Washington Is Not The Evergreen State…At Least Officially

It's been a reference to Washington for almost as long as it's been a state, but did you know that the nation's 42nd entrant into the union isn't really "The Evergreen State"?

At least, not officially anyway. But now, a Cowlitz County senator wants to change that.

The moniker, which has appeared on license plates, road signs, and even U.S. quarters for many years, was itself coined in 1890 by an editor with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer named C.T. Conover.

Conover's sobriquet was given to Washington only a few months after it was officially granted statehood on November 11, 1889. But even though the nickname has stuck in ubiquity for over 132 years, there's still nothing emblazoned in the state's annuls of legal passage which officially grants it any accredited status.

Enter 19th District Sen. Jeff Wilson (R-Longview) circa 2025, who has introduced legislation that would finally give Washington State its Evergreen just desserts.

Wilson is the sponsor of Senate Bill 5000 (SB-5000), which as bills in either chamber go, is as short, sweet, and to the point as they come. In only 102 words, SB-5000 would finally designate "The Evergreen State" as the official nickname of Washington, and leave all those legalese naysayers eating humble cherry pie (made from the pits of the one ol' George chopped down when he was a boy!).

Indeed, the Evergreen tag does go back a long way in the state's history. Governor John McGraw used the term in his inaugural address in 1893, and the Olympia-based college bearing the namesake was created in 1967, but Washington has also been referred to by other brandings as well.

During its transitioning from territory to statehood, many referred to Washington as the "Chinook State", in reference to several groups of Indigenous peoples who spoke the Chinookan languages. In fact, the state's unofficial motto, "Al-ki", is derived from a Chinookan term meaning "by and by".

There have also been other unofficial titles given to Washington State throughout the years, including "The Apple State", "The Emerald State", and "The Green Tree State", but none of those seem quite as fitting or beloved as its longstanding-by-design epithet of "The Evergreen State".

Wilson's legislation has sixteen bipartisan co-sponsors and passed through the Senate Rules Committee on a unanimous vote of 49-0 on Feb. 5.

SB-5000 had its first reading in the State Government & Tribal Relations Committee on Feb. 7 and is still awaiting further consideration in the Senate.