Six Things You Don’t Know About Washington (State).

Well, some of you might know these things. Maybe all of you do, I don’t know. I needed something to write a list about today. So sue me.

1. You know all that top-secret domestic surveillance that the NSA has been taking heat for? Yeah? Well, it turns out that a lot of it is being done right outside my hometown of Yakima. If you’re ever driving I-82 from Yakima to Ellensburg, right after crossing the Fred G. Redmon Memorial Bridge, look to your right. Out there, amidst the inaccessible US Army Yakima Training Center there is a cluster of large satellite dishes. This compound is the Yakima Research Center, run by the NSA and part of their Project Echelon thingy (you know, the whole FISA thing). There is one other compound like this in the US in West Virginia. Don’t worry, I’m not divulging any information that hasn’t already been in the newspaper.






If it was that big of a secret, Google Earth wouldn't show it, right?




2. Speaking of Fred G. Redmon Memorial Bridge, it is the longest free-standing single-span concrete span bridge in the world, 1336 feet long, 330 feet high. And a popular suicide spot, unfortunately.



3. Idaho is the biggest potato producer in the nation (131.97 million cwt in 2004) but did you know that Washington is number two at 93.8 million cwt? That’s over 20% of the national production! And nobody even knows about it. Well, Washington has so much other stuff going for it that we had to throw Idaho a bone. In addition, in 2002 Washington ranked first in the nation in production of raspberries (87.8% of total U.S. production), hops (74.4%), spearmint oil (also 74.4%), wrinkled seed peas (65.6%), apples (60.2%), Concord grapes (51.8%), sweet cherries (48%), pears (44.9%), lentils (41.9%), peppermint oil (35.2%), carrots for processing (34.5%), tart cherries (32.8%), Niagara grapes (32.4%) and sweet corn for processing (29.2%). Washington also ranked second in the nation in grapes (all varieties taken together), apricots, asparagus (over a third of the country's production) and green peas for processing; third in the nation for wheat, prunes and plums, summer dry onions, trout and butter; fourth in barley and peaches; and fifth in cranberries and strawberries.



4. I’m sure you know that Microsoft is headquarted in Washington State. And Starbucks. And Amazon.com. But did you know that WA is also home to Costco? And Nordstrom? And Rainier Beer? And Nintendo of America? And Boeing? And REI (you should see the REI flagship store in Seattle. Frickin’ amazing.)? And Red Robin? The original Red Robin is right across Portage Bay from the University of Washington. Here’s an interesting story about it. Back in the day, the UW and the city of Seattle had an agreement that there were no bars allowed within one mile of the University. The location of the Red Robin (at that time just a bar) was just over one mile away. That’s why it is where it is. To this day, you can draw a one mile radius circle around UW and find bars all along it, including the famous beatnik bar, the Blue Moon.


5. In half (or actually a little more than half)of the state, it hardly ever rains. Seriously. I know, I know, your mental image of Washington is a bunch of flannel-wearing lumberjacks and insufferable Volvo-driving liberals wandering around under a suffocating dark sky and pounding rain. First of all, the rain is almost never “pounding.” It’s more of a constant drizzle. And second of all, once you get over the Cascade mountains, there’s almost no rain whatsoever. Yakima? 8.25 inches per year. Wenatchee? 9.12. Moses Lake? 7.69. Spokane? 16.67, and okay, that’s a little higher, but still not much. Walla Walla (yes, that is a real place)? 20.05. Still not a lot.



6. The United States almost fought a war with the British Empire in 1859 over a pig in what would later become Washington State. The story goes that an American farmer shot and killed a British dudes pig because it was eating everything in his garden. The British guy, a soldier, got mad because it was killed on British soil. The Americans were all, like, “No it wasn’t, this here’s our land!” And the British were all, “Whatever, dudes. We have cannons and a Navy, what are you going to do about it?” Basically, the near-war came down to a cartographical dispute over which nation owned San Juan Island. The original American brigade dispatched to the Island was headed by Captain George Pickett. Yes, that is the same Pickett who later went on to lead Pickett’s Charge at the battle of Gettysburg. At the height of the tensions, 461 Americans with 14 cannons under Colonel Silas Casey, were opposed by three British warships mounting 70 guns and carrying 2,140 men. No shots were ever fired. The dispute was eventually (twelve years later) resolved peacefully by Kaiser Wilhelm I, who decided that the USA had rightful ownership of San Juan Island. It’s hard to believe that the Germans solved something peacefully, isn’t it?
   For more info about the pig almost-war, go to Wikipedia.