Camas
"Camas, a town in Clarke County. It is an old settlement and was formerly known as La Camas. The name is taken from that of a favorite food of the western Indians, Camassia esculenta, and other species related to the hyacinth. The word was derived from the Nootka Indian word chamass, meaning 'fruit' or 'sweet.' It was adopted into the Chinook jargon as camas, kamass, lacamass and lakamass. For a time the town in Clarke County was known as La Camas, but on recent charts and in postoffice usage is Camas. Evidently the locality of Camas was a place where the Indians gathered supplies of the sweetish bulbs of the blue-flowered "Lakamass."
Origin of Washington geographic names, 1923
City website:
http://www.ci.camas.wa.us/
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