Hello everyone, happy Valentines day ,or singles awareness day. Today I have another addition of WW2 effects, this time on a state I was in less than 3 days ago, (I choose the state of the week randomly by the way, so this was a pleasant surprise) on a museum tour across Oregon and Washington, the state is beautiful, but it rained about 90% of the time we were there, which was great since I live in a place (Arizona) that gets rain seemingly once every 3 months, if that. Last WW2 effects: Oklahoma http://ww2f.com/threads/ww2-effects-oklahoma.70659/ Northwest Museum trip thread: http://ww2f.com/threads/northwest-museum-trip.70629/#post-822423 Washington Pre-WW2 Washington state, the small populace and rainy state out in the Northwest, was really the best way to describe Washington before WW2. Seattle was finally returning to prominence with factories and businesses sprouting up everywhere, replacing the long dead whaling, and weakening lumber industries. With very little natural resources left, Washington was forced to find new ways to bring in revenue and bring people from the East to take jobs in the factories and corporations across the state. Agriculture in the 30's was Washington's main economic strength, growing red raspberries, hops, peas, apples, and spearmint. With the Great Depression hitting in 1929, Washington was hit particularly hard, factories laid off thousands of workers, and many businesses simply failed. However, in the early years of 1940, things were beginning to look up for the downtrodden state, and a particular aviation company.... Washington WW2 Right before WW2 kicked off for America, Washington took a major step into modernity, a step that would prove vital in the coming months. In 1941, construction on the Grand Coulee dam was finished, the dam was at the time the largest concrete structure in the U.S. The Dam was made to help bring electricity to many areas of the state, including both Olympia and Seattle. With WW2 beginning, the state was ready for the workload needed to fight a full fledged war. More than 15 shipyards were built or re-purposed to make everything from tug boats, to aircraft Carriers, some of the biggest yards were in Bremerton, Vancouver, and Tacoma. The Pacific car and foundry made thousands of Jeeps, half-tracks, and tanks to send across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans to the front lines, or up north through Canada to the front in Alaska. One of the greatest contributions Washington made to the war effort was not in the naval or ground warfare industry, but aviation. 16 Army Airfields were built in 1940 and 1941, nearly all of them were used extensively in the war. Remember the aviation company I mentioned earlier? Well that company made a huge leap from a somewhat successful airline and civilian corporation, to making the very aircraft that would help end the war, Boeing. Based in Seattle, Boeing had been working on and improving the B-17 design that was created in 1935. Those improvements would help American airmen bomb the living hell out of targets in France, Italy, Germany, the Pacific, and many other fronts. Boeing also designed what many aviators call the greatest biplane ever made, the Boeing Pt-17 Stearman. The Stearman trained an estimated 73% of America's flyboys to fly during the war. Then in 1942, Boeing began work on a long range, high altitude, and pressurized bomber, the same bomber that would drop the Atomic Bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima....the B-29 Superfortress. Washington Post WW2 3.941 of Washington's warriors died in the war, nearly 100 alone were killed in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Washington would, and hasn't forgotten their young men's sacrifices, if anything it has been a driving force in the states transformation from a lightly populated Northern state, to a real powerhouse of a state with a population that has grown by nearly 5 million people since 1940. Along with it's growing population, industries and companies across Washington also grew and became successful as a result of the conflict. Boeing after the war played a major role in the first few decades of the Cold War for American aviation, and an even bigger role in Commercial aviation. Seattle has become a hub for companies such as Microsoft, Costco, Amazon, and Starbucks. If you ask me, Washington probably had the biggest leap from a relatively unknown state, to becoming am major player in just about every category nationwide than any other state. The Sky is the limit for Washington, (Definitely not for Boeing though!), and it seems like things can only get better.
A couple of points you missed. The magnasite mine up North of Spokane was the main source of that mineral for the US during the war. See: Magnesite industry begins near Chewelah in Stevens County in 1916. - HistoryLink.org Chewelah -- Thumbnail History - HistoryLink.org of greater significance though was the Hannaford site which produced the Plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb.
I forgot to mention Bremerton naval yards which repaired and overhauled significant elements of the fleet during the war. The hydroelectric power was also fairly important to the production of aluminum.
Thank you for your added information lwd, in many cases, some states have so much info, that I have too pick and choose which elements I'll use to write on, so many of the ones you mentioned barely missed the cut.
