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Constituent state of the United States of America. Lying at the northwest corner of the 48 coterminous states, it is bounded by the Canadian province of British Columbia on the north, Idaho on the east, Oregon on the south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It has an area of 68,139 square miles (176,479 square kilometres). The capital is Olympia. The state's coastal location and excellent harbours give it a leading role in trade with Alaska, Canada, and countries of the Pacific Rim. Washington cities have sister cities in several countries, and their professional and trade associations commonly include Canadian members.
![Skyline of Seattle, Wash. [Credit: © Digital Vision/Getty Images]](http://images.bookrags.com/images/eb/94422.gif) Skyline of Seattle, Wash. [Credit: © Digital Vision/Getty Images]The terrain and climate of Washington divide the state into a rainy western third and a drier eastern two-thirds in the rain shadow of the Cascade Range. Western Washington industries depend on agriculture, forests, and fisheries and imported raw materials, whereas eastern Washington is mainly agricultural, producing wheat, irrigated crops, and livestock. Most of the people live in the metropolitan areas of Seattle–Everett and Tacoma and other cities along Puget Sound.
![The northern Pacific Coast. [Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]](http://images.bookrags.com/images/eb/4843.gif) The northern Pacific Coast. [Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]
Washington has seven physiographic regions. In the northwest the Olympic Peninsula borders the Pacific Ocean south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Dense rain forests extend along the western slopes of the rugged Olympic Mountains, which rise to 7,965 feet (2,428 metres) on Mount Olympus.
The Willapa Hills parallel the coast from Grays Harbor to the Columbia River in the southwest. Gentle, forested slopes descend to an indented Pacific coastline and to the Chehalis and Cowlitz valleys on the north and east.
The Puget Sound Lowland stretches southward from Canada between the Olympic Mountains and the Cascade Range to join the Chehalis and Cowlitz valleys, which form an extension to the Columbia River. Deep waters and fine harbours in Puget Sound, together with relatively flat terrain along its shores, favour the densest population and greatest commercial development in the state.
The Cascade Range, east of the Puget Sound Lowland, has the state's highest elevations. Its chain of volcanic peaks includes 14,410-foot (4,392-metre) Mount Rainier, the fifth highest peak in the coterminous United States. Mount St. Helens, located in the Cascades near the Oregon border, erupted violently in 1980. The highest peaks have permanent glaciers.
The Columbia Basin occupies most of central Washington, surrounded by the Cascades to the west, the Okanogan Highlands to the north, uplands to Idaho on the east, and the Blue Mountains to the southeast. A basalt plateau, lying at about 1,000 to 2,500 feet above sea level, it is drained by the Columbia River and its main tributary, the Snake. Glaciation, flooding, and wind have shaped diverse landforms, although the general appearance is that of a large interior plain.
The Okanogan Highlands, in the northeast, are an extension of the Rocky Mountains. Their north–south ranges, with summits that rise to more than 7,000 feet (2,100 metres), are separated by glaciated trenches. Most of the state's metallic ores are found in this region.
The Blue Mountains, which extend into Washington from Oregon, consist of uplifted plateaus and ranges in the southeast corner of the state. Gentle slopes and broad valleys descend from 6,000-foot (1,800-metre) heights to the Columbia Basin. Outliers to the west comprise the Horse Heaven Hills and Rattlesnake Hills.
The most productive soils in Washington are those of the river floodplains and the weathered basalts and windblown silts of the Columbia Basin. In wetter areas acidic soils support forests, but the driest regions east of the Cascades have sparse plant life and require irrigation for agriculture. The fine-textured soils of the Big Bend and Palouse areas are susceptible to erosion by wind and water.
Prevailing westerly winds and the influence of the Pacific Ocean dominate the climate of Washington, although the Cascades barrier creates significant differences between western and eastern regions. The west has milder conditions than any part of the United States at the same latitudes. Seattle has an average January temperature of 41° F (5° C) and a 66° F (19° C) July average. Annual precipitation on the Pacific slopes of the Olympic Peninsula exceeds 150 inches (3,810 millimetres), but places on the northwest of the peninsula receive less than 20 inches (508 millimetres) a year. From the Puget Sound Lowland, where 30–40 inches are typical annual totals, amounts increase again to more than 100 inches in the Cascades.
East of the Cascade Range seasonal temperature variations are greater, but the Rocky Mountains to some extent shield the region from cold Canadian air masses in winter. Maximum summer temperatures usually exceed 100° F (38° C) a few days each year. Spokane's January average temperature is 25° F (-4° C); the July average is 70° F (21° C). Annual precipitation is 17 inches (430 millimetres) at Spokane but less than eight inches (200 millimetres) in the lower Yakima valley.
Throughout the state precipitation is greatest in the cooler months, when a succession of cyclonic storms move inland from the North Pacific, sometimes with gale-force winds. Rain falls on a great number of days even in areas that are relatively arid, such as in the west. The occasional outbreaks of continental air from the north or northeast may reach the outer coast, bringing freezing conditions in winter or hot, dry air that increases the danger of forest fires in summer.
Washington's 23,000,000 acres (9,308,000 hectares) of forest are among the most extensive in the United States. Major tree species are Douglas fir, hemlock, western red cedar, and ponderosa pine, found mainly in the mountain regions. On the semiarid parts of the Columbia Basin, grasses prevail, merging into sagebrush and other scattered shrubs in the driest areas.
Deer, elk, bears, mountain goats, and pumas (cougars) are among the large mammals, and there are also several fur-bearing animals. The Pacific flyway, a major route of North American waterfowl migration, follows the Puget Sound Lowland. Freshwater game fish include trout, bass, grayling, and sturgeon. Five species of Pacific salmon ascend western Washington streams to spawn. The coastal bays and Puget Sound are habitats for shellfish.
About three-fourths of Washington's people live in urban areas, principally in the Puget Sound Lowland. More than 50 percent live in the Seattle and Tacoma metropolitan areas. Spokane is the largest city east of the Cascades and the focus of the “inland empire,” a large economic region of agriculture, forestry, and mining that reaches to northeastern Oregon, northern Idaho, western Montana, and southern British Columbia, Can. Smaller cities of eastern Washington include agricultural trade centres such as Wenatchee, Yakima, and Walla Walla. The Tri Cities area (Richland–Kennewick–Pasco) at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers forms a transportation centre for irrigated agriculture, manufacturing, and the Hanford Site (an atomic energy installation).
Typical towns of the eastern wheat lands are crowned by grain elevators, whereas food processing plants are common in the towns that serve irrigated farms. Lumber towns and small mining settlements are found along the upland margins of the Columbia Basin.
The early settlers, from the 1830s through the 1850s, came primarily from the Midwest along the Oregon Trail. Growth was slow until the 1880s, when railroads began to link Puget Sound and the Columbia River to the East and to California, ending the frontier era of the Pacific Northwest. The population of Washington grew fivefold from 1881 to 1890, to almost 360,000—and by 1920 it reached almost 1,360,000.
Immigration continued, particularly from the Midwest, and, until national quotas on foreign immigration of the 1920s, large numbers of foreign-born people entered the state, especially from Canada and the Scandinavian countries. The Japanese came late and by 1930 numbered about 18,000. During World War II, citizens or not, they were moved from the coastal areas to relocation camps in inland regions. After the war only a few received back their homes and property, and many chose to live elsewhere.
Washington has a relatively small percentage of blacks. It ranks among the top 10 states, however, in numbers of American Indians and Asians.
For decades the western movement of the nation's population dominated Washington's growth. During the 1950s, however, for the first time and by a wide margin, natural increase overtook immigration. Immigration has regained some of its former importance, but it remains below natural increase as a growth factor.
Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries have been major contributors to the state's economy since early settlement by Europeans. The rapid increase in manufacturing and services that began in the 1940s led to concentration of the population in urban areas. Nearly one-fifth of the nonagricultural labour force is employed in manufacturing; another one-fifth works for state or federal government agencies.
Water is Washington's most valuable and most versatile natural resource. The leading freshwater source is the series of dams on the Columbia River drainage system that impound water for irrigation, hydroelectric power, and flood control, while also providing for navigation, fisheries, recreation, and industrial uses. The Columbia and rivers of western Washington account for one-third of all hydroelectric production in the United States. Grand Coulee Dam, with a capacity of about 6,500,000 kilowatts, ranks among the largest power plants in the world. Groundwater resources are exploited for domestic use, industry, and limited irrigation in the Puget Sound Lowland and, to a lesser extent, along the main river valleys of the Columbia Basin.
![Log storage pond, Bellingham, Wash. [Credit: Whitmire]](http://images.bookrags.com/images/eb/28609.gif) Log storage pond, Bellingham, Wash. [Credit: Whitmire]
Forests support both wood-product industries and wildlife and recreation. Multiple use and sustained yield have been primary management objectives on both private and public forestlands since early in the 20th century. Commercial fisheries are another significant sector in the state's economy. Salmon, halibut, cod, and herring are the principal species landed at ports on Grays Habor, Willapa Bay, and Puget Sound. Developments in aquaculture supplement the harvest with salmon, trout, and shellfish.
Sand, gravel, and clay are the most valuable of the state's limited mineral products. Magnesite, lead, and zinc are produced in the Okanogan Highlands; and coal mining in the Cascades and Puget Sound Lowland has declined during the 20th century. An open-pit coal mine near Centralia provides fuel for a thermoelectric power plant.
Winter wheat is the state's leading crop and a major export from the Columbia Basin, which also grows barley, dry peas, lentils, and hay on dryland farms. Irrigated crops include potatoes, vegetables, fruits, hops, and mint. Washington markets more apples than any other state and is a major producer of pears, cranberries, and wine grapes. Vegetable seeds, berries, vegetables for canning or freezing, and flower bulbs are specialties of the Puget Sound Lowland.
Dairying is a leading rural industry of the northern Puget Sound Lowland, which is also noted for poultry. Beef cattle and sheep graze on the eastern grasslands and the open forestlands of mountain regions.
Farms vary from a few acres to hundreds of acres; since the mid-20th century the tendency has been toward larger and fewer farms. Former agricultural land near large cities has been converted to urban use at an increasing rate.
For more than a century agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and mining have furnished materials for Washington's processing plants. By the mid-20th century, aircraft and aerospace production in the Seattle area rose to first place among the state's fabricating industries. U.S. Navy facilities on Puget Sound provide for construction and repair of ships; a major installation is the Trident Nuclear Submarine Base near Bremerton.
The state's several aluminum refineries depend on hydroelectricity and imported alumina to produce about one-fourth of the primary aluminum in the United States. Petroleum refineries on northern Puget Sound process Alaskan and foreign crude oil.
Tourism has become a major source of income in Washington. The variety of scenic areas, including three national parks, draws increasing numbers of visitors to the state. Boating, hiking, skiing, sports events, and local festivals are other major tourist attractions.
Harbours on Puget Sound and the outer coast afford year-round access to world ocean routes, and a state ferry system serves the San Juan Islands and Canada's Vancouver Island. Navigation locks allow boats to pass between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, at Seattle. Barges carry grain and raw materials along the Columbia–Snake route.
Airlines link the state's cities with one another and with transcontinental and world air routes. The Seattle–Tacoma Airport ranks among the leading U.S. airports in international passenger travel.
The state has a well-developed system of highways and interstate freeways. Pontoon bridges span Hood Canal on the Olympic Peninsula and Lake Washington at Seattle. Railways crisscross the state but rank behind trucks in freight transport. Pipelines move oil and natural gas from out-of-state and distribute refined products.
Washington's constitution of 1889, reflecting the distrust of government that was characteristic of the time, contained many restrictions on state power. One reflection of this was the creation of a divided executive. Unlike the federal executive branch, to which only the president and vice president are elected, the state has nine separately elected officials. The most important is the governor.
![The Legislative Building, Olympia, Wash. [Credit: © Michael Hynes]](http://images.bookrags.com/images/eb/100061.gif) The Legislative Building, Olympia, Wash. [Credit: © Michael Hynes]
The legislature comprises the Senate of 49 members and the House of 98 members, elected, respectively, for four- and two-year terms. Important limitations on legislative powers include the earmarking of certain funds to specific purposes—e.g., the gasoline tax to highways. Because the constitution prohibits a state income tax, Washington depends on more than one-half of its tax revenues from a general sales tax, which accounts for about 30 percent of the state's total income. Initiative and referendum on legislation and recall of elected officials give the voters a check on the legislature. The governor's power of “item veto” has been expanded to include all legislation, except referendums and initiatives, to the extent of eliminating lines in budget acts or sections of other laws.
The courts are divided into four levels. Courts of limited jurisdiction—justice, municipal, and police—are local and hear traffic cases, minor criminal and civil cases, and small-claims actions. Superior courts are general trial courts, having original jurisdiction in felonies and in civil cases not delegated to the limited courts. The Supreme Court and the appellate courts are almost solely courts of review. All judges, except for some classes of appointed municipal and police judges, are elected on nonpartisan ballots. Grand juries, created by a superior court, are used mainly to investigate political corruption, though their legal powers are considerably broader.
Washington's 39 counties are classified according to population by the legislature. The governing body in most counties is the board of county commissioners, whose three members act as both the chief executive officers and the legislative body for the county. The Optional Municipal Code was adopted in 1969, substantially expanding the powers of cities choosing to come under it. Cities with populations of 10,000 or more can adopt a home-rule charter if such a referendum is approved by the electorate, while municipalities of 300 to 10,000 are granted optional, noncharter home rule by statute.
Elections and political parties are regulated by state law. The unique feature of the nomination process in Washington is the “blanket primary,” which replaced the closed primary in 1935, permitting citizens to vote for any candidate without disclosing their party membership. This law reflects a characteristic independence among the state's voters. Split voting has been reported by three-fourths of the voters in both primaries and final elections.
The State Board of Education sets general requirements of public school curricula, which are administered by an elected superintendent of public instruction and more than 300 district school boards. Attendance is required for children age eight through 16. Higher education is predominantly a state function, the largest institution being the University of Washington in Seattle, established in 1861. Washington State University at Pullman was founded in 1890 as a land-grant college for agricultural and mechanical arts. Three state colleges—at Bellingham, Ellensburg, and Cheney—evolved from teacher-training institutions in the 1890s to university status in 1977, and Evergreen State College at Olympia was added in 1971. A system of community colleges was combined under state administration in 1967. Several private, denominational institutions augment postsecondary opportunities.
In 1936, responding to the Social Security Act of 1935, the state assumed broad responsibilities for welfare programs. The Department of Social and Health Services administers benefits for children, the aged, and families; it oversees both private and public medical services, including Medicaid. Washington ranks among the top 10 states in public aid to families with dependent children. Separate agencies provide aid to the blind and veterans. There are also commissions for Human Rights and Insurance Consumer Protection. An Employment Security Department assists those who seek jobs and disburses unemployment insurance payments.
A young state, Washington has a Western and pioneering outlook. There is great interest among the people in archaeological explorations and the cultural patterns of the Indian inhabitants. Interdisciplinary field studies by scientists at Washington State University have discovered artifacts of two quite different archaeological sites. Marmes Rock Shelter, in arid eastern Washington, has yielded a 10,000-year sequence of tools left by hunters and gatherers along with some of the oldest well-documented skeletal remains in the Western Hemisphere. The Ozette site, on the Olympic Coast, has a unique collection of well-preserved clothing, basketry, and harpoons of people who fished and hunted seals and whales 500 years ago. Tools of a similar culture dating from 2,000 years ago were also found there. These and other sites in the state reflect the diverse cultural forms that evolved after prehistoric migrations from northeastern Asia.
The arrival of European settlers in the 19th century not only transformed the cultural landscape of Washington but also introduced new social patterns. Contemporary outdoor events usually are based on local history or economic pursuits. Rodeos (mainly in eastern Washington) and “old settlers reunions” recall early struggles to occupy the land. Agricultural fairs, ethnic festivals, blossom festivals, and parades exhibit products and skills. The annual Seattle Seafair features parades, boat races, and water carnivals. Water sports are popular on many lakes and rivers and especially on Puget Sound. Skiing is a favourite winter sport in the Cascades and Okanogan Highlands. Public forestlands, three national parks, and more than 125 state parks attract campers during the summer months.
Washington residents pursue a wide range of interests in the fine arts. The Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera Association, and the Seattle Repertory Theater draw national attention. The School of Drama at the University of Washington pioneered modern arena staging. Several smaller cities have orchestras and drama groups. Among the approximately 25 major art galleries and museums, the Seattle Art Museum has extensive collections of Oriental art. The Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum on the University of Washington's Seattle campus has an important collection relating to Pacific Northwest Indians. Also of interest are the Museum of History and Industry and the Pacific Science Center, both in Seattle. Among important historical museums is the Washington State Historical Society Museum in Tacoma.
The first library in the state, the Washington State Library in Olympia, traces its financial aid by the Congress to part of the Territorial Act of 1853. Rapid development of the public library system occurred in the first decade of the 20th century, when the Carnegie Foundation provided building funds. More than 250 libraries serve the state. Noteworthy are the two state university libraries, the Washington State Archives, and the Seattle Public Library.
When Europeans first explored the Washington area, they encountered a number of Indian tribes, the most prominent being the Chinook, the Coast Salish, the Nez Percé, and the Yakima. The early history of Washington and of the Northwest is intertwined with efforts to find the Northwest Passage, the development of the fur trade with the Orient, and the attempts of Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries to convert the Indians. Spaniards had sailed along the coast earlier, but the wealth of sea otter skins secured from the Indians on one of the voyages of Captain James Cook in 1778 marked the start of real exploration and of the maritime fur trade. George Vancouver, sent by Britain in 1792, tried to find the Northwest Passage and to map the coast. Robert Gray was the first trader from the United States; his explorations resulted in the discovery of the Columbia River in 1792. By 1812, the United States almost completely dominated the fur trade. The British Hudson's Bay Company, however, maintained areas of dominance into the 1840s.
Missionaries were generally welcomed by the Indians, though often not so much for Christian salvation as for the knowledge and material advantages the whites could bring. Among the most famous missions were those of the medical missionary Marcus Whitman and the Reverend Henry Spalding, established in 1836 in southeastern Washington, and the Roman Catholic missions established by Pierre-Jean DeSmet in northeastern Washington.
The Protestant missionaries felt that white civilization was necessary for the Indian and thus encouraged white settlement. With the opening of the Oregon Trail the first large group, about 1,000 people, reached the Northwest in 1843. These and others following first went mainly into the Willamette valley of what became the state of Oregon, and later into the area north of the Columbia River (in present-day Washington), then still dominated by the Hudson's Bay Company. The Indians were initially receptive but the settlers' inconsistent dealings with the Indians led to such conflicts as the Cayuse War (1848–50), the Yakima War (1855–58), and the Nez Percé War (1877).
By the end of the 19th century most of the Indians had been settled on reservations, representing three principal tribal groups: Coast Salish, Interior Salish, and the Sahaptin. Anthropologists have identified numerous distinct tribes on the basis of language and other local cultural characteristics. Among the larger tribes of western Washington are the Makah, Quinault, Lummi, Snohomish, and Puyallup; tribes of eastern Washington include the Okanogan, Yakima, Klickitat, Kalispel, and Spokane.
Until the 1840s citizens of both the United States and Britain by agreement could settle and trade in what was still known as the Oregon country. In 1846 the two countries agreed on the present boundary between the United States and Canada, and in 1848 Congress established the Oregon Territory including all of the present-day states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana. This enormous area was difficult to govern from the territorial capital in the Willamette valley. As the population around Puget Sound grew, agitation arose to form a separate territory of the area north and west of the Columbia. In 1853 Congress created the Washington Territory—named for the first president of the United States—and extended it east of the Columbia River to the crest of the Rockies, including parts of present-day Idaho and Montana.
Different rates of population growth and difficulties of communication continued to cause problems, and various movements called for the creation of a separate territory in eastern Washington and even the creation of an independent Pacific Republic. In the 1870s and '80s the extension of the telegraph and the railroads to the Northwest strengthened ties with the United States, and attention turned to seeking statehood, granted in 1889.
Gold discoveries in the interior in the 1850s made Walla Walla the centre of eastern Washington for a time, but these were merely a prelude to Washington's role in provisioning the gold seekers who set out for the Alaskan and Yukon strikes of the late 1890s. The gold stimulated the trade of cities on Puget Sound, and the new prosperity was celebrated at the Alaska–Yukon Exposition in 1909.
Possibly the greatest stimulus to the state's progress in the 20th century was initiated by the development of the Columbia Basin and related projects, which greatly increased hydroelectric power and provided the basis for increased irrigation and flood control. A navigation improvement project was authorized as early as 1911, and work began on the Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams in 1933. Construction was completed on Bonneville in 1937 and on the main structure of Grand Coulee in 1941. The first two Grand Coulee power plants were completed in 1951, and a third power plant began operation in 1975.
Washington's prosperity and its growing role in the commerce of the Pacific were among the features celebrated in the Seattle World's Fair of 1962, named the Century 21 Exposition. Developments in the latter half of the 20th century were increased urbanization, consolidation of agricultural landholdings, improved transportation networks, and expanded trade with the Pacific Basin countries. Increasing concern for the environment led to a series of laws to regulate the impact of a growing population.
Eugene Clark
Howard J. Critchfield
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Washington from Encyclopedia Brittanica. ©2009 Encyclopedia Brittanica. All rights reserved.
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