Don't know?  Then you are in good company; neither does the Seattle Times editorial page editor, James Vesely, as Fred Jessett points out in a letter to the editor:

James Vesely, report immediately to ninth grade!  You need a refresher on Washington geography.

Okanogan County is not "in the far northeast part of Washington."  Talk about a westsider having a warped view of the state.  Okanogan County covers the north central part of the state.  It lies west of Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties.  Its western border touches Whatcom and Skagit counties.

Here's what Vesely said, in a column printed last Sunday:

Okanogan County, in the far northeast part of Washington, is larger than Connecticut and Vermont combined.

Here's a map to help out Vesely:

This confusion about geography is not limited to Vesely; I have caught three local journalists forgetting that Idaho is in the Northwest: David Postman, Floyd McKay, and David Ammons.   (Digression: If you read the David Postman post, you'll learn that President Bush actually carried the popular vote in the Northwest in the 2000 election.  But not, as I noted in a later post, in the 2004 election.)

I wouldn't mention this slip by Vesely except for two things.  First, the slip does reveal an interesting gap in his knowledge.  Jessett thinks that it shows an ignorance of matters east of the Cascades; I would go farther and say that it shows an ignorance of the parts of the state that can not be seen from the Space Needle.  Second, although the Times printed Jessett's letter, they have yet to make a formal correction — unless it doesn't show up when you search on "Okanogan".  And, to the best of my knowledge, Postman, McKay, and Ammons have never corrected their errors either.  I'll repeat some advice I have given to our journalists before: Readers are more likely to trust you if you correct your errors.  Is that hard to understand?  It appears so.

(Vesely's main point in the original column is one that I agree with; land use rules that fit a fast growing urban area such as Clark County may be inappropriate for rural counties such as Okanogan.  It is good to see a local journalist who understands that point.  And it may be immodest of me to say so, but I think Vesely might learn something on the general issue from this post.  Yes, that's right, I believe that we here in Washington state might learn something from Idaho.)