Welcome to the DC Geeks Page –
Here we will slice-n-dice minutiae until our glasses need glasses.
ENJOY!!
Click on images to enlarge.
All graphs updated on September 18, 2025
The American Legion Was formed in 1919 and you can see the resultant spike in drum corps formation.
Why the big drop between 1939 and 1942? Re-enlistments and the draft for WWII decimated our senior corps population.
(Canadian corps were from the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta)
Washington State has always had a much larger population than Oregon (38% larger according to the 1960 US Census).
A larger population means more opportunities and resources for drum corps formation as seen above.
As you can see by the chart above, senior corps (American Legion and VFW chief among them) ruled the planet from the beginning of time through 1961, then they all disappeared within a ten-year span. Coincidentally, junior drum corps declined at almost the same rate 11-years later.
Senior corps still exist on the east coast and elsewhere. Go Caballeros!
(Honorary PNW DC are from Alaska and Montana)
The actual number of PNW drum corps will never be known, but we have made a good faith effort to document as many corps as possible.
All the data presented above has been extracted from this site and should be a very good representation of what actually occurred in the local
drum corps scene between 1889 and 2025.
PNWDC.com