Week 9: March 2-8
March 2, 1853
On this day, U.S. President Millard Fillmore signed a bill creating the Territory of Washington out of the Territory of Oregon.
The new territory’s boundaries are: north, 49 degree North Latitude; south, approximately due east from the mouth of the Columbia River; east, the Rocky Mountains; west, the Pacific Ocean.
The eastern part of the territory would later become part of the states of Idaho and Montana.
March 2, 1899
On this day, both houses of the United States Congress passed legislation creating Mount Rainier National Park, dominated by the glacier-capped, 14,411-foot mountain located in Pierce County.
The park is the country’s fifth national park.
For years, civic leaders in Tacoma wanted to rename the mountain Mount Tacoma or Tahoma, the Indigenous name for the peak, but Seattle leaders fought for it to remain Rainier.
In the 1930s, the Rainier faction won this battle.
March 2, 1911
March 2, 1964
March 1943
March 7, 1892
March 8, 1970
March 8, 2008
This post is in partnership with HistoryLink, and Warren Seyler, former chairman Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Black Muse Resource Center, and the Living Arts Cultural Heritage.
We encourage you to engage in further research through your local historic societies, museums, archives, and community.
