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Local History

Washington State

Pacific Northwest

Sammamish Valley News Index
Sammamish Valley News front page articles. Covers 1963-1994 newspapers in the Redmond Library collection. Indexing funded by the KCLS Foundation - we hope to secure additional funding to index vital statistics.

Washington State Newsstand | Paid for by KCLS Accessible with KCLS Library Card
Articles from Washington newspapers, including the Seattle Times, PI, and Tacoma News Tribune.

Washington State - General

Des Moines Historical Society
This site offers information about the history of the greater Des Moines area of Southern King County in Washington State. It is presented by the Des Moines Historical Society.

Find it on the Web: Washington Information
Links to everything Washington provided by the King County Library System.

Pictures: Washington
Yahooligans's links to pictures of historical and natural places in Washington State.

Washington: A Little Trip to the Extraordinary
Basic information about Washington State from 50states.com.

Washington County Data 
This site, from the Washington Agricultural Statistics Service, provides facts about agriculture in Washington along with a few general details, such as population and area statistics. Select a county, a commodity or a demographic and find details about crops, livestock and the farming industry. One concern: some statistics are from the mid-1990s.

Washington Place Names Database
The Tacoma Public Library provides background on how places in Washington were named and then provides searching capabilities and brief entries about each resulting place.

Washington State Facts 
Includes general information, census data, city & county information, geography and much more – from Access Washington and the Washington State Dept. of Information Services.

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Biographies

About the Governor
This brief biography from the Governor’s home page gives background information on Christine Gregoire’s career and family. It also includes links to the First Gentleman’s website and other information released from the Governor’s office.

Biography of Bill Gates
Brief biography on Gates from the Microsoft website. It includes information on his education and career in the software industry.

George Washington Bush
The City of Tumwater provides essays and background information from Olympia News, The Olympian and other sources on Washington State pioneer, George Washington Bush and his family.

Lewis and Clark. Inside the Corps. The Corps.
PBS provides this list of links to biographies on all members of the Corps of Discovery. Included are biographies on Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Sacajawea, and others on this famous expedition.

PBS-The West-Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
The PBS website gives this short biography and Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, which describes their personal backgrounds as well as their work on missions in the West and Oregon Territory.

 

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Washington State - Government. City & County

About King County 
The official King County government web page includes a map, county leaders, budget, census data, statistical profile and more.

Community Web Sites 
Provides links to community organizations in King County arranged by region or city name – from the King County government web page.

Find it in the Web: Local Government Information 
King County information, demographics, city and regional resources, City of Seattle, and other cities information, provided by the King County Library System.

Washington State Counties
Alphabetical links to the Web sites of the counties of Washington State, from Access Washington.

Washington State- Government, State

Access Washington
Quick starting point for Washington State government information.

Find it on the Web: State Government Information
Washington State information, laws and legislation, state agencies and state government and politics, provided by the King County Library System.

Washington State Constitution
The full text of the Washington State Constitution from the Washington Courts.

Washington State Data Book
Statistics about Washington State updated every other year and divided into eleven major sections: population, economy, state government finance, human services, criminal justice, education, natural resources, environment, energy, transportation, and local government. Provided by the Washington State Office of Financial Management.

Washington State Legislature
House and Senate information, bills and laws, elected officials, and more.

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Washington State- History & Explorers

Explorers | History  

Explorers

History Link
This searchable web site, which is an evolving online encyclopedia of state and local history in Washington State created by a team of local historians and writers, provides more than 4,000 essays and web features including biographies, timelines, clickable maps and articles on the state’s first white explorers and settlers, African Americans and Asian American pioneers, and founders of local cities and towns in Washington State.

A History of Fort Vancouver 
The story of the Hudson’s Bay Company, exploration, Dr. John McLoughlin, Fort Vancouver and the fur trade industry in Washington and the Pacific Northwest from the National Park Service.

Marcus Whitman (1802-1847) and Narcissa Whitman (1808-1847) 
An overview of the Whitmans, among the first American settlers in Washington who played an important role in opening the Oregon Trail and left a tragic legacy that would haunt relations between whites and Native Americans for decades after their deaths, from PBS. Includes the Letters and Journals of Narcissa Whitman 1836-1847.

Peter Puget on Puget’s Sound 
An excerpt from Murray Morgan’s book, Puget’s Sound, provided by the Tacoma Public Library. Describes the discovery of Puget Sound attributed to the British lieutenant.

Washington Territorial Timeline
The Washington State Archives has developed a timeline of the Washington Territory to 1889.

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History

100 Years in the Pacific Northwest
Every Sunday throughout 1996, The Seattle Times published a page looking at the history of Seattle through the eyes of the newspaper. These pages are indexed on the Web.

Camp Harmony Exhibit
An online exhibit about the 1942 detention in Puyallup of Japanese Americans,based on materials located in the University of Washington Libraries including newspapers, photographs, correspondence, books, and documents.

A History Bursting With Telling: Asian Americans in Washington State
Developed at the University of Washington as a curriculum project for Washington State schools, this site is mostly text but includes some photographs, a timeline and many links to related information.

History Day: History Related Links
Links to many historical sites for Washington State from Washington History Day, Department of History, Central Washington University

HistoryLink
HistoryLink, created by a team of local historians, writers, editors, designers, and Internet experts, is an evolving online encyclopedia of Seattle and King County history, but provides many links to events in state history--rosters of the local war dead, the WTO archives, baseball memories, and much more.

In Memory: Washington State Veterans Memorials
A guide to the veterans memorials located on the capitol campus in Olympia, Washington, from the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs.

MOHAI Historical Photo Database
The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) has compiled a searchable database of historical photographs. You'll find images of Seattle, King County, and other areas of Washington State.

Murray's People
Essays about early Washington people and places by Northwest historian, Murray Morgan, from the Tacoma Public Library's Northwest Room /Special Collections.

Pacific County Historical Society and Museum
The history of Pacific County in Washington State.

Unsettling Events
Selected from the Clippings File of the Tacoma Public Library's Northwest Room /Special Collections, these true-life tales chillingly of earthquakes and other disasters, monsters, ghosts, battles and more, capture the dark side of our state's history.

Washington
University of Washington Libraries’ state section of Pacific Northwest History lists links including "100 Years in the Pacific Northwest" from the Seattle Times and Tacoma Public Library’s NW History Databases.

Washington State Historical Society
Homepage for the Washington State Historical Society, with links to permanent and changing exhibits, educational resources, special publications, History Lab, and more

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Washington State- Native Peoples

American Indians of the Pacific Northwest
This digital collection integrates over 2,300 photographs and 7,700 pages of text illustrating many aspects of life and work, including housing, clothing, crafts, transportation, education, and employment of American Indians in two cultural areas of the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest Coast and Plateau. The materials are drawn from the extensive collections of the University of Washington Libraries, the Cheney Cowles Museum/Eastern Washington State Historical Society in Spokane, and the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle.

American Indians of the Pacific Northwest
Provides an extensive digital collection of original photographs and documents about the Northwest Coast and Plateau Indian cultures, complemented by essays written by anthropologists, historians and teachers about both particular tribes and cross-cultural topics. From the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections.

Northwest Tribes
Collection of links gathered by Multnomah County Library that are specific to the tribes of the Northwest.

The Whitman Massacre Trial : A Clash of Cultures
Details of the trial following the November 29, 1847 attack on Doctor Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and twelve other white people, by the Cayuse Indians, from the Oregon State Archives.

Whitman Mission National Historic Site on the Web: Historic Resources
Learn about the mission founded in 1836 among the Cayuse Indians by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, near present-day Walla Walla, Washington

See Also Two Other Topics at Homework Help:

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Washington State - Natural Washington

The Best Apples on Earth
Web pages with detailed information about apples and the apple industry in Washington State, from the Washington Apple Education Foundation.

Color Landform Atlas of the United States - Washington
A variety of relief maps, satellite maps, historical maps, county maps and/or black and white maps for Washington State from the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. External links to more information, including links to the newspapers of both large and small cities in the state, are provided.

Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection: Washington Maps
Washington state, city and historical maps; maps of National Parks, Monuments and Historic Sites, and links to maps on other web sites.

Washington County Data 
This site, from the Washington Agricultural Statistics Service, provides facts about agriculture in Washington along with a few general details, such as population and area statistics. Select a county, a commodity or a demographic and find details about crops, livestock and the farming industry. One concern: some statistics are from the mid-1990s.

Welcome to the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
The home page of the Burke Museum, featuring online exhibits, events and more.

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Washington State - State Symbols

Fish and Wildlife Symbols of Washington State
Detailed information on the state insect, bird and fish from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Symbols of Washington State
From the Washington State Legislature, this site includes nineteen state symbols, from bird to tree.

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Last Updated: October 20, 2008