Editing List of counties in Washington (section)

== Proposed counties ==
Several counties were proposed prior to or during the existence of Washington Territory and nine counties were proposed within the first 16 years of Washington's statehood, but none were established.
* The representatives at the Cowlitz Convention of 1851 discussed a proposal to form Columbia Territory, which included a number of new counties in what later became Washington. The next session of the Oregon Territorial Legislature created only one of these counties: Thurston County (which was originally proposed as Simmons County).<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1913|pp=3–4}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Meany|1922|pp=11–12}}</ref>
* Buchanan County was proposed in 1856 as a division of Clark County.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1913|p=7}}</ref>
* Proposed counties during Washington's early statehood included Big Bend (1891), Palouse (1891 and 1903), Sherman (1891), Washington (1891), Wenatchee (1893), McKinley (1903), Steptoe (1903), and Coulee (1905).<ref name="Smith15">{{harvnb|Smith|1913|pp=13–15}}</ref>

* Since the 1990s, there have been several [[List of U.S. county secession proposals#Washington|proposals for county secession]] in Washington, largely from rural areas in the major counties of Western Washington. Cedar, Freedom, and Skykomish counties submitted petitions to secede from King and Snohomish counties in 1995 and 1996, with some support in the state legislature to put them to a public referendum.<ref name="WSC 98"/><ref>{{cite news |last=Robertson |first=Kipp |date=March 8, 2019 |title=Splitting King County? Citizens fought to secede in the 90s |url=https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/splitting-king-county-citizens-fought-to-secede-in-the-90s/281-33fc22a2-e3fa-4b82-ae82-2ffaeba80916 |publisher=[[KING-TV|KING 5 News]] |access-date=August 3, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Brooks |first=Diane |date=March 21, 1997 |title=House OKs Nov. vote on Skykomish County |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19970321&slug=2529909 |work=The Seattle Times |access-date=August 3, 2020}}</ref>