Washington isn’t officially ‘The Evergreen State’… but it could be

You’ll read it on welcome signs posted at a number of locations on Washington’s border. The phrase greets travelers on roadside signs as they enter our state.

And it’s printed in bright red, uppercase font on Washington’s license plates.

“The Evergreen State” has been included in Washington’s lore since as long as anyone alive today can remember. Still, it’s not officially recognized as our state’s nickname.

That could change soon, if a bill appointing “The Evergreen State” as Washington’s official nickname passes in this legislative session.

“This has been that associated nickname that we’ve somewhat assumed in all these years, and really what it implies is something that can remain green, remain fresh,” said bill sponsor Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview. “But most importantly, it’s also been part of our commerce, our economy.”

The bill has 40 sponsors, and Wilson said he ran out of time to ask the remaining eight senators before introducing the bill to the Senate state Government and Elections Committee.

“I’m just amazed that what we had assumed for so long as part of our state is tradition and not codified anywhere,” said Sen. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia, committee chair.

Washington boasts an extensive canon of official state symbols, including state tree, the Western hemlock, and state fruit, the apple. More obscurely, Washington also has an official state gemstone, tartan, oyster and ship. Most recently, pickleball joined the collection last year as our official state sport.

Washington’s unofficial nickname is almost as old as the state itself.

It can be traced back to 1890, when Seattle real estate broker Charles Tallmadge Conover titled a promotional booklet “Washington the Evergreen State and Seattle its Metropolis.” Conover and his business partner distributed their booklet, written by historian Frederic Grant, across the nation, hoping to sell properties and encourage emigration to Washington in the wake of its admittance to the Union in 1889.

Conover, who first arrived in Washington from New York in 1884, was struck by the economic potential of the territory, particularly the lumber and agricultural industries. The lush greenery, of both organic and monetary varieties, inspired Conover’s nickname for the state.

“(Washington) is where the entire West will turn for its lumber supply before many years, and here are the resources which will meet that demand until generations yet unborn have passed away,” wrote Grant in the booklet, accurately predicting the prosperity of the lumber industry.

State government was quite taken with this nickname and began using it on promotional and tourism materials. At the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, promoters used it as a slogan in advertising efforts. In the same year, former Gov. John H. McGraw referenced the Evergreen State in his inaugural address.

The rest is history; even without legislative action, Washington is widely known as the Evergreen State, thanks to real estate advertising from 1890.

This bill isn’t the Legislature’s first attempt to formally establish the nickname. In 2009, former Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, introduced a bill to do the same. The bill didn’t pass, and in 2019, Honeyford told a reporter he didn’t remember introducing it, let alone why it didn’t pass.

The bill was unanimously voted out of the committee on Friday. Its next stop will be the Senate floor, where lawmakers will vote to send it to the House of Representatives, though this has not yet been scheduled.