2 per square mile. By 1875, there was an estimated 200 farms in the area, which produced major crops of pears, wheat, blue grass and others. Later some settlers started communities in the Pataha Creek area, todayвЂ™s Pomeroy City, with the first known commercial establishment being a stage station and вЂњeating houseвЂќ (shaver). Garfield County settlers came and started farming and ranching in the area. The establishment of the territory and the end of the Indian Wars resulted in an influx of white settlers into the county.

Before white exploration and settlement, the semi-nomadic Nez Perce inhabited the area on both sides of the Nez Perce Trail as means of commerce, which was of strategic importance to the development of the region.

Garfield County is the seventh-smallest county in the state, with only 710.5 square miles. The Snake River makes up its northern and northeastern borders and is an essential part of its economic existence. Garfield County is bordered by Whitman County on the north, Asotin County on the east, Columbia County on the west and on the south by Wallowa County, Oregon. Garfield County was formed from the eastern portion of Columbia County by an act of the Washington Territorial Legislature in 1881.

Least populous states in us