Origin of Washington Geographic Names
I LIBRARy f U.S.F,S. POWTLAND, or. LFJIE COPY ORIGIN OF WASHINGTON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES BY EDMOND S. MEANY PROFESSOE O1P rnSTOBY, UNIvrnSITT O1 WASHINGTON, PRESIDNNI' OP TR MOUNTAINFIEBS, AUTHOR ON VAN000VBR'I DISOOVFXRY OF FUGET SOUND, HISTORY OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, SIOIINT E1IcIDR, EAGOEJI OY EXTLOIFATION SEATPL i3NIV1tS1Ty OF WASHTGTON P1SS 1923 HERBERT THOMAS CONDON COLLEAGUE AND FRIEND IN APPRECIATION OF HIS LOYALTY, INDUSTRY, FAITHFULNESS AHD EPPICIERCY INTRODUCTION In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Spaniards placed the beautiful geographical name of California upon the Pacific shore of North America. At first that name was extended indefi- nitely to the northward along the undiscovered or unexplored coast line.In 1579, Captain Francis Drake, on the memorable voyage which earned him knighthood at the hands of Queen Elizabeth, landed on the coast of California, took possession for England and gave the region the name of Nova Albion.The bounds of that name, like the bounds of the original California, were indefinite, although each name may be thought to have reached the shore of Washington. In 1625, Samuel Purchas: His Pilgrims was published, con- taining a letter by Michael Lok.That famous letter gave the world the purported information that in 1592 Juan de Fuca, a Greek navigator, whose real name was Apostolos Valerianus, seek- ing the fabled Straits of Anian, had found a spiral rock "between 47 and 48 degrees of Latitude" and also a great strait into which he sailed.Most of the historians who have made search for sus- taining documents in the centuries that ensued have concluded that the Juan de Fuca story is a myth.However, E'uca's Pillar and the Strait of Juan de Fuca remain as names and may be accepted as frontispieces in a discussion of Washington's historical geography.
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