Historical Settlement of North America

             Washington State was part of the Oregon Territory unit 1848.  There after, the United States took control of the area from Spain, Russia, and Great Britain.  Washington, along with the Pacific Northwest region has held dense populations since the time of the first explorers.  Settlement patterns tended to be located where there was an abundance of resources.  For example, aboriginal residence occupied the northwest region for its marine resource which also resulted in complex belief systems and rituals.  In the later years after the arrival of Europeans, the abundance of quality timber had attracted loggers from across the country.  Prior to the discovery of Washington's large trees, loggers were producing large amounts of wood out of Maine and other states on the east coast (History, 2013).  By the mid 1800's, logging was proving to be a possibility for economic development in the previously occupied Native American lands.  Around the same time in 1862, Lincoln's Homestead Act tempted unemployed loggers from the Midwest to migrate West (History, 2013).  They quickly found that the Pacific Northwest was the place to harvest quality timber. 

            By the the 1890's and into the 20th century, Washington was holding the record for producing timber at a rate of 1 billion board feet annually (History, 2013).  In 1905, Washington had become the top lumber-producing state in America (History, 2013).  Washington hit it's all-time high producing 7.6 billion board feet 1926 (starting the 21st century only producing 4.1 in comparison) (History, 2013).  Despite the massive changes throughout history, there are still large Native American lands in Washington although mostly toward the east which consist mostly of grasslands and desert.  Now-a-days, migration and settlement patterns have shifted slightly in the United States.  Instead of immigrants settling in large cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, they are now settling in second-tier cities such as Dallas, Texas and Seattle, Washington.  This has also been the result of the recession that began in 2008.  New immigrants have been moving to cities, like Seattle, that have not been effected dramatically by the recession in addition to increasing numbers during the past decade.  We shall see where new migration patters will bloom in the upcoming decade. 

http://www.history.com/shows/ax-men/articles/history-of-logging