All Over The Map: The surprising number of Washington towns inspired by first names January 15, 2021 at 9:36 am George, Washington is along I-90 in Grant County and is named in honor of the first name of the state's namesake; nearby is George Lake and Martha Lake. (USGS Archives) Names for communities in Washington are inspired by many things – nods to obvious nearby geographic features, nostalgia for faraway hometowns of settlers, memorials to Indigenous leaders, remembrances for slain presidents, tributes to military figures and sometimes, of course, just the glory of the community’s settlers themselves. The town of Marcus in Stevens County falls into this last category. Marcus was founded in the 1860s by W.V. Brown and Marcus Oppenheimer. The two men, and perhaps one of Oppenheimer’s brothers, took over barracks that had been abandoned by the British Boundary Commission, the military surveyors who spent about four years physically marking the 49th parallel, and opened a store there.