48 Fun Facts About Washington State

Washington was admitted to the Union in 1889 as which numbered state?

Washington became the 42nd state on 11 November 1889, three days after Montana (41st) and ahead of Idaho (43rd); it is the only state named for a US president.

Washington Territory was almost given what name before it honoured a president?

Congress was offered 'Columbia Territory' in 1853, but Kentucky's Richard Stanton argued it would be confused with the District of Columbia, so it was named for George Washington.

What is the capital of Washington state?

Olympia has been the capital since 1853, when it was named seat of Washington Territory; Seattle is the most populous city.

Washington's widely used nickname is what?

The Evergreen State, coined by Seattle realtor C.T. Conover in 1890 for the state's forests, appears on licence plates yet was never formally adopted by the legislature.

Washington is the largest U.S. producer of which fruit?

Washington grows more apples than any other state, well over half the US crop, and also leads the nation in hops, pears and sweet cherries.

The state vegetable of Washington is which sweet onion?

The Walla Walla sweet onion, grown around the southeastern city of that name, became the state vegetable in 2007; the state fruit is the apple.

The state tree of Washington is which conifer?

The western hemlock became Washington's state tree in 1947; the state flower is the coast rhododendron and the state fish the steelhead.

Washington's highest point, an active stratovolcano, is which mountain?

Mount Rainier, at 14,411 feet, is the state's highest point and the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states, with about 25 named glaciers.

The state's highest peak is also known by which Native American name?

Because it could erupt near a major city, it is listed among the world's Decade Volcanoes.

On 18 May 1980, which Washington volcano erupted after the largest landslide in recorded history?

Mount St. Helens erupted on 18 May 1980 after its north face collapsed in the largest landslide in recorded history; the blast killed 57 people and dropped ash on 11 states.

Which strait separates Washington's Olympic Peninsula from Canada's Vancouver Island?

The Strait of Juan de Fuca, named for a Greek pilot who sailed for Spain in 1592, runs about 95 miles between the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island.

The Space Needle was built for which event?

Built for the 1962 World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition), the Space Needle blends Edward Carlson's napkin sketch of a tethered balloon with architect John Graham's flying-saucer top.

The Space Needle stands how tall?

The Space Needle rises 605 feet; when it opened in 1962 it was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi, and it was engineered to withstand 200 mph winds.

Which company was founded in Seattle in 1916 by a lumber industrialist?

William Boeing's original firm was called the Pacific Aero Products Company.

Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond since 1986, was founded in 1975 in which city?

Gates and Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque in 1975 to sell a BASIC interpreter for MITS's Altair 8800, and moved the company to Bellevue, Washington, in 1979.

Jeff Bezos first named the company that became Amazon what?

Bezos incorporated the company as Cadabra, Inc. in July 1994, then dropped the name after a lawyer misheard it as 'cadaver' and registered Amazon.com that November.

Starbucks opened its first store in 1971 at which Seattle landmark?

Starbucks' first store opened in 1971 in Seattle's Pike Place Market district, at 2000 Western Avenue, moving to 1912 Pike Place in 1976; the name comes from Moby-Dick's first mate.

Seattle's historic public farmers' market, home to the first Starbucks, opened in which year?

Pike Place Market opened on 17 August 1907 so shoppers could 'meet the producer' and bypass the commission middlemen blamed for high food prices.

The Grand Coulee Dam holds what national distinction?

Grand Coulee Dam, completed on the Columbia River in 1942, is the largest US power station by capacity, at about 6,800 megawatts.

The Hanford Site in eastern Washington produced plutonium for which World War II bomb?

Hanford's B Reactor, the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor, supplied the plutonium for the Trinity test and for Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.

The 1859 'Pig War' between the U.S. and Britain was a bloodless standoff over which archipelago?

The only casualty was a pig shot by an American farmer while eating his potatoes.

The Great Seattle Fire of 1889 was started by an overheated pot of what?

The fire began on 6 June 1889 when a glue pot boiled over in a carpentry shop and destroyed the business district; rebuilding the streets a storey higher created the Seattle Underground.

The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which collapsed in 1940, was nicknamed what?

Nicknamed Galloping Gertie for its rolling deck, the bridge opened on 1 July 1940 and tore apart in a 40 mph wind on 7 November, undone by aeroelastic flutter.

Which Seattle-born guitarist headlined the Woodstock festival in 1969?

Jimi Hendrix, born in Seattle on 27 November 1942, closed Woodstock on the morning of 18 August 1969 with his feedback-laden 'Star-Spangled Banner'.

The band Nirvana, pioneers of grunge, formed in 1987 in which Washington town?

Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic formed Nirvana in their hometown of Aberdeen in 1987 and released the debut album Bleach on Seattle's Sub Pop label in 1989.

Which Seattle prep academy did Bill Gates attend, meeting his future Microsoft co-founder there?

At Lakeside School, Gates met Paul Allen and learned to program on a teletype terminal in 1968; he later left Harvard to start Microsoft with Allen.

The Seattle Seahawks joined the NFL in which year?

The Seahawks entered the NFL as a 1976 expansion team alongside Tampa Bay; their fans, the 12s, twice set the Guinness record for crowd noise during the 2013 season.

Which Seattle Mariner entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016 with 99.32% of the vote?

Ken Griffey Jr., the first overall pick of the 1987 draft, was elected in 2016 with 99.32 percent, then the highest share ever; Mariano Rivera's unanimous 2019 election later passed it.

David Lynch's TV series Twin Peaks was shot in and around which Washington town?

The Salish Lodge above Snoqualmie Falls stood in for the Great Northern Hotel.

The 1993 film Sleepless in Seattle starred Tom Hanks and which actress?

Meg Ryan plays Annie Reed opposite Tom Hanks in Nora Ephron's 1993 film, in which a boy phones a radio show to find his widowed father a new wife.

The Twilight novels and films are set in which real, very rainy Washington town?

Forks, on the Olympic Peninsula and once billed as the Logging Capital of the World, reinvented itself as a tourist stop after Stephenie Meyer set Twilight there.

The Bavarian-themed village of Leavenworth remade its town centre starting in which decade?

Leavenworth adopted its Bavarian look in the 1960s after Seattle businessmen Ted Price and Bob Rodgers, owners of a struggling cafe nearby, proposed the alpine theme in 1962 to revive the town.

Puget Sound is part of which larger body of water, named in 2009?

The Salish Sea, a name adopted by the US and Canadian naming boards in 2009-10, takes in Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Peter Puget, for whom Puget Sound was named in 1792, then held what naval rank?

Peter Puget served as a lieutenant aboard HMS Discovery on Vancouver's 1792 expedition and led the boat survey of the sound's southern reaches, which Vancouver then named for him.

Washington State Ferries holds what distinction?

Washington State Ferries, which took over the Black Ball Line's routes in 1951, is the largest ferry system in the United States, serving 20 terminals around Puget Sound.

Washington's largest river begins its 1,243-mile journey in which country?

The Columbia rises at Columbia Lake in the Rocky Mountain Trench of British Columbia, Canada, and flows about 1,243 miles to the Pacific, forming much of Washington's border with Oregon.

The giant tunnel boring machine that dug Seattle's downtown highway tunnel was named what?

The name honours Bertha Knight Landes, Seattle's first female mayor, and was picked by schoolchildren.

Spokane, Washington's second-largest city, hosted which 1974 event?

The fair, Expo '74, left behind the city's Riverfront Park.

Walla Walla's name comes from a Native phrase meaning what?

Walla Walla comes from a Sahaptin word meaning 'place of many waters', a nod to the valley's creeks and springs; the Whitman Mission massacre took place nearby in 1847.

Olympic National Park protects rainforests, alpine meadows and what third landscape?

Theodore Roosevelt first protected the area as a national monument in 1909.

Washington shares an international border with which Canadian province?

British Columbia lies across Washington's northern border, mostly along the 49th parallel; Oregon is to the south and Idaho to the east.

Which dry, semi-arid part of the state became known for wheat grown with dry-farming techniques?

Eastern Washington's Columbia Basin and Palouse, in the Cascades' rain shadow, grew wheat by dry farming, and the Palouse became one of the most productive wheat regions in the country.

The ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man, found in Washington in 1996, is roughly how old?

Radiocarbon dating put the remains at 8,400 to 8,690 years old, among the oldest and most complete found in North America.

Which Spanish captain made the first recorded European landing on the Washington coast, in 1775?

Bruno de Heceta went ashore at Point Grenville on 14 July 1775 from the frigate Santiago and formally claimed the coast for Spain, the first recorded European landing in Washington.

Which president signed the law creating Washington Territory on March 2, 1853?

Millard Fillmore signed the act creating Washington Territory on 2 March 1853, two days before leaving office; the territory then reached east across the Idaho panhandle into western Montana.

What temperature did Hanford reach in June 2021 to set Washington's state record high?

Hanford hit 120 F on 29 June 2021 during the Pacific Northwest heat dome, a state record; the state low of -48 F was set at Winthrop and Mazama in 1968.

How many counties does Washington have?

Washington has 39 counties, from King (the most populous) to Garfield (the least); they contain 281 incorporated cities and towns.

Which Washington wine region became the state's first federally designated AVA in 1983?

The Yakima Valley AVA, approved in 1983, was Washington's first American Viticultural Area; Walla Walla Valley followed in early 1984 and the broad Columbia Valley later that year.