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Fraser Gold Rush prospectors exit for Victoria, B.C. and debt ruins Whatcom merchant on October 4, 1858.

On October 4, 1858, merchant O. P. Davis is sued for non-payment for goods he had bought from the San Francisco firm E. Fitzgerald and Co. to sell at his Whatcom store to prospectors on their way to t...

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St. Patrick's Church is established in Walla Walla in 1859.

In 1859, Roman Catholic Priest Toussaint Mesplie begins St. Patrick's Church. The church is the first in the small village of Steptoeville -- soon to be named Walla Walla -- and operates out of a stru...

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Scientists dine with Major Haller at Port Townsend on March 1, 1859.

On March 1, 1859, as the sun sets over the small American military camp of Fort Townsend, a few miles south of Port Townsend at the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula, an unusual group young me...

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Lt. John Mullan and a 230-man crew begin building Mullan's Road (Mullan Road) from Walla Walla in spring 1859.

In the spring of 1859, Lt. John Mullan (1830-1909), under the auspices of the U.S. War Department, begins directing a crew of 230 soldiers and civilians in the work of making a military road. Mullan R...

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Ben Snipes builds a log cabin near Sunnyside in 1859.

In 1859, cattleman Ben Snipes (1835-1906) constructs a small cabin in the Yakima Valley. The structure is the first cabin in the region to be built by a white person.

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Lyman Cutlar touches off Pig War between U.S. and Great Britain on June 15, 1859.

On June 15, 1859, Lyman Cutlar, an American settler on San Juan Island, shoots and kills a pig belonging to the British Hudson's Bay Company. The shooting ignites a long-simmering dispute between the ...

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Gustavus Sohon explores Eastern Washington and beyond as part of Captain John Mullan's military road-building team in the summer of 1859.

During the summer of 1859, Gustavus Sohon (1825-1903), a member of Captain John Mullan's team, explores the plains of Eastern Washington and the foothills of the Bitterroot Mountains in search of a vi...

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U.S. Army founds Fort Colville on June 20, 1859.

On June 20, 1859, Captain (Brevet Major) Pinkney Lugenbeel (also spelled Lougenbeel) (1819-1886) arrives in the Colville Valley and selects a site near the present town of Colville, Spokane County (la...

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San Juan Island pioneer Edward Warbass first steps ashore on the island on July 27, 1859.

On July 27, 1859, U.S. Army sutler Edward Warbass (1825-1906) accompanies Captain George Pickett (1825-1875) and 45 soldiers from Fort Bellingham when they disembark at the wharf at San Juan Town on S...

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Ben Snipes drives cattle through the Willamette Valley to the Fraser River gold fields in 1859.

In 1859, cowboy Ben Snipes (1835-1906) drives his first herd of cattle north from the Columbia River through Washington Territory to the gold mining camps along the Fraser River in British Columbia. S...

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Town of Walla Walla is named on November 17, 1859.

On November 17, 1859, Walla Walla County commissioners name the town that has grown up around the U.S. military Fort Walla Walla. They elect to name the town Walla Walla. The town begins with a rich h...

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Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species becomes available for sale on November 22, 1859.

Near the end of 1859, a year full of stabilizing events in the Pacific Northwest, Charles Darwin's revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species, is released to the book trade in Great Britain. Althou...

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