Washington State: The Inaugural Decade, 1889-1899

“Residents of Washington, regardless of whether they lived east or west of the Cascades, agreed upon a fundamental point. Their recently-admitted state was, in every possible way, superior to southern California.”--Robert E. Ficken, in Washington State

In the sequel to his popular Washington Territory, Robert E. Ficken, ably and with characteristic wry humor, describes Washington State’s turbulent first decade. With a new railroad system, vast natural resources, an irrigation boom, astounding population growth, and strong foreign capitalist investment, the future looked rosy in 1889. Yet those early years were also marked by inept and corrupt legislation, labor disputes, unbridled criminal activity, strained municipal budgets, and tidelands controversy.

Then came America’s 1893 economic collapse. Bank clearings plummeted, daily newspapers were reduced to four pages, the lumber industry crashed, money disappeared, and unemployment was rampant. Suffering Washingtonians clamored for public works projects to create jobs. They took their opinions to the polls, electing a Populist governor and majority in both the house and senate. Other contentious political issues included railway regulation and unlimited silver coinage.

Finally, after four long years of decline, signs of economic life returned. Newly-elected government officials’ fiscally responsible decisions led to renewed outside investment. The Klondike gold rush brought an influx of wealth, and east of the Cascades, the largest crop to date was marketed at prices not seen since the pre-panic years.

In 1900, Washington’s official population was 517,672--a 48 percent increase over 1890. Furthermore, America’s economic orientation was shifting from Europe to Asia. At the turn of the century, possessing an ideal geographic location, the Evergreen State stood poised to take full advantage of new trade opportunities, once again heralding a rosy future.

Robert E. Ficken is the author of Washington: A Centennial History (with Charles LeWarne), The Forested Land: A History of Lumbering in Western Washington, and Lumber and Politics: The Career of Mark E. Reed. He has won the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Award from the Forest History Society and the Charles M. Gates Memorial Award and the Robert Gray Medal from the Washington State Historical Society, as well as the Pacific Northwest History Award from the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild.