Doing Washington research? Check out State Library first

Doing Washington research? Check out State Library first

Mount-Baker

Mount Baker, which holds the state record for most snowfall in a 12-month period.

Did you know that the State Library has compiled everything you ever wanted to know about Washington State on to a convenient state research page?

Want to know which mountain peak holds the record for most snowfall? The State Library knows it. (It’s Mount Baker, which had 1,140 inches of the white stuff in 1998-99, a U.S. record.)

Wondering what our state dance is? Yep, it’s there too. (It’s the square dance, believe it or not!)

Just a few clicks and you can learn about our state’s symbols, elected officials, climate, geography, population and economy throughout the years. fallingforstatelibrary

A few interesting facts:

  • Since Washington is nicknamed  The Evergreen State, it’s easy to assume a conifer is our state tree. In fact, the Western Hemlock, noted as “the backbone of [the] state’s forest industry” was declared the state tree in 1947.
  • The 10 most populated cities in Washington, from last April’s OFM estimates, are 1) Seattle (626,600); 2) Spokane (211,300); 3) Tacoma (200,400); 4) Vancouver (164,500);  5) Bellevue (132,100); 6) Kent (120,500) ; 7) Everett (104,200); 8) Renton (95,540); 9) Yakima (92,620) ; and 10) Spokane Valley (91,490).
  • The geographic center of Washington is in Chelan County, 10 miles southwest of Wenatchee.
  • The highest temperature ever recorded in Washington was on August 5, 1961, ironically at chilly-named Ice Harbor Dam where temperatures reached 118 degrees.
  • Although Seattle is frequently referred to as the “Rain City”, the record for the most rain in 24 hours is 14.26” recorded at Mount Mitchell (Skamania County) on the 23rd and 24th of November in 1986. Similarly, Forks holds the record for “wettest” city in Washington, receiving 119.7” of rain annually. Wow!

This is the third of a series of blog posts, called “Falling for the State Library” in honor of autumn’s arrival, that we’re doing about the State Library’s many online services and features.  The Library is a proud division of the Office of Secretary of State.

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