Washington Territory
Lat/Long: 47.0000, -120.0000
Washington Territory was created by being separated from Oregon Territory on March 2, 1853. The name proposed for the territory was Columbia, but it was ultimately named in honor of George Washington. Washington Territory went through several additional geographic reorganizations during Abraham Lincoln’s lifetime. Originally comprising modern-day Washington state as well as the northern portion of Idaho and part of western Montana, it absorbed the remainder of Idaho and a portion of western Wyoming when Oregon became a state in 1859. By 1863, it was reduced to the boundaries that now constitutes the current state borders of Washington following a cession of a parcel of land to the Nebraska Territory in 1861, and the creation of the Idaho Territory in 1863. Its capital was located at Olympia.
Edmond S. Meany,