Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington Territory, which was ceded by the British Empire in 1846, in accordance with the Oregon Treaty in the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute. The state—which is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, Oregon to the south, Idaho to the east, and the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north—was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Olympia is the state capital; the state’s largest city is Seattle. Washington is often referred to as Washington state to distinguish it from the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.

The 9,300-year-old skeletal remains of Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete human remains found in North America, were discovered in Washington in the 1990s. The area has been known to host megathrust earthquakes in the past, the last being the Cascadia earthquake of 1700.  Before the arrival of Europeans, the region had many established tribes of indigenous peoples, notable for their totem poles and their ornately carved canoes and masks. Prominent among their industries were salmon fishing and, notably among the Makah, whale hunting

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_(state)