Washington's History : The People, Land, and Events of the Far Northwest

by Ritter, Harry

• ISBN13: 9781558686410
• ISBN10: 155868641X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Ingram Pub Services

Summary

An anything-but-dry history textbook in a pocket-sized package, WASHINGTON'S HISTORY is a fascinating walk through the lengthy story of a place and its people. Historian Harry Ritter introduces the Native American peoples who lived in the region's coastal rainforests and inland plateau, the European and U.S. seafarers who explored and mapped the complicated shores and islands, and the leaders involved in conflicts over boundaries, resources, and religion. There's the story of The Pig War, which began with an assassinated pig in 1859 and escalated into an international skirmish. Read about the construction of the massive Grand Coulee Dam in 1933, and the creation and aftermath of Hanford, and the hopefulness surrounding the World's Fair. And then there's the land itself: vast, stirring in its stark beauty, and fearsome when natural disaster strikes, as it has in every century. Ritter offers fifty-two lively vignettes illustrated with rare archival photographs that together comprise a picture of life in the Far Northwest. Learn about the Natives, explorers, traders, missionaries, loggers, farmers, inventors, and politicians. From Chief Seattle to Dr. John McLoughlin, William E. Boeing, Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson, and Bill Gates, these are the people at the epicenter of events that shaped the Evergreen State.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	9	(10)
Map of Washington	10	(2)
Prologue: The Northwest of the Imagination	12	(6)
Futures Past	14	(2)
Beginnings	16	(2)
Native Cultures	18	(8)
Indians of the Plateau	20	(2)
Indians of the Coast	22	(2)
European Contact and Its Impact	24	(2)
Maritime and Overland Exploration of the Northwest	26	(10)
Spanish and Russian Incursions	28	(2)
In the Golden Hind's Wake	30	(2)
From Nootka to Puget Sound	32	(2)
Lewis and Clark	34	(2)
Fur Traders, Pathfinders, and Missionaries	36	(16)
The Maritime Fur Trade	38	(2)
The Nor'Westers and Spokane House	40	(2)
The Hudson's Bay Company	42	(2)
The Astorians	44	(2)
Heralds of Manifest Destiny	46	(2)
Errand into the Wilderness	48	(2)
The Black Robes	50	(2)
Pioneer Settlement	52	(12)
Imperial Tug-of-War	54	(2)
From the Oregon Trail to Elliott Bay	56	(2)
The Birth of Washington Territory	58	(2)
Henry Smith, Governor Stevens, and Chief Seattle	60	(2)
Black Pioneers	62	(2)
From Big Trees to Big Sky: The Early Days of Washington Territory	64	(12)
The Pig War	66	(2)
The Mining Frontier	68	(2)
The Steamboat Era	70	(2)
Chinese Pioneers	72	(2)
The Mosquito Fleet	74	(2)
The Iron Horse and the Vision of Economic Empire	76	(22)
Empire Builders	78	(2)
Great Expectations	80	(2)
Eventful 1889	82	(2)
Fisheries and Canneries	84	(2)
The Timber Harvest	86	(2)
The Good Earth	88	(2)
Of Fire and Forests	90	(2)
Mountaineering on the Pacific	92	(2)
North to Alaska!	94	(2)
Sense and Sensibility	96	(2)
The Twentieth Century and Beyond	98	(34)
The Workman's Frontier	100	(2)
Boeing and the Aviation Revolution	102	(2)
The Washington State Ferries	104	(2)
Mixed Blessing: Taming the Columbia	106	(2)
A Desert Transformed	108	(2)
World War II: The State in a Crucible	110	(2)
The Japanese Internment	112	(2)
The Story of Hanford	114	(2)
Go East, Young Man!	116	(2)
Not So Benign Nature	118	(2)
Scoop and Maggie	120	(2)
The Boldt Decision	122	(2)
WPPSS!	124	(2)
Of Owls and Old-growth Forests	126	(2)
The Gates of Microsoft	128	(2)
Toward the Future	130	(2)
Related Reading	132	(3)
Index	135	(7)
Photo Credits	142	(2)
About the Author	144