42 Fun Facts About Washington State (the 42nd State)

Washington joined the Union in 1889 as the 42nd state, so we figured 42 was the right number of fun facts to round up. It is the only state named after a US president, it grows most of the apples in the country, and it somehow fits a rainforest and a near desert inside the same borders. Ask most people what Washington State is known for and you will hear Seattle, coffee, rain, and Mount Rainier. All true, and barely the first page.

Here are 42 fun facts about Washington State, grouped so you can skim to the part you like. Pull one out at your next dinner party and watch someone say “wait, really?”

Geography and natural wonders

1. It is the only state named after a US president. Washington was named for George Washington when Congress created the territory in 1853. The original proposal was to call it Columbia, but lawmakers worried that would get confused with the District of Columbia, so they went with the first president instead.

2. Mount Rainier is the most glaciated peak in the lower 48. At 14,410 feet, Rainier carries 26 major glaciers, more ice than all the other Cascade volcanoes combined. On a clear day people in Seattle simply call it “the mountain.”

3. Mount St. Helens lost the top of its head in 1980. The May 18, 1980 eruption dropped the summit from 9,677 feet to 8,363 feet and left a crater more than a mile wide. It was the largest debris avalanche in recorded history.

4. Lake Chelan is the third deepest lake in the country. It reaches 1,486 feet, which means its bottom sits 388 feet below sea level. Only Crater Lake and Lake Tahoe go deeper.

5. The longest lava tube in the continental US is in Washington. Ape Cave, just south of Mount St. Helens, runs about 2.5 miles underground. You can walk it with a headlamp and a jacket, because it stays cold all year.

6. It has a rainforest and a desert in the same state. The Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula is the wettest spot in the contiguous US, soaking up roughly 140 inches of rain a year. Cross the Cascades and the rain shadow turns the land into shrub steppe that gets less water than parts of Arizona.

7. Long Beach claims the longest drivable beach in the country. The Long Beach Peninsula stretches 28 miles of continuous sand, billed as the world’s longest peninsula beach, and yes, you can drive on much of it.

8. It is one of only a few states with three national parks. Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades all sit inside Washington. You can stand on a glacier, wander a rainforest, and cross alpine peaks without ever leaving the state.

9. The North Cascades hold a third of the glaciers in the lower 48. North Cascades National Park alone has more than 300 glaciers, the most of any park in the country outside Alaska. Locals call this region the American Alps.

Record breakers and firsts

10. The largest building in the world by volume is in Everett. The Boeing factory holds more than 472 million cubic feet of space, big enough to park all of Disneyland inside or fit 75 football fields under one roof.

11. Grand Coulee Dam is the biggest power producer in the United States. The dam on the Columbia River is the largest concrete structure in the country and generates more electricity than any other power plant in the nation. It holds enough concrete to pour a highway from Seattle to Miami.

12. Washington runs the largest ferry system in the US. Washington State Ferries carries around 20 million riders a year across Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. For many residents the ferry is just the commute.

13. The Space Needle was built for a World’s Fair. It went up for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, stands 605 feet tall, and was once the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.

14. Pike Place Market is one of the oldest farmers markets in the country. It opened in 1907 so shoppers could buy straight from farmers and skip the price gouging middlemen. It has been running continuously ever since.

15. Pickleball was invented here. The fastest growing sport in America started on Bainbridge Island in the summer of 1965, when a few bored families lowered a badminton net and grabbed some pingpong paddles and a wiffle ball.

16. The first Starbucks opened in Seattle in 1971. The original store sold whole bean coffee, tea, and spices, not lattes. The Pike Place location people line up for today is actually the second address the store ever had.

17. Spokane hosted a World’s Fair and was the smallest city ever to do it. With a population around 170,000, Spokane pulled off Expo ’74, the first environmentally themed World’s Fair. The grounds became Riverfront Park, still the heart of downtown.

18. One of history’s most famous bridge failures happened here. The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed Galloping Gertie, twisted apart in the wind and collapsed into Puget Sound on November 7, 1940, only months after opening. Engineering students still study the footage.

Food, farms, and drink

19. Washington grows most of the nation’s apples. The state produces well over 60 percent of all apples grown in the US and has led the country in apple production since the 1920s. The apple is also the official state fruit.

20. It is the national leader in more than just apples. Washington ranks number one in the country for apples, sweet cherries, pears, hops, spearmint oil, red raspberries, and blueberries. Few states feed the rest of the country quite like this one.

21. Most American beer starts in the Yakima Valley. Around 70 percent of all hops grown in the United States come from Washington, almost all of it from the Yakima Valley. If you have had an IPA, you have tasted Washington.

22. It is the second largest wine state in the country. Only California makes more. Washington is home to more than a thousand wineries, with Walla Walla and the Columbia Valley leading the way.

23. The state vegetable was chosen by students. The Walla Walla sweet onion became Washington’s official state vegetable in 2007 after years of lobbying by middle school classes who wanted the state to pick one.

24. Two grocery favorites were born in a lab here. Washington State University bred both the Rainier cherry and the Cosmic Crisp apple, the latter after more than twenty years of crossbreeding and testing.

Quirky and surprising

25. It is illegal to kill Bigfoot in one Washington county. Skamania County passed an ordinance in 1969 protecting Sasquatch, later updating it to declare the creature an endangered species and the county a Sasquatch refuge. Harming one could cost you a hefty fine.

26. Forks is the rainiest town in the contiguous US. The small Olympic Peninsula logging town gets so much rain that it became the perfect gloomy setting for a certain vampire saga, and fans still flock there for the Twilight connection.

27. There is a full size Stonehenge in Washington. Entrepreneur Sam Hill built a concrete replica near Maryhill and dedicated it in 1918 as the first monument in the country honoring soldiers who died in World War I.

28. The world’s largest burrowing clam lives in Puget Sound. The geoduck, pronounced gooey duck, can weigh a couple of pounds and live more than a century. It is also the proud mascot of The Evergreen State College, whose teams are the Geoducks.

29. The US nearly went to war with Britain over a pig. In 1859 an American farmer on San Juan Island shot a British company’s pig that was raiding his garden, and both sides rushed in troops. After a long standoff, the only casualty was the pig.

30. There is no state income tax. Washington is one of only nine states with no personal income tax, leaning on sales and business taxes instead.

Pop culture, fame, and business

31. Roslyn played a town in Alaska on national TV. The old coal mining town of Roslyn stood in for the fictional Cicely, Alaska on the hit series Northern Exposure from 1990 to 1995. Fans still visit the storefronts from the show.

32. Twin Peaks was filmed in Snoqualmie and North Bend. Snoqualmie Falls and the Salish Lodge stood in for the Great Northern Hotel, and you can still order cherry pie at Twede’s Cafe, the diner from David Lynch’s series.

33. Two of the world’s biggest tech companies are headquartered here. Microsoft sits in Redmond and Amazon was born in Seattle, which is part of why the Puget Sound region pulls in talent from all over the planet.

34. Washington is a retail birthplace. Nordstrom started as a Seattle shoe store in 1901, and Eddie Bauer, REI, and Costco all got their start in the state too, alongside Starbucks.

35. Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle. The guitar legend grew up in the city, and the grunge sound that took over the 1990s, led by bands like Nirvana out of Aberdeen, came straight out of Washington.

36. A dying logging town reinvented itself as Bavaria. In the 1960s, Leavenworth remodeled its entire downtown into an alpine German village to survive after the timber industry left. Today it draws millions a year for Oktoberfest and its winter lighting festival.

Quick hit state symbols

37. Nickname: Washington is the Evergreen State, a nod to its endless forests.

38. Capital and biggest city are different. Olympia is the capital, but Seattle is by far the largest city.

39. State tree: the western hemlock, chosen in 1947.

40. State bird: the willow goldfinch, also called the American goldfinch.

41. State flower: the coast rhododendron.

42. And the fact that ties it all together: Washington entered the Union on November 11, 1889 as the 42nd state. Forty two facts, one for the 42nd state. Now go win some trivia.

More fun facts about Washington State to explore

If these fun facts about Washington State left you wanting more, that is the whole point. The state packs glaciers, rainforest, shrub steppe, big rivers, and saltwater coastline into one map, and every corner hides another story. Mount Rainier draws roughly two million visitors a year through Mount Rainier National Park, while the orchards of central Washington keep the state at the top of the nation’s apple charts, tracked by the Washington Apple Commission. Bookmark this list and you will have a ready stack of fun facts about Washington State for your next road trip.

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