Title: Washington State
Headings: Washington State
Washington State
Content: More serious problems developed in a short war against the Yakima (1855-58) and later with the Nez Percé (1877). The early statehood period Tremendous growth occurred in the Washington Territory during the 1880s. The signal event was the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad to the Puget Sound area in 1883; two other transcontinental lines would follow in later years. Much of the labor for those ventures was supplied by imported labor, particularly Chinese. Relations between the races were often troubled and race riots occurred in Seattle, Tacoma and smaller communities. Washington entered the Union as the 42nd state on November 11, 1889. Elisha P. Ferry, a former territorial official, became the first state governor. That year witnessed major fires in Seattle and Spokane, both of which rebuilt their cores with brick and stone structures. Seattle in particular profited greatly by the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1897.