The Nifty Fifty: Washington

Washington is a state in the western region of the United States with the abbreviation of WA. Washington became the 42nd state on November 11, 1889, making the state 136 years old, as of November, 2025. When a bill was introduced to organize a new territory on the Pacific coast, it was proposed that it should be named the Territory of Columbia, but to avoid confusion due to the existence of the District of Columbia, it was named the Territory of Washington, which later became the State of Washington. Washington remains the only state to be named after an American.

Washington is the 18th largest state and the 13th most populous; the capital of Washington is Olympia and its demonym is Washingtonian. Washington is bordered by the states of Idaho and Oregon; the Pacific Ocean; and the Canadian province of British Columbia.

The motto of Washington is Al-ki, which is a Chinook word meaning By and By.

The nickname of Washington is the Evergreen State, which was given to the state in reference to its abundant evergreen forests.

The landscape of Washington ranges from temperate rainforests, to volcanic mountains and dry plateaus, to the Pacific coast.

Washington is known for its natural beauty, its towering mountains, the Space Needle in Seattle, and for producing more apples than any other state. The land of Washington also contains metals such as lead, zinc, copper, mercury, silver, gold, and uranium.

On July 8th, 1922, Joe Eugene Mann was born near Reardan, Washington. In August, 1942, Mann joined the army in Seattle. Mann wanted to be a pilot in the Army Air Corps, but he was disqualified due to a clavicular injury he sustained as a child, therefore, he joined the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR). Just before he would have jumped during D-Day, Mann had suffered a hernia, which prevented him from participating in the battle. Once Mann recovered, he was assigned to Company H, 3rd Battalion, of the 502nd PIR. On September 17th, 1944, Mann jumped into Holland during Operation Market Garden. On September 18th, Mann was in the city of Best, Netherlands, where he single-handedly destroyed an enemy emplacement and then he fired on the remaining enemy until he was wounded. That night, Mann insisted to serve guard duty, despite being wounded. On the morning of September 19th, the enemy launched an attack; at one point during the attack, an enemy soldier threw a hand grenade near Mann and his fellow soldiers, at which point Mann chose to dive onto the grenade and absorb the blast, laying down his life to save the men around him. One year later, Mann was posthumously awarded with the highest US military award, the Medal of Honor.

Though many types of packs have been invented for carrying things throughout the years, the first mass-produced external frame backpack was invented by Lloyd E. Nelson in Washington State in the year 1922. Shortly after its invention, this backpack, known as the Trapper Nelson Backpack, was used by the US Forest Service firefighters, the Department of the Interior and US Geological Survey teams, and US soldiers.

From 1855 to 1856, the Puget Sound War occurred in Washington Territory. The war began when Indian warriors killed some militiamen and several settlers in late 1855. Several small skirmishes ensued and thousands of Indians were captured. The war ended in early 1856 when 110 troops of the Washington Territorial Volunteers ambushed 150 Indian warriors, and after several hours of fighting and several charges by the volunteers, the warriors were forced to retreat east over the Cascade Mountains. The war ended in an American victory and was part of the Yakima War.

An interesting fact about Washington is that one of the state’s wettest regions is on the same peninsula on which one of the state’s driest regions is. The Olympic Peninsula not only has the city of Sequim, which receives about 15 inches of rain per year, but also the Hoh Rainforest, which receives over 140 inches of rain per year.

A strange fact about Washington is that, while the state is known for being a northern state that receives lots of rain, the state does have a desert! This desert, known as the Channeled Scablands, exists because the Cascade mountains to the west block the moist air from the Pacific Ocean, creating a semi-arid region that receives less than 10 inches of rain per year.

What fact about Washington most interests you?