Our region's little-known dark facts

Ira Wesley Kitmacher

There are several little-known, unique, and sometimes dark facts about our region. In this column, I write about several; for a more complete picture, please see my upcoming (Oct. 13) book, "Dark Tales of Oregon and Washington Territories." 

The early Pacific Northwest is critical to America’s history, as it represented the country’s westward expansion and the realization of Manifest Destiny, expanding the United States’ presence from the original 13 colonies on the Eastern Seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. This opened transpacific trade and helped establish the U.S. as a global power.

It also, as I’ve mentioned, had a devastating impact on Natives, up to 95 percent of whom were killed by displacement, disease, and war. President Thomas Jefferson’s 1803 Louisiana Purchase, his sending the Lewis and Clark expedition (which came within 45 miles of modern-day Thurston County) to explore the West in 1804, and the early fur trade, missionaries, and settlers all played key roles in the region’s development.  

U.S. military forts were built in the Pacific Northwest to protect the Columbia River and coast from possible Confederate attack, stabilize the area, and protect against perceived Native threats. Some of these bases became part of the “Triangle of Fire,” including Oregon’s Fort Stevens and Washington’s Fort Canby, both started in 1863.

No Confederate attack came, but there were plots by Confederate sympathizers, including the paramilitary “Knights of the Golden Circle,” who mustered and trained in Olympia and elsewhere and plotted assassinations, and nautical piracy by the Confederate merchant raider CSS Shenandoah. Active Thurston County military forts included Fort Miller (1856), Fort Henness (1855-56), and the Olympia Stockade (1855-60s). Many wars and skirmishes were fought with Native peoples, including the Puget Sound War (1855-56) in Thurston County and elsewhere.

In 1844, the Provisional Government of Oregon (which included modern-day Washington) passed a Black exclusion law that prohibited African Americans from entering the territory. If anyone failed to comply, they could be arrested and subjected to a public whipping of “no less than twenty and no more than thirty-nine stripes across the bare back.”

An African American pioneer, George Bush, and his Caucasian wife, Isabella, led four families north to settle in the Puget Sound region to avoid Oregon’s exclusionary laws. They founded New Market, present-day Tumwater, in 1846, making it the first town in Washington. While the Oregon and Washington Territories were established as “slave-free” by federal law, and the Oregon Territory was admitted in 1859 as a free (non-slave) state, its original constitution included the “Whites only” clause. The exclusion laws were in place until 1926.  

 Despite their critical role in building the Transcontinental Railroad and other contributions, the Chinese in the Pacific Northwest were subject to discrimination due in large part to some believing they were taking away jobs. Mass expulsions took place in the 1880s; in 1885, a mob, whipped into a frenzy by Mayor Jacob Weisbach, forced Tacoma’s 350 Chinese residents to a train station and sent them to Portland. Similarly, in 1886, a Seattle mob tried to force Chinese residents onto a steamship headed to San Francisco. Martial law was declared and federal troops deployed. Most of Seattle’s Chinese residents were expelled or left out of fear.

Closer to home, a brutal attack occurred on Christmas Eve 1885 in Tenino, where vigilantes burned Chinese out of their homes.  A few weeks later, an attempted expulsion took place in Olympia, but it was thwarted by Thurston County Sheriff William Billings and armed leading citizens. Decades later, in 1943, many Chinese had left Olympia; Chinatown was largely vacant, and remaining structures were condemned and burned down by local authorities.  

Washington had sterilization laws from 1909 to 1942. These laws targeted the “feeble-minded,” “insane,” “epileptic,” “habitual criminals,” and “moral degenerates.” During this time, 685 involuntary sterilizations were performed, with about 75 percent being women. The laws were declared unconstitutional and sterilization discontinued in 1942. However, a separate 1909 law prohibiting marriage for people deemed “defective” remained in effect until 1979.  

Washington’s name was almost “Columbia,” in honor of the Columbia River; however, Richard H. Stanton, a representative from Kentucky, found the name too like the District of Columbia and proposed naming it after George Washington. Later, in the early 20th century, the "State of Lincoln" was proposed, using parts of Idaho and Washington.   

Although Olympia was made Washington’s territorial capital in 1853 (and state capital in 1889), other larger towns competed for the title, including Seattle, Tacoma, Steilacoom, Vancouver, and Port Townsend.  

From 1899 to 1938, the Knappton Cove Quarantine Station operated in Southwestern Washington (125 miles from Thurston County), across the Columbia River from Astoria, Oregon. It served as a fumigation and quarantine center for immigrants traveling by ship from Asia and Europe suspected of carrying diseases.

In 1921, the Sunday Oregonian newspaper referred to the station as Washington’s “Ellis Island,” for the major New York City immigration center. It is the only remaining (but inactive) quarantine station on the West Coast, and the last remaining government-built quarantine hospital in the U.S., as all others were burned down out of fear of contamination. It currently houses a museum.  

Ira Wesley Kitmacher is an Olympia-based historian and author, writing 12 published and upcoming history and folklore books, many on the Pacific Northwest (including Haunted Puget Sound and Pacific Northwest Legends and Lore), one on World War II, and two on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. His books are available on and through many booksellers. Ira is a speaker at many public venues.  He leads tours of Olympia based on his books. Ira is featured on television, radio, and other media. He is a Commissioner on the Thurston County Historic Commission. Ira is a professor who has taught graduate courses at Georgetown University and other colleges. He is a retired senior federal executive and an attorney (California, inactive).