Title: Washington — History and Culture
Headings: Washington — History and Culture
Washington — History and Culture
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History
Culture

Content: The Oregon Trail opened up the state to settlers in the mid-19th century. Initial settlement was in the eastern part of Washington, around the Walla Walla Valley. Forts like Fort Nez Perces were built in 1841 to help the fur trade. Fort Nisqually was the first settlement in the Seattle area in 1833. Gradually, timber replaced fur and the ports along Puget Sound boomed, while on the other side of the Cascades, agriculture prospered in the Yakima River Valley. In 1889, Washington became the 42nd state in the Union. The 1900s saw the arrival of industrial manufacturing to the Seattle-Tacoma area. A thriving shipbuilding industry emerged here, and Seattle became the main port of commerce for trade with Alaska. WWI and WWII brought even heavier manufacturing to Puget Sound, and the emergence of Boeing as a major aircraft producer. Soldiers departed for the Pacific battlefields of WWII and Boeing produced many of the US bombers.