Washington Statehood
Washington entered the Union late in the nineteenth century as the Pacific Northwest became more economically integrated through timber, shipping, rail, and growing settlement.
How This State Entered The Union
Statehood is where constitutional structure meets regional history: the point where a place entered the Union as an equal state.
Admission To The Union
Washington became the forty-second state on November 11, 1889, joining the Union during a broader burst of late western state admissions.
Path To Statehood
Its route ran through territorial administration and growing Pacific Northwest settlement tied to ports, timber, agriculture, and expanding rail connections to the rest of the country.
Why It Matters
Washington matters because it shows how the Union extended not only across land but toward the Pacific, incorporating port economies, forest resources, and new western populations into equal state membership.
Read Next
Go back to the state page, then return to the larger constitutional story that made equal state membership possible.
Larger Context
Federalism and the founding era give the admission story its larger constitutional frame.