Washington
- Present-day Washington is divided into Eastern and Western regions by the Cascade Mountains. The original request for the territory omitted much of the east. From as early as 1861, some eastern residents have proposed forming a new state, sometimes in combination with the Idaho Panhandle or other nearby states. Suggested names for such a state include East Washington, Lincoln, and Cascadia.
- When Washington Territory was established, the populated Puget Sound region in the west dominated public affairs. The discovery of gold in present-day northern Idaho enticed settlers eastward. This shift in fortunes was followed by a proposed "Territory of Walla Walla", which was defeated in the territorial legislature in 1861. The gold discovery however did contribute to the 1863 creation of Idaho Territory, establishing Washington's current eastern border.
- By 1864 some residents of northern Idaho called for a new "Territory of Columbia" including parts of Washington east of the Cascades or east of the Columbia River. (The name Columbia was originally proposed for Washington.)
- As recently as 2005, a split has been officially proposed in the state legislature, amid the fallout of the 2004 governor's election. The east is largely conservative and rural while the west is largely urban and liberal.
- Since 2006, there has been an active movement calling for the state of Washington to break away from the United States and join Oregon and British Columbia as an independent nation which would be named Cascadia.
Read more about this topic: List Of U.S. State Partition Proposals
Famous quotes containing the word washington:
“I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.”
—George Washington (1732–1799)
“I date the end of the old republic and the birth of the empire to the invention, in the late thirties, of air conditioning. Before air conditioning, Washington was deserted from mid-June to September.... But after air conditioning and the Second World War arrived, more or less at the same time, Congress sits and sits while the presidents—or at least their staffs—never stop making mischief.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)