From January 1 through February 16, 2014, I asked a simple question each day on Twitter and on the website. True Washingtonians should already know the answers, and those who want to learn more about the state they call home can try their best and see just how Washingtonthey are! Good luck…you’ll learn something new. I guarantee it!
1. What southwest Washington city, platted in 1875, was originally known as ''Timmen's Landing'' after the claim of John H. Timmen?
Answer: La Center - Originally a river port known as Timmen's Landing, the town was platted in 1875 on the claim of John H. Timmen. Its position as a focal point of both river and wagon-road traffic led to its present name as its developers saw it as ''the center'' of commerce for the area.
2. What town, originally named ''Woodland,'' was renamed by a real estate developer with few scruples?
Answer: Lacey - Originally known as Woodland after Isaac Wood, who settled the area in 1852, the community boasted two large sawmills, a resort hotel, the region's biggest horse-racing track, and a 10-by-12 foot log schoolhouse in the 1890's. Believing the prestige of a post office would stimulate further growth, Wood submitted a petition through his attorney, O.C. Lacey of Olympia. Postal officials rejected the railroad station name of Woodland as duplicating a town name in Cowlitz County, so Lacey - who doubled as a real estate developer and who had land interests in the area - substituted his own name on the application to expedite matters. Incorporated in 1966, the city is also the site of St. Martin's University.
3. Which Washington city's name translates to ''the large one'' in French?
Answer: La Grande - Originally, French-Canadians of the Hudson's Bay Company titled the 700-foot deep Nisqually River Canyon as ''La Grande,'' meaning ''the large one.'' Later - as part of a land development promotion - Judge John McMurray (who owned a large tract that included a portion of the canyon) placed a sign along the roadway in 1904 that read ''Watch the Grand Canyon Grow!'' Thus, the townsite became officially known as La Grande, and the same name was assigned to the hydroelectric plant opened at the site by the city of Tacoma in 1912.
4. What town, steeped in gruesome #WAhistory, was renamed by the Legislature in 1875?
Answer: Latah - The community was first settled in 1850 as Alpha, but the name was changed in 1875 to coincide with that of nearby Latah Creek. The stream was originally called Hangman Creek because in 1858, Col. George Wright killed nearly 800 horses and several Indians along its banks in retaliation for the Palouse warriors' defeat of Lt. Col. Edward J. Steptoe. The gruesome named was changed by the Legislature to Latah Creek, an adaptation of the Indian name Lahtoo that described ''the stream where little fish are caught.''
5. Which town shares a name with one in Kansas, both of which founded by members of the same family?
Answer: Leavenworth - The original community of Icle became a Great Northern Railroad construction camp. Platted in 1893 by the railroad's captain, Charles F. Leavenworth - nephew of the founder of Leavenworth, KS - the Washington town also adopted the family's name.
6. What bay was originally named after a dogfish oil rendering plant on its shores?
Answer: Liberty Bay - Despite the pleas of Poulsbo residents, the state Legislature in 1893 and again in 1899 humorously refused to change the official title of Dog Fish Bay to the more euphonic Liberty Bay, so the present name was eventually adopted through general usage. The original name was a location tie-in to the bay shore plant that Harry Drescott operated around 1860 to render the dogfish oil used to grease the logs that made up lumber camp skid roads.
7. Who led the first wagon train to cross the Cascades from Walla Walla to the Puget Sound area (via Naches Pass) in 1853 and now has a town named after him?
Answer: Longmire - The Pierce County location for the administrative headquarters of Mt. Rainier National Park was named for James Longmire, who established an inn by the ''medical springs'' in 1883. Longmire was the leader of the first wagon train to cross the Cascade Mountains from Walla Walla to Puget Sound country via Naches Pass in 1853.
8. What southwest Washington city was first named after Thomas Jefferson's estate before being wiped out by floods in 1866 and 1867?
Answer: Longview - The first planned city in the Pacific Northwest, it is named for its founder R.A. Long, lumber baron, who founded the mill city in 1923. Because of its strategic location on a delta between the Cowlitz and Columbia rivers, it was the site of a Hudson's Bay Company hide and fur warehouse in 1846. In 1849 two Americans, John Durbee and H.D. Huntington, established claims. In 1852 the resultant community - called Monticello - was host to a pioneer meeting called the Monticello Convention, which asked that the U.S. Congress create the territory of Columbia out of the Oregon Territory area north of the Columbia River. On 10 February, 1853, a bill to establish the Columbia Territory was amended to substitute the name of the first president in place of Columbia. On March 2, 1853, President Millard Fillmore signed the bill creating the Washington Territory. In 1854, the new territorial legislature formed Cowlitz County with Monticello as its seat. Floods in 1866-67 washed the town away, and the delta was reclaimed by swamps.
9. What Washington town translates in French to ''wolf wolf?''
Answer: Loup Loup - The old mining town, which for years was named ''Loop Loop,'' got its name for the French word ''loup,'' meaning ''wolf.'' Since Hudson's Bay trappers found the area abundant with furs, it was given a double moniker to accentuate that fact. In current usage, the name has reverted to the original French spelling.
10. Which northwest Washington town was named in 1870 after the first white female settler's favorite Thomas Campbell poem?
Answer: Lynden - Mrs. Phoebe N. Judson, the first white woman in the northern portion of the county, named the town in 1870 after her favorite poem, ''Hohenlinden'' by Thomas Campbell. The first verse begins, ''On Linden, when the sun was low...'' and Mrs. Judson substituted the ''i'' with a ''y'' because she believed that it would then look as pretty as it sounded.
11. Who turned an old Catholic mission into a salmon packing plant in 1853 and got a town named after him?
Answer: McGowan - The Pacific County town was named for Patrick J. McGowan who purchased 320 acres of an old Catholic mission in 1853 and established a salmon-packing plant at the location. Prior to that, the area was once the site of the principal village of the Chinook Indians on the Columbia River.
12. Which of Washington's 32 towns named by H.R. Williams could he himself not remember what it was named for?
Answer: Marcellus - A railroad official who took his name-bestowing duties seriously, H.R. Wiliams was the vice president of the Milwaukee line. He established a set of rules to ensure the suitability of a name before it was officially approved: one which was reasonably short, easily spelled, pleasant-sounding, and which - when called, written or telegraphed - would not be easily confused with another name in the vicinity or on the company's trackage. Judiciously exercising his criteria, Williams named 32 stations in Washington. Among them were Horlick after the malted drink, Warden to honor a company stockholder, Ralston after the health food, Revere for the patriot equestrian, Whittier for the poet, Pandora for the infamous box, and Beverly, Boylston and Malden for towns in Massachusetts. A few short years after bestowing the name of Marcellus (in Adams County), Williams advised Professor Edmond S. Meany of the University of Washington that he named it ''after some person in the east. I cannot now recall who it was.''
13. What Okanogan County town does not translate to ''mountain goat'' in Greek even though its founders thought it did?
Answer: Mazama - Looking for a euphemism for the original name of Goat Creek (a stream flowing through the community from nearby Goat Mountain), the residents chose what they thought was the Greek synonym. The definition was right, but their language was wrong. The word ''mazama'' is Spanish for ''mountain goat.''
14. This Washington city is named after the place in the Middle East where Mohammed is buried.
Answer: Medina - The Seattle suburban community on the eastern shore of Lake Washington was named in 1892 by Mrs. S. A. Belote for the Arabian holy city of Medina, where Mohammed is buried.
15. Which ''dead'' island on the Columbia River contains 13 native burial huts and the grave of one white man?
Answer: Memaloos Island - This Columbia River island used by the Klickitat Indians as a cemetery was originally called Sepulchre Island by Lewis and Clark, who found 13 native burial huts on it. A monument on the small island today marks the grave of Vic Trevett, a pioneer river man who must have had favorable relations with the Klickitats requested internment there. The Indian word ''memaloose'' means ''dead.''
16. Who named Lake Union and Lake Washington, and has an island named after him?
Answer: Thomas Mercer - The island and, hence, the community thereon were named for Judge Thomas Mercer, captain of a wagon train that arrived in Seattle in 1853, and the man who named Lake Washington and Lake Union. The judge was the elder brother of Asa Shinn Mercer, first president of the University of Washington, who brought the Mercer Girls contingent of husband-seekers to Seattle from the east coast.
17. This city and lake weren't named for an Old Testament figure as many young Washingtonians believe.
Answer: Moses Lake - The lake was named for Chief Moses, whose tribe camped on the lake shore. The settlement of Neppel was renamed Moseslake upon establishment of a post office in 1906 and subsequently altered to its present form to coincide with the lake name. The nearby Moses Coulee, carved out by an Ice Age glacier, was also named for Chief Moses, whose band wintered at the bottom of the cliff-sided valley near Douglas Canyon.
18. What Skamania County town went through six name changes in its 163-year history?
Answer: North Bonneville - The area post office was established in 1851 and repeatedly changed names - from Hamilton to Moffett Springs to Table Rock to Wacomac (after a local Indian chief) to Moffett's - with its changing postmasters. The dwindling community, which enjoyed resurgence with the construction of the Bonneville Dam, changed its name to capitalize on its location at the northern side of the dam.
19. What Lewis County summer resort community's name translates as, ''Oh, look?''
Answer: Ohanapecosh Hot Springs - The Lewis County resort community and nearby river bear as their names an Indian term that literally translates as, ''Oh, look!'' as in looking at something beautiful.
20. What county (and subsequent seat) was created by the territorial legislature in 1888?
Answer: Okanogan County (county seat: Okanogan) Named for an Indian tribe, the county was organized by the territorial legislature on February 2, 1888 The name is derived from the Indian word ''okanagen,'' meaning ''rendezvous,'' and was applied originally to the rivers head at Osoyoos Lake where Canadian and United States Indian gathered annually to catch and cure fish, to trade and to hold potlatches. The name was gradually applied to the river and to the tribe that lived along its banks. Interestingly enough, the county seat was established in 1888 as Alma, but because of the proliferation of that name in the U.S. Postal Guide, city officials - in quest for something uncommon and distinctive - christened it Pogue for Dr. J.T. Pogue, orchardist and former state senator. Residents found the name too...different, and in 1907 it was given the present title.
21. What Grecian-inspired city name was originally dubbed ''Smithter?''
Answer: Olympia - To the Indians it was ''Stitichas,'' meaning ''bear's place.'' In 1846, the whites combined the surnames of its first two settlers - Edmund Sylvester and L.L. Smith - and called it ''Smithter.'' That eventually gave way to the more conventional ''Smithfield.'' The seat of Thurston County and the capital of the state was renamed for the Olympia Mountains at the suggestion of United States customs collector Isaac N. Ebey (of Fort Ebey, Ebey's Landing and Ebey Slough fame) who had, as a book in his library, Olympia Fulvia Morata' s Critical Observations on Homer.
22. What happened to Col. Isaac N. Ebey, one of the great pioneer settlers in Washington?
Answer: Shot and Decapitated - Fort Ebey, the state park near Point Partridge, midway on the west shore of Whidbey Island, Ebey's Prairie, site of the man's donation homestead, and Ebey Slough, a tidal stream that drains into the Snohomish River north of Everett, commemorate one of the great early pioneers, Colonel Isaac Ebey. A man of culture and education, he named Olympia, served as government customs collector, first settled the Coupeville area, and in 1850 founded Ebey's Landing, a once-thriving stop for Puget Sound commerce opposite Port Townsend. However, rather than his personal contributions to the territory's development, he is perhaps most remembered for his tragic death. On the night of August 11, 1857, Haida Indians from British Columbia, seeking face-saving revenge for earlier defeat by the cannons of the U.S.S. Massachusetts, raided Whidbey Island. They pre-selected Ebey as their victim, awakened him at his farmhouse, shot and decapitated him, and fled back to the Queen Charlotte Islands with his head. Several years later, the grisly trophy was recovered by the Hudson's Bay Company and returned for burial with his body.
23. Which Washington city was so-named because of the area's German-speaking Russian wheat farmers?
Answer: Odessa - George Finney first settled on the site of Odessa in 1886. He platted Odessa in the summer of 1899 after the Great Northern Railway had built its line through the valley in 1892. The railroad siding was named Odessa Siding by railroad surveyors after Ukrainian city Odessa, then in southern Russia, because of the German-speaking Russian wheat farmers in the area. The post office was established in June 1898. The first store was opened in 1898 by J.B. Ziegler and W.N. Schoonover. After the train depot was built in 1900, the town grew rapidly. By 1904 the town had grown from 30 to 800 people. Odessa was officially incorporated on September 25, 1902.
24. Which Washington city is the ''heart and soul'' of Stevens County?
Answer: Tumtum - A Chinook Jargon term meaning ''heart and soul,'' Tumtum is an unincorporated community in Stevens County, Washington, United States. Tumtum is located along the Long Lake and Washington State Route 291, 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Spokane. Tumtum has a post office with the ZIP code 99034.
25. What town is purportedly named after the leader of the people of the lost city of Atlantis?
Answer: Orando - Named by the first settler to the area of Douglas County, Dr. J. B. Smith, in response to the postal rule to select an unduplicated name for a new post office. Orando was chief of the legendary people who operated copper mines in the Lake Superior region in pre-Indian times. Purportedly the mythical miners were emigrants from the lost city of Atlantis who escaped just prior to its sinking.
26. Which town is often spelled two different ways, spawning arguments over which is correct?
Answer: Oyhut - Often misspelled ''Oyehut'' (see what I just did there?) on maps and road signs, the name stems from the Chinook jargon word ''ooahut,'' meaning ''trail'' or ''passage to.'' Which spelling looks correct to you? Answer in the comments below!
27. This area of WA is not known for its furs (though named by fur traders) save maybe for cougar.
Answer: Palouse - The Whitman County city, river, falls, and large general area of wheat country in the southeastern part of the state all bear the name of an Indian tribe that inhabited the region. Scholars speculate that the original Indian name for the tribe - ''Palus,'' ''Palloatpallah'' or ''Palusha'' - was converted by the French-Canadian voyageurs of the fur companies to the more familiar French word ''pelouse,'' meaning ''ground covered with short, thick grass.'' The result of the transliteration was ''palouse,'' a term that aptly fit the countryside.
28. Which Washington city was named after a lofty mining town in Peru?
Answer: Pasco - The Franklin County seat received its name from railroad surveyors who, suffering from the flatland heat (hence the more vulgar term, ''dry-you-know-whatties''), named it in contrast after Cerro de Pasco, a mining town in the cool atmosphere of a 15,000-foot high mountain in Peru.
29. Originally named FOR a lieutenant in the Spanish-American war, it was later renamed BY that same lieutenant.
Answer: Pateros - Initially known as Nosler's Hotel, the Okanogan County town was established as Nera on December 7, 1895, then changed to Ives Landing four months later. Renamed in 1900 by former Army lieutenant Charles E. Nosler for a town of the same name in the Philippine Islands near which he had campaigned during the Spanish-American War.
30. Which Washington town's name is actually a mispronunciation of a Frenchman's name?
Answer: Pe Ell - The Lewis County town was platted in the 1880s by Oman Mauermann on his homestead on the Pe Ell prairie. The prairie's name was adopted as the town's name in the belief that it was an Indian word, but subsequent research disclosed that it was merely the natives' mispronunciation of the French name Pierre. French-Canadian Pierre Charles, a former Hudson's Bay Co. employee, had pastured horses in the region in the 1850s, and the local Indians named the prairie after him.Their usual slurring of the letter ''R'' to an ''L'' sound resulted in Pierre becoming Pe Ell.
31. This county is named after an Indian tribe who wore decorative earrings.
Answer: Pend Oreille - The 1,406-square mile county with the seat of Newport is the youngest of the state's 39 counties. Created by the Legislature on March 1, 1911, it was given the tribal name of Indians who originally inhabited the area along the northern portion of the Washington-Idaho border. Because they wore shell ornaments in their ears, the natives were called ''ear bobs'' by early French fur traders who used a colloquial version of the French term ''pendant d'oreille'' (or ''pendants of the ear'').
32. Name the Washington city that was personally laid out in 1862 by Abraham Lincoln?
Answer: Port Angeles - In 1791, Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza named the harbor Porto de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles, or ''Port of Our Lady of the Angels.'' The following year Spanish captains Galiano and Valdes shortened the name to ''Porto de los Angeles'' and later explorer George Vancouver cut it down to its present form. The seat of Clallam County was a federal city - similar to Washington D.C. - laid out in 1862 by executive order of President Lincoln as the site of a government lighthouse and military reservation.
33. This should be a no-brainer if you live here...how did Puget Sound get its name?
Answer: A lieutenant with the Vancouver expedition - Called ''Whulge'' by the Indians, the sound bears the name of Peter Puget, a second lieutenant in Vancouver's expedition. From May 19-29, 1792, while Vancouver's sloop, Discovery, lay at anchor off Restoration Point on Bainbridge Island, Capt. Vancouver and Lt. Joseph Baker in the ship's yawl traveled the passage west of Vashon Island. During the same 10-day period, the launch and cutter under the command of Lt. Peter Puget sailed south along the main channel. Vancouver's log reads as follows: ''Thus by our joint efforts, we have completely explored every turning of this extensive inlet; and to commemorate Mr. Puget's exertions, the southern extremity of it I named Puget's Sound.'' The captain's charts show the name applied to the area south of the Tacoma Narrows, but in time common usage and legal decisions resulted in extension of the name (sans apostrophe) to the whole inland sea.
34. Which town was originally named ''Franklin'' by Oregon Trail pioneer and WA folk hero Ezra Meeker?
Answer: Puyallup - Founded by Oregon Trail pioneer Ezra Meeker in 1877, the town was renamed to avoid confusion caused by the national proliferation of the original name of Franklin. The town took the name of the river valley in which it lies, ''as we agreed there would never be but one Puyallup.'' The name Puyallup was that of the local Indian tribe and was composed of two words - ''pough,'' meaning ''generous,'' and ''allup,'' meaning ''people'' - as they were known to be fair and honest in their trading with other Indians.
35. Which town in Grant Co. was allegedly named by the child daughter of railroad magnate James J. Hill?
Answer: Quincy - While no factual explanation exists as to the name's source, the community generally believes that it was named by the daughter of railroad magnate James J. Hill. Supposedly, when the pair stepped off the train during a brief water stop and found that the stop had no name, Hill suggested that the girl christen it. She chose the present name after a city in the east, but which one is unknown. Approximately 15 states have communities named Quincy. The first was named in Maine in 1792 for Col. John Quincy, while others adopted the name as an honor to President John Quincy Adams.
36. Who had a well dug near a townsite-to-be to prove that water was available in the area?
Answer: Reardan - Once called Capp's Place, the town was given its present name to honor a civil engineer of the Central Washington Railway. He arranged for a station at the townsite-to-be when settlers dug a well to prove that water was available.
37. Which Washington city is named after an amusement park-themed city in California?
Answer: Redondo - It was originally called Stone's Landing and subsequently Stones after S.P. Stone, who settled there in 1872. When Stones converted itself into Puget Sound's amusement center in 1904, the name was changed to capitalize on the reputation of California's amusement park town of Redondo Beach.
38. Which city, home to some of our bravest veterans, is a former governor's name spelled backward?
Answer: Retsil - The Kitsap County site of the Washington veteran's home near Port Orchard was named by spelling the surname of then-Governor Ernest Lister (1913-1917) backward. Can you imagine a town named for our current governor spelled backward? ''Ah, beautiful Eelsni...'' Or how about the previous governor? ''It's a lovely day here in Eriogerg.'' At least if the Republican had won, there's already a Washington town named McKenna (just sayin').
39. What city incorporated in 1908, disincorporated in 1946, & reincorporated on it's 50th anniversary?
Answer: Richland - Called ''Chemna'' by the Indians and ''Benton Post Office'' by the early settlers, the town was given its present name in 1905 to honor Nelson Rich of Prosser, who helped locate the township and who was a partner in land holdings and an irrigation company in the area. Rich, a state legislator, introduced the bill that created Benton County out of the eastern portions of Yakima and Klickitat Counties. Conversion from farm community to government town to a full-fledged city resulted from the creation of the adjacent Hanford plutonium project by the Atomic Energy Commission during World War II. The city was originally incorporated in 1908, disincorporated by the AEC in 1946, and reincorporated as a first-class city 1958.
40. This city's harbor has a lavish estate built by masons that once entertained Pres. Roosevelt.
Answer: Roche Harbor - The San Juan County resort town on the harbor of the same name at the northwestern extremity of San Juan Island was named in 1858 in honor of Richard Roche, who served in San Juan waters under British Captain James C. Prevost in 1857-60. It was the site of a Hudson's Bay Co. trading post established in 1850. From 1886 to 1940 it was the home base of the Roche Harbor Lime and Cement Company, the largest lime producer west of the Mississippi. The community that grew up around the lime works was a company town owned by John S. McMillan. The former Tacoma attorney entertained the elite, including President Theodore Roosevelt, at his lavish Afterglow Manor estate. The senior McMillan and his sons were ardent Masons and built a seven-pillared edifice commemorating the fraternal order's concepts of family unity, that also serves as their family's mausoleum.
41. What town was first called ''Muck'' before it was changed to an even shorter (& less descriptive) name?
Answer: Roy - Though the Pierce County settlement was first called ''Muck,'' it was later renamed for the son of James McNaught who platted the townsite circa 1884.
42. Which one of these #WAcities with #Valentines-themed names was NOT named after early homesteaders and pioneers?
Answer: Rosedale - While Hartline in Grant County was named after John Hartline, who homesteaded the land on which the town now stands, and Redmond in King County is named for Luke McRedmond, who platted the townsite in 1891 and served as its first postmaster, and Loveland in Pierce County is named for a family of early settlers to the area, Rosedale in Pierce County is named BY early settlers for the profusion of wild roses growing along the shores of Henderson Bay.
43. In which county did the United States Pig War with the British originate in 1858?
Answer: San Juan County - The smallest of the state's counties, it is comprised of 172 named islands (and purportedly 300 more ''rocky'' islands at low tide). Following the Forty-ninth Parallel Boundary Treaty of 1846, both the British and American governments claimed possession of the islands. The English offered land-grant inducements to productive British settlers; the Americans attempted to collect taxes; the British appointed a justice of the peace to enforce the Queen's Law; and on 15 June, 1858, American homesteader Lyman Cutler precipitated war: he shot a Hudson's Bay Company pig that rooted in his potato patch. The British ordered Cutler's arrest and the American hid out in the forest. The Americans sent one ship and 461 soldiers under Capt. George Pickett (who later, as a major general, led the famous Confederate charge at Gettysburg). The British retaliated with a naval force of five ships and 2,000 men. The Pig War became a ''check mate'' situation, and for 12 years the two countries jointly occupied the islands while a boundary commission debated the issue. Finally, it was referred to international arbitration and on 21 October, 1872, German Emperor William I ruled in favor of the United States. On 31 October, 1873, the territorial Legislature organized the archipelago into San Juan County, bounded on the west and north by Haro Strait, and separated on the east from mainland county islands by Rosario Strait.
44. Which town was originally named ''Bug.'' That's right, Bug, WA.
Answer: Sedro Woolley - The Skagit County town was settled in 1878 by David Batey and Joseph Hart, who sold 40 acres to Mortimer Cook in 1884. The latter laid out a townsite and named it Bug. In wrathful indignation, the other settlers threatened to add the prefix ''Hum'' to the town's sign. The townswomen suggested - but misspelled - the Spanish word ''cedro,'' meaning ''cedar,'' as a more appropriate name that tied in to nearby Cedar Mountain. As the head of navigation on the Skagit River, the town prospered...particularly during the Mt. Baker gold rush days. In 1889, the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads established a junction north of Sedro, and P.A. Woolley platted a townsite there bearing his surname. To mitigate the high costs of duplicates governments, the adjacent towns were incorporated (with a now forgotten hyphen) as Sedro Woolley in 1890.
45. What Indian word describes a place where girls were sent to undergo puberty rites? (no snickering)
Answer: Moclips - The Grays Harbor town is named for a Quinault Indian word describing a place where maidens were sent to undergo puberty rites. Of course, it is also the punchline of one of my favorite Washington-related jokes: What do you do when you run out of clips? You get mo' clips!
1. What southwest Washington city, platted in 1875, was originally known as ''Timmen's Landing'' after the claim of John H. Timmen?
You’re right! In fact, much of Washington looked completely different in 1858…check out this map of Washington and Oregon Territories: https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/do/8E758264978B52D4CBD3A478121A7AD9.jpg. It had counties in the west, and “the rest of the territory” in the east!
In 1858, Island county included much of northwest Washington, including what is now San Juan county and more.
Good catch! It’s fixed now. Thanks for taking the quiz!
#37, I chose Redondo and it tabulated as wrong, even though it named Redo do in the answer.