Starbuck, Washington — Railroad Town With an Accidentally Famous Name

Starbuck, Washington, had the name long before a coffee company made the nearly identical word familiar around the world.

The town was named for railroad official William H. Starbuck as rail construction moved through lower Snake River country. A station gave surrounding wheat and livestock operations access to larger markets, and a community grew around that transportation role.

Highways and agricultural consolidation later reduced the population, but Starbuck remained incorporated and connected to the farms and river country around it.

The coffee company is unrelated—it took its name from the first mate in Moby-Dick. Columbia County's Starbuck earned its name from a railroad official, which makes the modern coincidence considerably more entertaining than any invented coffee origin story.