Archives

W

Image

On the evening of February 8, 1886, General John Gibbon presented the "Tribute of Merit" award to the University Cadets of Seattle in Washington Territory. The Cadets were part of the militia (including Company D of the Seattle Rifles and the city’s Home Guard) who kept the peace on the night before when rioters rose up against the Seattle Chinese. Historylink: Mobs forcibly expel most of Seattle's Chinese residents beginning on February 7, 1886. Anti-Chinese riots at Seattte [sic], Wn., February 8th, 1886 [electronic resource] / by Geo. Kinnear. at the Washington State Library

When you look at maps of Washington nowadays, you see a state that is fully developed, with lines of highways and railroads snaking here and there, and cities and town dotting so much of the state. That wasn’t the case in 1857, when Washington was only in its fourth year as a territory and 32 years before statehood. Simply put, there was a lot of wide-open space between the Columbia River and the Canadian border. Curious to know how cartographers viewed Washington in 1857? Look no further than this 1857 map http://1.usa.gov/1AM8edI of the western part of the fledgling territory.