Established in 1853, Washington remained a Territory until admitted into the Union thirty-six years later in 1889. Few other territories in the American West languished longer in dependent status. Because of a dividing geographical barrier (the Cases Range) and the lack of an adequate internal transportation system, Washington Territory made little practical sense as social and economic entity. Western Washington actually was a satellite of San Francisco...

Rufus Woods, for more than forty years the publisher of the Wenatchee Daily World, has often been called the "High Priest of the Columbia River". No person deserves the title more. From the editorial platform of the World, Woods tirelessly promoted Wenatchee and north central Washington. For decades he pegged his brightest hopes for the region's future on a huge Columbia River dam in the isolated Grand Coulee region. From 1918 through Grand Coulee's...

Responding to reports of gold discoveries on the Fraser River, thousands of prospectors from California and other points on the Pacific coast crossed the 49th parallel to British territory in 1858. Most returned to San Francisco and Puget Sound later in the same year, blaming their failure to find wealth in the river canyons on uncooperative Hudson's Bay Company officials and the English government. Viewing events from the perspective of California,...