A few American settlers who traveled west along the Oregon Trail, passed through the northern part of the Oregon Territory and settled in the Puget Sound area. The first settlement in Puget Sound was Fort Nisqually, a farm and fur-trading post owned by the  Puget’s Sound Agricultural Company, a branch of the Hudson’s Bay Company. in 1846 the black pioneer George Washington Bush from Missouri and his caucasian wife, Isabella James Bush, from Tennessee, led four white families into the territory and settled New Market, now known as Tumwater. They settled in Washington to avoid Oregon’s racist settlement laws. After them, many more settlers, migrating overland along the Oregon trail, wandered north to settle in the Puget Sound area. Contrasted with other American occupations of the West, there was little violence between settlers and Native Americans, although raids by Haida, Tlingit and other northern tribes from British and Russian territory terrorized Native Americans and settlers alike in Puget Sound in the 1850s.

Seattle, founded in 1853 and originally called “Duwamps,” was established mainly to support the lumber industry which drew settlers to the territory. Unlike the wagon trains that had carried entire families to the Oregon Territory, these early trading settlements were populated primarily with single young men. Liquor, gambling, and prostitution were common pastimes, supported in Seattle by one of the city’s founders, David Swinson “Doc” Maynard, who believed that well-run prostitution could be a functional part of the economy.

Early prominent industries in the state included agriculture, lumber, and mining. In 1905 Washington State became the largest producer of lumber in the nation. The region around eastern Puget Sound developed heavy industry during the period including World War I and World War II and the Boeing Company became an established icon in the area.