Mica is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Spokane County Spokane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 539,339, making it the fourth-most populous county in Washington. The largest city and county seat is Spokane, the second largest cit ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, United States. Mica is located along State Route 27 southeast of downtown

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

. Mica had a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

with ZIP code 99023.

History

A post office called Mica was established in 1887, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1975. The community was named for deposits of mica. Mica's economy has been dominated by brick making since the town's early days. The current factory is owned by Mutual Materials and located on the site of American Fire Brick, founded by Mica pioneers the late 1800s. The American Firebrick Company campus was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1982. The oldest grave in Mica Cemetery dates to 1883. Due to its location about ten minutes by car from suburban Spokane Valley, Mica and the surrounding area have lost some of their completely rural identity as people have moved in and transformed it somewhat into a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

Geography

Mica is located along State Route 27 which connects the town with

Spokane Valley The Spokane Valley is a valley of the Spokane River through the southern Selkirk Mountains in the U.S. state of Washington. The valley is home to the cities of Spokane and its suburbs Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, and Millwood. The valley i ...

, a few miles to the north, and the rest of the

area. To the south, State Route 27 connects Mica with numerous other small towns on the

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, prima ...

. Mica itself is located on the northern edge of the Palouse farming region, with its gentle rolling hills quickly giving way to the foothills of the Selkirk Mountains.

Krell Hill Krell Hill, also known as Tower Mountain, is a peak at the southern end of the Selkirk Mountains in Spokane County, Washington. It rises abruptly to the southeast of the relatively flat South Hill area of the city of Spokane. An area of high to ...

, known locally as Tower Mountain for the television towers it houses, is located just to the northwest of town and

Mica Peak Mica Peak is the name of two separate mountain summits in the United States located approximately apart; one in Spokane County, Washington and the other in Kootenai County, Idaho. The two peaks are located along the same ridge, which separates t ...

just to the east. California Creek, a tributary of

Latah Creek Latah Creek ( ), also known as Hangman Creek, is a large stream in eastern Washington and north central Idaho in the United States. The creek flows northwest from the Rocky Mountains to Spokane, where it empties into the Spokane River. It drain ...

, flows from the slopes of Mica Peak and along the southeastern edge of town. Mica is located in the Freeman School District, with elementary, middle and high schools located a three miles south of the town on State Route 27. Mica sits in the transition zone between three

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

s as defined by the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

, giving the area traits from all three. The

Okanagan dry forests Okanagan dry forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion in the Pacific Northwest of North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system. It is closely associated with the Okanagan region of British Columbia an ...

ecoregion begins just down State Route 27 at Freeman and stretches northwest through

, the

Okanagan The Okanagan ( ), also known as the Okanagan Valley and sometimes as the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is par ...

, and into the

Thompson Plateau The Thompson Plateau forms the southern portion of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia, Canada, lying to the west of Okanagan Lake, south of the Thompson River and east of (although never adjoining it) the Fraser River. At its most southern p ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. Tall

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...

trees are a remnant of the nature of the ecoregion prior to development of the community and agriculture. The Okanagan dry forests transition into the

North Central Rockies forests The North Central Rockies forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of Canada and the United States. This region overlaps in large part with the North American inland temperate rainforest and gets more rain on average than the South Ce ...

as the land climbs up the slopes of the Selkirk Mountains immediately to the north and east. A couple of miles to the south of Mica, at Freeman, the Okanagan dry forests transition into the rolling, grassy hills of Palouse grasslands ecoregion.

Gallery

Mica Peak.png,

as seen from the eastern edge of Mica from Belmont Road. Mica Brick Works.png, Brickyard in Mica, where bricks have been made since 1902, as seen from Washington State Route 27.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Spokane County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state)