Washington
State in northwestern USA; nicknamed Evergreen State
Area:
176,700 sq km/68,206 sq mi
Capital:
Olympia
Towns and Cities:
Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma
Physical:
Columbia River; Cascade Range, with volcanic peaks in Mount Rainier
national park (Mount Rainier 4,392 m/14,410 ft), North Cascades national
park, and Mount St Helens national volcanic monument; Olympic Peninsula,
with Olympic national forest (a World Heritage Site) and Dungeness national
wildlife refuge, including the Hoh rainforest and Sol Duc hot springs;
Mount Adams (3,867 m/12,688 ft)
Features:
Whidbey Island, with Ebey's Landing national historic reserve and Couperville
(founded 1852), and the San Juan Islands; Long Beach Peninsula, including
Cape Disappointment Lighthouse (1856), Fort Canby State park, with the
Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center, and Oysterville, established
as an oystering town 1854; Seattle, with the Seattle Art Museum (1991,
designed by Robert Venturi), the Klondike gold rush national historic
park, the Seattle Center (built for the 1992 World Fair), the Space
Needle, Pioneer Square, and the International District (inhabited by
Asian-Americans, which originated with Chinese building workers on the
railways), including the Nippon Kan Theater; vineyards in the Yakima
Valley; 90 dams
Industries:
Apples and other fruits, potatoes, livestock, fish, timber, processed
food, wood products, paper and allied products, aircraft and aerospace
equipment, aluminium, computer software
Population:
(1995) 5,430,900 (including 1.4% Native Americans, mainly of the Yakima
people)
Famous People:
Bing Crosby, Jimi Hendrix, Mary McCarthy, Theodore Roethke
History:
Explored by Spanish, British, and Americans in the 18th century; settled
from 1811; became a territory 1853 and a state 1889. Rival American
and British territorial claims threatened war in the early 1840s,
but this was settled by the Oregon Treaty 1846. The transcontinental
railway arrived 1883. Labour disputes occurred here in the 1910s,
brutally suppressed by the authorities. The New Deal era brought
many public-works projects, and the aircraft manufacturer Boeing
became the largest employer in World War II. Later, the Microsoft
Corporation established its headquarters just outside Seattle.
Mount St Helens erupted here 1980. There is an antiquated and
dangerous nuclear plant at Hanford.
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