Washington Territory, 1860.
1543 – Spain claimed the Pacific Northwest
1592 – Discovery of the Strait of Juan de Fuca claimed by Juan de Fuca
1579 – The Washington coast was sighted by Sir Francis Drake and claimed for England
1741-43 – Russian explorers reached the Alaskan islands and coasts, trading with native peoples for sea otter pelts.
1774 – Juan Perez commands the first Spanish expedition to explore the Northwest Coast and sights the Olympic Mountains.
1775 – Bruno de Hezeta landed on the Washington coast and claimed the area for Spain. On his return south, he sees the mouth of the Columbia River.
1778 – James Cook (British) explores and charts the Northwest Coast.
1792 – Robert Gray explores the lower Columbia River.
George Vancouver (British) explores and names Puget Sound, and Lieutenant William Broughton explores the Columbia River up to Point Vancouver.
Spain establishes the first non-Indian settlement in Washington at Neah Bay.
Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia River.
1805 – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traverse southern Washington along the Snake and Columbia Rivers.
1810 – The North West Company establishes Spokane House, a fur-trading company.
1811 John Jacob Astor builds Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River as part of his Pacific Fur Company.
1818 – The United States and Great Britain agreed to joint occupation of the Oregon Territory.
1821 – Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver.
1823 – The Monroe Doctrine warns other countries against attempting to occupy U.S.-claimed lands.
1824, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was established within the War Department.
Russia set its southern boundary in the Pacific Northwest at 54°40′ latitude.
1825 – Hudson’s Bay Company establishes Fort Colvile on the Columbia.
Reproduction of the vintage Oregon Trail Poster Map. Available at Legends’ General Store
1834 – The Whitman Party, including Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa, Reverend H. H. Spalding, and his wife Eliza, set up a mission at the junction of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Their travel route would become known as the Oregon Trail and was used by thousands of future settlers.
1839 – Fr. Pierre-Jean DeSmet arrives among the Flatheads in the Bitterroot Valley. He and his staff would set up several Jesuit missions in the present-day states of Washington and Idaho.
1842 – John C. Fremont leads an Army Topographical Corps Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. He witnesses an eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The government prints his maps of this expedition and one of the following year, and they are widely used by pioneers heading west.
1843 – The Great Migration, a rush of approximately 1,000 pioneers, headed out on the Oregon Trail, led by Dr. Marcus Whitman.
1846 – The U.S. and Great Britain divide the Northwest region along the 49th parallel.
Whitman Massacre.
1847 – Cayuse Indians kill the inhabitants of Whitman Mission.
1848 – Oregon Territory was created.
1851 – Settlers from the Denny Party found what would become Seattle.
1853 – Washington Territory was created.
1854-1856 – Several treaties are signed between Native Americans living in Washington Territory and the U.S. government.
1855-1858 – Yakima Indian War
Columbia River Gorge from Chanticleer Point near Corbett, Oregon by Carol Highsmith.
1858 – The first Northwest railroad, the Cascade Railroad Company, begins operation in the Columbia River Gorge. The Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad became the second railroad in the Northwest in 1873, and a large number of local railroads subsequently emerged in the 1880s.
1860s – Gold and silver were discovered in the Okanogan.
1862 – Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act, giving the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Companies permission and land grants to begin constructing a transcontinental railroad line stretching along the 42nd parallel.
1865 – The Civil War ends. Union Pacific Railroad heads west.
1871 – The Indian Appropriations Act states that Indians are no longer considered sovereign nations but are instead considered wards of the federal government.
1872 – The Northern Pacific Railroad chooses Tacoma as its western terminus.
The American-British border dispute in the San Juan Islands was settled via arbitration by the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm.
President Ulysses S. Grant established the Colville Confederated Tribes through an Executive Order, not a treaty. The reservation lands were reduced later that year following complaints of Colville Valley settlers.
1883 – The Northern Pacific Railroad completed its line to Tacoma, linking Washington to the East.
1887 – Dawes Severalty Act is passed. Indian lands are split into individual allotments, with the remaining lands becoming public and, therefore, up for sale.
Greetings from Washington Postcard. Available at Legends’ General Store.
1889 – Washington was admitted as the 42nd state in the union.
The great fire destroyed 25 blocks in Seattle.
1893 – The Great Northern Railroad completed its line to Seattle.
1897 – The first shipment of gold from the Klondike reaches Seattle.
1899 – Mount Rainier National Park was established.
In 1909, Seattle hosted the World’s Fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
1910 – Women gain the right to vote in Washington.
Compiled by Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated September 2025.
Also See:
Seattle & the Klondike Gold Rush
Washington – The Evergreen State
Washington Fun Facts and Trivia
See Sources.