The year 1883 six years before statehood was introduced to the great state of Washington. Remember the 1880 just like the 1920's was booming decade in the Pacific Northwest. Remember most settlers were not attracted to gold to settle into the Pacific Northwest. Land sales were cheap in the 1880's. Towns like Seattle, Bellingham, Spokane, Cheney, Walla Walla, Ellensburg, Yakima and Vancouver were booming with population. By the end of the 1880's many other towns were created between Seattle and Ellensburg. In 1886 Cle Elum, South Cle Elum and Roslyn were created on the east side of the Cascades. On the west of the Cascades Issaquah which was known as Squak the locals changed it to Gilman and then the legislature changed the towns name to Issaquah in 1899 because Dan Gilman did not want a town out of the Seattle area named after him. My hometowns of Snoqualmie and North Bend was born in 1888 and 1889 which both had the same name until 1903 when the actual Snoqualmie incorporated which according to William Taylor the commissioner was supposed to be Snoqualmie Falls. In 1890, Burlington Northern put the depot in the wrong spot. North Bend which was named agreed up was incorporated in 1909 was the original Snoqualmie.
This was suppose to be in North Bend not the actual Snoqualmie.
In 1883 many counties were created mostly in Eastern Washington in SE Washington Asotin County where Clarkston was located near the border town of Lewiston was created by the legislature on October 27th.
November 24th Kittitas County in Central Washington and Lincoln County was created in Eastern Washington from Whitman County from the territorial legislature.
November 28th four days later when they realized that we had too large of counties in Eastern Washington and in NW Washington. Skagit County was created and Douglas County was created since they ranchers in Lincoln County could not promise that law enforcement could be enforced in a timely manner for people on the east side of the Columbia River and the area that would become Moses Lake later on. Franklin and Adams county were created because the ranchers wanted more local control of their affairs since commuting to the Paulose was not as easy to bring a suspect to trial. Remember Spokane was just developing at this time had only a population of around less than 5,000 residents could not bother having to restore law and order west of Cheney at the time. This is why Lincoln County was formed to protect the interest of the farmers west of Spokane.
As you can see 1883 was important year in Washington's development of eventually becoming a state six years later.
