Walla Walla is a city in southeastern Washington and the seat of Walla Walla County, set in a broad valley between the Columbia Basin and the Blue Mountains. Founded as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in the 1840s, it grew into one of the larger cities in southeastern Washington, with a population of about 34,000. The city's agricultural valley has long anchored the region, but its modern identity is shaped most visibly by two institutions: Whitman College and the Walla Walla Valley wine industry. Wine has become Walla Walla's defining economic and cultural story. The surrounding Walla Walla Valley, designated an American Viticultural Area in 1984, is now home to well over 100 wineries, and the industry supports thousands of regional jobs while drawing visitors to tasting rooms throughout the valley and in the downtown area. This wine economy sits alongside the city's traditional agricultural base, its healthcare sector, and the presence of Whitman College, a liberal-arts institution whose campus and graduates are woven into the town's civic life. Culturally, Walla Walla offers a density of arts and institutions unusual for a city of its size. The downtown features tasting rooms, galleries, and locally owned restaurants, and the city hosts regular art walks and events. The Walla Walla Symphony, founded in 1907, is billed as the oldest continuously operating symphony orchestra west of the Mississippi, and the community is also home to historic sites including the Fort Walla Walla Museum, the Frenchtown Historic Site, and the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute. For residents, Walla Walla offers a walkable historic core, tree-lined older neighborhoods near the college, and newer residential areas at the city's edges, all within easy reach of the Blue Mountains and surrounding farmland. The combination of a small-college-town pace, a nationally recognized wine region, and a lower cost of living than Washington's coastal cities makes it attractive to families, retirees, and people working in agriculture, education, healthcare, and hospitality.