1.
Washington (state)
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It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State or the State of Washington to distinguish it from Washington, Washington is the 18th largest state with an area of 71,362 square miles, and the 13th most populous state with over 7 million people. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, Mount Rainier, an active stratovolcano, is the states highest elevation at almost 14,411 feet and is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States. Washington is a leading lumber producer and its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. Manufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft and missiles, shipbuilding and other equipment, lumber, food processing, metals and metal products, chemicals. Washington has over 1,000 dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, power, flood control, the Washington Territory was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States. The area was part of a region called the Columbia District after the Columbia River. The area was renamed Washington in order to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia, Washington is the only U. S. state named after a president. To distinguish it from the U. S. capital, which is named for George Washington, Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State, or, in more formal contexts. Washingtonians and other residents of the Pacific Northwest refer to the state simply as Washington, calling the nations capital Washington, D. C. or, often, Washington is the northwestern-most state of the contiguous United States. Washington is bordered by Oregon to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part, to the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean. The high mountains of the Cascade Range run north-south, bisecting the state, from the Cascade Mountains westward, Western Washington has a mostly marine west coast climate, with mild temperatures and wet winters, autumns and springs, and relatively dry summers. The Cascade Range contains several volcanoes, which reach altitudes significantly higher than the rest of the mountains, from the north to the south, these major volcanoes are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in the state, is 50 miles south of the city of Seattle and it is also covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the contiguous 48 states. Western Washington also is home of the Olympic Mountains, far west on the Olympic Peninsula and these deep forests, such as the Hoh Rainforest, are among the only temperate rainforests in the continental United States. Eastern Washington – the part of the state east of the Cascades – has a dry climate. It includes large areas of steppe and a few truly arid deserts lying in the rain shadow of the Cascades. Farther east, the climate becomes less arid, with annual rainfall increasing as one goes east to 21.2 inches in Pullman, the Okanogan Highlands and the rugged Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains cover much of the northeastern quadrant of the state
2.
Oregon
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Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Oregon is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by Washington, on the south by California, on the east by Idaho, the Columbia River delineates much of Oregons northern boundary, and the Snake River delineates much of the eastern boundary. The parallel 42° north delineates the boundary with California and Nevada. Oregon was inhabited by indigenous tribes before Western traders, explorers. An autonomous government was formed in the Oregon Country in 1843 before the Oregon Territory was created in 1848, Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14,1859. Today, at 98,000 square miles, Oregon is the ninth largest and, with a population of 4 million, the capital of Oregon is Salem, the second most populous of its cities, with 164,549 residents. Portland is Oregons most populous city, with 632,309 residents, Portlands metro population of 2,389,228 ranks the 23rd largest metro in the nation. The Willamette Valley in western Oregon is the states most densely populated area, the tall conifers, mainly Douglas fir, along Oregons rainy west coast contrast with the lighter-timbered and fire-prone pine and juniper forests covering portions to the east. Abundant alders in the west fix nitrogen for the conifers, stretching east from central Oregon are semi-arid shrublands, prairies, deserts, steppes, and meadows. At 11,249 feet, Mount Hood is the states highest point, Oregons only national park, Crater Lake National Park, comprises the caldera surrounding Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States. The state is home to the single largest organism in the world, Armillaria ostoyae. Because of its landscapes and waterways, Oregons economy is largely powered by various forms of agriculture, fishing. It is also the top timber-producer of the lower 48 states, Technology is another one of the states major economic forces, which began in the 1970s with the establishment of the Silicon Forest and the expansion of Tektronix and Intel. Sportswear company Nike, Inc. headquartered in Beaverton, is the states largest public corporation with a revenue of $30.6 billion. The earliest evidence of the name Oregon has Spanish origins and this chronicle is the first topographical and linguistic source with respect to the place name Oregon. There are also two other sources with Spanish origins such as the name Oregano which grows in the part of the region. Another early use of the name, spelled Ouragon, was in a 1765 petition by Major Robert Rogers to the Kingdom of Great Britain, the term referred to the then-mythical River of the West. By 1778 the spelling had shifted to Oregon, in his 1765 petition, Rogers wrote, The rout. is from the Great Lakes towards the Head of the Mississippi, and from thence to the River called by the Indians Ouragon
3.
Nez Perce people
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The Nez Perce /ˌnɛzˈpɜːrs/ are an Indigenous people of the Plateau, who live in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, which is on the Columbia River Plateau. They are federally recognized as the Nez Perce Tribe and govern their reservation in Idaho and they are one of five federally recognized tribes in the state. Anthropologists have written that the Nez Percé descend from the Old Cordilleran Culture and this name was given to this tribe and the nearby Chinook people by French explorers and trappers, meaning pierced nose, but only the Chinook used that form of decoration. Their name for themselves is Nimíipuu, meaning, The People, in their language, Nez Percé is an exonym given by French Canadian fur traders who visited the area regularly in the late 18th century, meaning literally pierced nose. English-speaking traders and settlers adopted the name in turn, since the late 20th century, the Nez Perce identify most often as Niimíipu in Sahaptin. The tribe also uses the term Nez Perce, as does the United States Government in its dealings with them. Older historical ethnological works and documents use the French spelling of Nez Percé, the original French pronunciation is, with three syllables. In his journals, William Clark referred to the people as the Chopunnish /ˈtʃoʊpənɪʃ/, Walker in 1998, writing for the Smithsonian, this term is an adaptation of the term cú·pʼnitpeľu. The term is formed from cú·pʼnit and peľu, by contrast, the Nez Perce Language Dictionary has a different analysis than did Walker for the term cúpnitpelu. The prefix cú- means in single file and this prefix, combined with the verb -piní, to come out. Finally, with the suffix of -pelú, meaning people or inhabitants of, together, these three elements, cú- + -piní + pelú = cúpnitpelu, or the People Walking Single File Out of the Forest. Nez Perce oral tradition indicates the name Cuupnitpeluu meant we walked out of the woods or walked out of the mountains, the interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition mistakenly identified this people as the Nez Perce when the team encountered the tribe in 1805. They did not practice nose piercing or wearing ornaments, the tribe known as pierced nose lived on and around the lower Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. They are commonly called the Chinook tribe by historians and anthropologists, the Chinook relied heavily upon salmon as a food staple, as did the Nez Perce. The peoples shared fishing and trading sites, but the Chinook had a different culture and more hierarchical social arrangements. The Nez Perce language, or Niimiipuutímt, is a Sahaptian language related to the dialects of Sahaptin. The Sahaptian sub-family is one of the branches of the Plateau Penutian family, the tribal area extended from the Bitterroots in the east to the Blue Mountains in the west between latitudes 45°N and 47°N. In 1800, the Nez Perce had more than 100 permanent villages, ranging from 50 to 600 individuals, depending on the season, archeologists have identified a total of about 300 related sites including camps and villages, mostly in the Salmon River Canyon
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Snake River
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The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At 1,078 miles long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River and its drainage basin encompasses parts of six U. S. states, and its average discharge is over 54,000 cubic feet per second. Rugged mountains divided by rolling plains characterize the physiographically diverse watershed of the Snake River, the Snake River Plain was created by a volcanic hotspot which now lies underneath Yellowstone National Park, where the headwaters of the Snake River arise. Two of these flooding events significantly affected the river and its surrounds. More than 11,000 years ago, prehistoric Native Americans lived along the Snake, Salmon from the Pacific Ocean spawned by the millions in the river. These fish were central to the lives of the people along the Snake below Shoshone Falls, by the time Lewis and Clark crossed the Rockies and sighted the valley of a Snake tributary, the Nez Perce and Shoshone were the most powerful peoples in the region. Some tribes adopted use of horses after contact with Europeans, which reshaped their hunting, later explorers and fur trappers further changed and used the resources of the Snake River basin. At one point, a sign made by the Shoshones representing fish was misinterpreted to represent a snake. By the middle 19th century, the Oregon Trail, a trail of which a major portion followed the Snake River, had been established by aspiring settlers and traders. Steamboats and railroads moved agricultural products and minerals along the river throughout the 19th, several of these have been proposed for removal in order to restore some of the rivers once-tremendous salmon runs. Its first 50-mile run through the valley of Jackson Hole, which cuts between the Teton Range and the Continental Divide, there it is also met by the Salt River at the mouth of Star Valley. Southwest of the city of Rexburg, the Snake receives from the right the Henrys Fork, the confluence with the Henrys Fork takes the river southwards through downtown Idaho Falls, rounding the Fort Hall Indian Reservation and into American Falls Reservoir, receiving the Portneuf River. Close to Twin Falls, the Snake approaches the southernmost point in its entire course, after which it starts to flow generally northwest. Shortly after it passes within 30 miles of the Idaho state capital of Boise, there were hundreds of rapids in Hells Canyon, some of which have been stilled by the three dams of the Hells Canyon Hydroelectric Project, Hells Canyon, Oxbow, and Brownlee. The Salmon River, the largest tributary of the Snake River, meets it in one of the most remote areas of its entire course, the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers has been submerged in Lake Wallula, the reservoir of McNary Dam. The Columbia River flows about 325 miles further west to the Pacific Ocean, as recently as 165 million years ago, most of western North America was still part of the Pacific Ocean. Even larger lava flows of Columbia River basalts issued over eastern Washington, forming the Columbia Plateau southeast of the Columbia River, separate volcanic activity formed the northwestern portion of the plain, an area far from the path of the hotspot which now lies beneath Yellowstone National Park. At this point, the Snake River watershed was beginning to take shape, the Snake River Plain and the gap between the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range formed a moisture channel, running as far inland as the headwaters of the Snake River
6.
Tucannon River
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The Tucannon River is a tributary of the Snake River in the U. S. state of Washington. It flows generally northwest from headwaters in the Blue Mountains of southeastern Washington to meet the Snake 4 miles upstream from Lyons Ferry Park, the Tucannon is about 62 miles long. Part of the river flows through the Wenaha–Tucannon Wilderness. River flows in the Tucannon basin depend solely on precipitation and groundwater, studies in the early 1990s suggested that these flows would not be able to meet all of the claims, public and private, on the water resources of the lower river. In particular, farm irrigation projects were competing with fisheries for limited water, the Washington Department of Ecology named the Tucannon basin a Watershed Resource Inventory Area and in 1995 began hearings about how to allocate the water. The lower Snake River was home to bands of the Palouse and other Sahaptin-speaking people, including Nez Perce, Yakama, Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Wanapum. The Blue Mountains formed the part of a 17,000, 000-acre region traditional to the aboriginal Nimiipuu people, renamed Nez Perce by Lewis. The horse was central to the lives of both the Palouse and the Nez Perce, the Nez Perce Trail followed part of the Touchet and Tucannon rivers, extending east from Wallula and reaching the Touchet below Waitsburg. From there it followed the bank of the Touchet River to present day Dayton. Here it crossed the river and followed Patit Creek northeast, on October 12,1805, after a difficult passage through Snake River rapids, Lewis and Clark passed through a shorter rapids just east of the mouth of the Tucannon. Lewis wrote, This we called called Kimooenim creek, the expedition did not stop, but continued down the Snake in dugouts. On their return trip to St. Louis on May 2,1806, Lewis and Clark followed the Nez Perce Trail, only 12 miles beyond their campsite they reached the stream. This creek rises in the southwest mountains, and though only twelve yards wide discharges a considerable body of water into Lewis river, N its narrow bottoms are found some cottonwood, willow and the underbrush which grows equally on the east branch of the Wollawollah. Lewis and Clark camped on the Pataha Creek, which is recorded as the first locality for some distance where they were able to find ample firewood, the fur industry was important in the region. The Tucannon River provided an area for beaver and otter trapping. F. A. Shavers 1906 book, An Illustrated History of Southeastern Washington, a party was led by John Work, who served as an agent of the HBC. Starting from Fort Nez Perce in September 1831, Work and a 56-person party followed the Nez Perce Trail to the Upper Snake River country. In the late winter of 1834, Captain Benjamin Bonneville crossed the Tucannon on the Nez Perce Trail, a number of wagon roads were built through the area in the 1860s
7.
Walla Walla River
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The Walla Walla River is a tributary of the Columbia River, joining the Columbia just above Wallula Gap in southeastern Washington in the United States. The river flows through Umatilla County, Oregon, and Walla Walla County and its drainage basin is 1,758 square miles in area. The headwaters of the Walla Walla River lie in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon, the river originates as the North and South Forks of the Walla Walla River. The surrounding forested land holds a network of hiking and mountain-biking trails, the confluence of the North and South Forks lies east of Milton–Freewater, Oregon. The river flows eastward to reach Milton–Freewater, which is built along its banks, irrigation water is drawn from the river here and at numerous locations along the river. The Walla Walla River flows southwest of the city of Walla Walla in the Walla Walla valley, mill Creek, which flows through the city of Walla Walla, joins the Walla Walla River at the Whitman Mission west of the city of Walla Walla. The Touchet River joins the Walla Walla at the town of Touchet, the annual mean discharge of the Walla Walla River just below the Touchet River confluence is 1,212 cu ft/s. The maximum recorded discharge was 20,300 cu ft/s in 1964, the river enters the Columbia a mile south of the town of Wallula just north of Wallula Gap. The section of the Columbia River is called Wallula Lake, the impoundment created by McNary Dam. The Walla Walla tribe occupied the region around the Walla Walla river prior to white settlers entry to the region, British explorer David Thompson was the first European to navigate the entire length of the Columbia River, to the Pacific Ocean, in 1811. Fort Nez Percés was a fur trading post on the Columbia River on the territory of modern-day Wallula. It was in operation from 1818 until 1857 on the shore of the Columbia River. The Oregon Treaty ended joint U. S. A, - British occupation that had been effect since the Treaty of 1818. The fort was abandoned in 1857 when the Hudsons Bay Company gave up its Columbia District business in the Oregon Territory, the Whitman Mission was established in 1836. It lies near the banks of the river to the west of the city of Walla Walla. The Walla Walla River supports populations of spring Chinook salmon, summer steelhead, there is a sport fishery for steelhead in the river. It also holds channel catfish and smallmouth bass in the summer, there have been a wide range of studies on the Walla Walla River and the overall catchment area. Work done by both Oregon and Washington State government, federal and state agencies and local watershed councils
8.
Deschutes River (Oregon)
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The Deschutes River /dəˈʃuːts/ in central Oregon is a major tributary of the Columbia River. The river provides much of the drainage on the side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many of the tributaries that descend from the drier. The Deschutes provided an important route to and from the Columbia for Native Americans for thousands of years, the river flows mostly through rugged and arid country, and its valley provides a cultural heart for central Oregon. Today the river water for irrigation and is popular in the summer for whitewater rafting and fishing. The river flows north, as do several other large Oregon tributaries of the Columbia River, including the Willamette. The headwaters of the Deschutes River are at Little Lava Lake, in central Bend, the river enters Mirror Pond, an impoundment behind Newport hydroelectric dam. The pond extends upstream to the Galveston Bridge and is a feature of Drake Park as well as Harmon, Pageant, and Brooks parks. From April through October, diversions to Central Oregon Irrigation District canals reduce the flow between Bend and Pelton Reregulating Dam, at river mile 100, that is, river kilometer 160). The river continues north from Bend, and just west of Redmond, here it passes by Eagle Crest Resort and Cline Falls State Scenic Viewpoint. As it heads north through the central Oregon high desert, the river carves a gorge bordered by basalt cliffs. By the time it reaches Lake Billy Chinook, a reservoir west of Madras, the river is approximately 300 feet below the surrounding plateau, at Lake Billy Chinook the river is joined by the Crooked and Metolius rivers. Beyond the dam, the continues north in a gorge well below the surrounding countryside. It passes through the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, which includes the city of Warm Springs, the river ends at its confluence with the Columbia River,5 miles southwest of Biggs Junction and 204 miles from the Columbias mouth on the Pacific Ocean. Named tributaries of the Deschutes River from source to mouth include Snow Creek then the Cultus River, Cultus Creek and Deer Creek, further downstream come the Fall River, the Little Deschutes River, and the Spring River followed by Tumalo Creek and Whychus Creek. The Metolius River and the Crooked River are next, both entering at Lake Billy Chinook, then come Seekseequa Creek and Willow Creek followed by Dry Hollow and Campbell, Shitike and Trout creeks, after which comes the Warm Springs River. Further downstream are Swamp, Skookum, Oak, Antoken, Cove, Eagle, Nena, Wapinitia, Spring Creek is next, followed by Oak Springs Creek and the White River. Below that are Winterwater and Elder creeks, prior to 80,000 years ago, the river ran along the east side of Pilot Butte and a lava flow from Lava Top Butte filled in this ancient channel. Previously, the basalt of the Bend lava flow, associated with the Lava River Cave, had diverted the river westward to its present-day location
9.
Celilo Falls
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Celilo Falls was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between the U. S. states of Oregon and Washington. The name refers to a series of cascades and waterfalls on the river, as well as to the native settlements and trading villages that existed there in various configurations for 15,000 years. Celilo was the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent until 1957 and these features were formed by the Columbia Rivers relentless push through basalt narrows on the final leg of its journey to the Pacific Ocean. Frequently more than a mile in width, the river was squeezed here into a width of only 140 feet, the seasonal flow of the Columbia changed the height of the falls over the course of a year. At low water the drop was about 20 feet, in 1839, Modeste Demers investigated the area in some detail and described not just one fall but a great many, in different channels and with different qualities. He wrote, The number and variety are surprising and they are not all equally deep. The falls are from 3 to 12 and 15 feet high, during the spring freshet in June and July, the falls could be completely submerged. The falls were the sixth-largest by volume in the world and were among the largest in North America, average annual flow was about 190,000 ft³/sec, and during periods of high water or flood, as much as 1,240,000 ft³/sec passed over the falls. Celilo Falls itself was the first in a series of cascades and rapids known collectively as The Narrows or The Dalles, over that length, the river dropped 82 feet at high water and 63 feet at low water. Three miles below Celilo Falls was a stretch of rapids known variously as the Short Narrows, Ten Mile Rapids and these rapids were about 1 mile long and 250 feet wide. Ten miles below Celilo Falls was another stretch of rapids, this one known as the Long Narrows, Five Mile Rapids and this stretch of rapids was about 3 miles long, and the river channel narrowed to 75 feet. Immediately downstream were the Dalles Rapids, about 1.5 miles long, here the river dropped 15 feet in a tumult much commented on by early explorers. The Long Narrows and the Dalles Rapids are sometimes grouped together under names such as Grand Dalles, Les Dalles, Big Dalles, one early observer, Ross Cox, noted a three-mile succession of boiling whirlpools. Explorer Charles Wilkes described it as one of the most remarkable places upon the Columbia and he calculated that the river dropped about 50 feet over 2 miles here. During the spring freshet, the rose as much as 62 feet. Fur trader Alexander Ross wrote, rushes with great impetuosity, the foaming surges dash through the rocks with terrific violence, no craft, either large or small, can venture there safely. During floods, this obstruction, or ledge of rocks, is covered with water, for 15,000 years, native peoples gathered at Wyam to fish and exchange goods. They built wooden platforms out over the water and caught salmon with dipnets and long spears on poles as the fish swam up through the rapids and jumped over the falls
10.
Oregon Trail
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The Oregon Trail is a 2, 170-mile historic east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of the state of Kansas. The western half of the trail spanned most of the states of Idaho. The Oregon Trail was laid by fur traders and traders from about 1811 to 1840, by 1836, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho. From the early to mid-1830s the Oregon Trail and its offshoots were used by about 400,000 settlers, farmers, miners, ranchers. The eastern half of the trail was used by travelers on the California Trail, Mormon Trail. Use of the trail declined as the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, making the trip west substantially faster, cheaper, and safer. Today, modern highways, such as Interstate 80 and Interstate 84, follow parts of the same course westward and pass through towns originally established to serve those using the Oregon Trail. Although Lewis and William Clark found a path to the Pacific Ocean, it was not until 1859 that a direct and practicable route, the first land route across what is now the United States was mapped by the Lewis and Clark Expedition between 1804 and 1806. On the return trip in 1806 they traveled from the Columbia River to the Snake River and they then traveled overland up the Blackfoot River and crossed the Continental Divide at Lewis and Clark Pass and on to the head of the Missouri River. This was ultimately a shorter and faster route than the one they followed west and this route had the disadvantages of being much too rough for wagons and controlled by the Blackfoot Indians. They did show the way for the men, who within a decade would find a better way across. Founded by John Jacob Astor as a subsidiary of his American Fur Company in 1810, two movements of PFC employees were planned by Astor, one detachment to be sent to the Columbia River by the Tonquin and the other overland under an expedition led by Wilson Price Hunt. Hunt and his party were to find possible routes and trapping territories for further fur trading posts. Upon arriving at the river in March 1811, the Tonquin crew began construction of what became Fort Astoria, the ship left supplies and men to continue work on the station and ventured north up the coast to Clayoquot Sound for a trading expedition. While anchored there, Jonathan Thorn insulted an elder Tla-o-qui-aht who was elected by the natives to negotiate a mutually satisfactory price for animal pelts. Soon after the vessel was attacked and overwhelmed by the indigenous before being blown up, killing all the crew, from there they went over the Teton Range via Teton Pass and then down to the Snake River into modern Idaho. They abandoned their horses at the Snake River, made dugout canoes, after a few days travel they soon discovered that steep canyons, waterfalls and impassable rapids made travel by river impossible
11.
California Gold Rush
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The California Gold Rush began on January 24,1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States, the Gold Rush initiated the California Genocide, with 100,000 Native Californians dying between 1848 and 1868. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory to the state of the first nominee for the Republican Party. The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial, whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold-seekers, called forty-niners. The first to hear confirmed information of the rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, and Latin America. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, agriculture and ranching expanded throughout the state to meet the needs of the settlers. San Francisco grew from a settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California, in 1849 a state constitution was written. The new constitution was adopted by vote, and the future states interim first governor. In September,1850, California became a state, at the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of staking claims was developed. Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, although the mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service, by 1869 railroads were built across the country from California to the eastern United States. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, Gold worth tens of billions of todays dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with more than they had started with. The Mexican–American War ended on February 3,1848, although California was firmly in American hands before that, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided for, among other things, the formal transfer of Upper California to the United States. The California Gold Rush began at Sutters Mill, near Coloma, on January 24,1848, James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter on the American River. Marshall brought what he found to John Sutter, and the two tested the metal. However, rumors started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher
12.
Walla Walla, Washington
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Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population of the city itself was 31,731 at the 2010 census, the population of Walla Walla and its two suburbs, the town of College Place and unincorporated East Walla Walla, is about 45,000. Walla Walla is in the region of Washington, approximately four and a half hours away by car from Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. Recorded history in this begins with the establishment of Fort Nez Perce in 1818 by the North West Company to trade with the Walla Walla people. At the time, the term Nez Perce was used more broadly than today, Fort Nez Perce had its name shift to Fort Walla Walla. It was located significantly west of the present city, on September 1,1836, Marcus Whitman arrived with his wife Narcissa Whitman. Here they established the Whitman Mission in an attempt to convert the local Walla Walla tribe to Christianity. Following a disease epidemic, both were killed by the Cayuse who believed that the missionaries were poisoning the native peoples, Whitman College was established in their honor. The original North West Company and later Hudsons Bay Company Fort Nez Percés fur trading outpost, the fort has been restored with many of the original buildings preserved. The current Fort Walla Walla contains these buildings, albeit in a different location from the original, the origins of Walla Walla at its present site begin with the establishment of Fort Walla Walla by the United States Army here in 1856. The Walla Walla River, where it adjoins the Columbia River, was the point for the Mullan Road. John Mullan, connecting the head of navigation on the Columbia at Walla Walla with the head of navigation on the Missouri-Mississippi at Fort Benton, Walla Walla was incorporated on January 11,1862. As a result of a rush in Idaho, during this decade the city became the largest community in the territory of Washington. Following this period of growth, agriculture became the citys primary industry. In 1846, the Catholic Church established the Diocese of Walla Walla, in 1850, the see of Walla Walla was abandoned and its territory assigned to the new Diocese of Nesqually, with Blanchet as its bishop and its episcopal see in Vancouver. Walla Walla is a Native American name that means Place of Many Waters, the original name of the town was Steptoeville named after Colonel Edward Steptoe. In 1855 the name was changed to Waiilatpu, and then by 1859 had been changed again, Walla Walla is located at 46°3′54″N 118°19′49″W. Walla Walla is also located in the Walla Walla Valley, with the rolling Palouse hills, various creeks meander through town before combining to become the Walla Walla River, which drains into the Columbia River about 30 miles west of town
