Washington State has 23 official symbols, and the stories behind them are way more interesting than you'd expect. From elementary school campaigns that took years to succeed to a state seal portrait that came from a cough medicine box, these symbols reveal how democracy really works in the Evergreen State.
The symbols everyone knows (and a few surprises)
Let's start with the symbols that actually come up in conversation. You know, the ones that might help you win trivia night or impress your out-of-state relatives.
The sport that started in a backyard
Pickleball became Washington's official sport in 2022, which makes perfect sense since we invented it. Back in 1965, future Lieutenant Governor Joel Pritchard and some friends were trying to entertain their kids on Bainbridge Island. They lowered a badminton net, grabbed some ping-pong paddles, and created what's now America's fastest-growing sport with 8.9 million players.
And no, it wasn't named after a dog. The name comes from the "pickle boat" in crew races… the boat with the leftover rowers nobody else picked. Kind of fitting for a sport cobbled together from other games' equipment.
The fruit that pays the bills
The apple has been our state fruit since 1989, and it's basically our economic superhero. Washington grows 60-70% of America's apples, generating $7 billion in economic activity and supporting 68,000 jobs. The 2024 harvest alone produced 132.4 million boxes of apples.
Even cooler? Washington State University developed the Cosmic Crisp apple, which already makes up 9% of our apple production. It's like we're living in the future of fruit.
The whales we're desperately trying to save
Our state marine mammal, the orca, has a bittersweet story. Second-graders from Oak Harbor championed these killer whales to official status in 2005. Today, only 73 Southern Resident Killer Whales remain in our waters.
Washington has the nation's strictest whale-watching laws, requiring boats to stay 1,000 yards away. That's more than half a mile, or roughly 10 football fields. We're basically telling boats to admire orcas with binoculars from the next zip code.
The flag that came from a medicine box
Here's where things get weird. Washington's state flag, our very first official symbol from 1923, features George Washington's portrait. Sounds normal enough, right? Except the portrait came from a medicine box label for "Dr. D. Jayne's Cure for Coughs & Colds."
In 1889, jeweler Charles Talcott needed a good image of Washington for the state seal. His brother found one on a cough syrup box, and voilà… that became our official state seal, which then went on the flag. We're the only state with a green flag background, representing Western Washington's forests, while the gold seal symbolizes Eastern Washington's wheat fields.
Some lawmakers want to redesign the flag in 2025 at an estimated cost of $2.3 million. Critics call it un-American, but supporters point out our flag ranks 47th out of 72 in design surveys. Apparently, "green rectangle with a seal" doesn't win style points.
When kids refuse to take no for an answer
If there's one thing Washington does differently, it's letting elementary school students drive state policy. Four of our official symbols exist because children wouldn't give up.
The three-year dinosaur campaign
The newest addition to our symbol family is the Suciasaurus rex, designated in 2023. It's the only dinosaur fossil ever discovered in Washington, and it took Ms. Amy Cole's fourth-grade class at Elmhurst Elementary three years of lobbying to make it official.
The original fourth-graders were in eighth grade by the time Governor Inslee signed the bill. As their teacher reflected, it was "a good learning experience about failure and persistence." That's one way to teach civics.
America's only state waterfall
Palouse Falls became our state waterfall in 2014, making Washington the only state with an official waterfall. Students from Washtucna Elementary (town population: 250) made it happen.
The falls drop 198 feet… that's higher than Niagara Falls. During legislative hearings, student Grace Nelson explained both the Palouse tribal legend of the falls and how Ice Age floods created them 13,000 years ago. The waterfall now draws over 200,000 visitors annually.
The Hollywood frog
Third-graders at Boston Harbor Elementary School gave us our state amphibian in 2007: the Pacific Chorus Frog. These tiny frogs live in every single Washington county and make that classic "ribbit" sound you hear in movies.
In fact, they're the only frog species in the world that makes this sound. Every time you hear a frog in a Hollywood movie, you're hearing a Washington native.
Democracy by dragonfly
The Green Darner Dragonfly became our state insect in 1997 through what might be the largest democratic exercise in state symbol history. Over 25,000 students from more than 100 school districts voted in a statewide election.
These dragonflies deserve the honor. They have a 95% hunting success rate… possibly the highest of any animal on Earth. They also migrate thousands of miles across multiple generations, like monarch butterflies with attitude.
The symbols found nowhere else
Washington has some genuinely unique wildlife that exists nowhere else on the planet. These aren't just rare… they're ours alone.
The marmot that needs bodyguards
The Olympic Marmot became our endemic mammal in 2009. These chunky rodents live only in the Olympic Mountains, hibernate for eight months, and lose half their body weight during their extended nap.
Here's the problem: we have between 2,000 and 4,000 left, and they're being eaten by coyotes. Coyotes only showed up after we eliminated wolves in the early 1900s, creating an ecological mess. Now volunteers called "Marmoteers" monitor and protect the remaining marmot colonies. Yes, Marmoteers is their actual name.
The oyster smaller than a poker chip
The Olympia Oyster, designated in 2014, is our native oyster species. These little guys are about the size of a silver dollar and supported Washington's first major fishery in the 1880s.
We nearly ate them to extinction. Now the Puget Sound Restoration Fund is working to bring them back, but it's slow going. Turns out oysters don't reproduce quickly when there are barely any left.
The gem that used to be a forest
Our state gem, petrified wood, tells a wild geological story. About 15 million years ago, lava flows created one of the world's most unusual fossil forests at Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park.
The site contains over 50 species of ancient trees turned to stone, including rare ginkgo specimens. It's like nature's own sculpture garden, except the sculptures are millions of years old and used to photosynthesize.
The million-dollar food fights
Not every symbol designation goes smoothly. Sometimes vegetables go to war.
The great onion vs. potato battle
The Walla Walla Sweet Onion became our state vegetable in 2007, but only after a three-year legislative food fight. The Washington State Potato Commission actively opposed the onion, leading to what newspapers called the "bulb and tuber war."
A compromise bill to honor both vegetables failed. The onion lobby won, leaving potatoes without official recognition despite Idaho's success with the same crop. Sometimes democracy is delicious, sometimes it's just petty.
The protest song we paid for
"Roll On, Columbia, Roll On" became our state folk song in 1987, but its history is complicated. Woody Guthrie wrote it in 1941 as paid propaganda for the Bonneville Power Administration. He got $266.66 for writing 26 songs in 30 days.
The song celebrates dam construction but ignores the devastation to salmon runs and Native burial sites. It's like having a state song that celebrates your biggest environmental controversy.
The economic powerhouses
Some symbols represent serious money and major industries that built the state.
The fish that started an industry
The Steelhead Trout became our state fish in 1969. These fish support a massive recreational fishing industry, though wild populations now face threats from hatchery fish interbreeding, which reduces offspring survival rates.
The tree we adopted out of spite
The Western Hemlock became our state tree in 1947 partly because an Oregon newspaper mocked us for not having one. The Portland Oregonian suggested the hemlock, and while Washington newspapers initially resisted the Oregon-originated idea, Representative George Adams championed it.
He correctly predicted it would become "the backbone of this state's forest industry." Sometimes spite leads to good policy.
The Hollywood star and other oddities
Some of our symbols have unexpected second careers or strange backstories.
The ship that fights pirates
The Lady Washington serves as our state ship since 2007. This 1989 replica of a 1750s vessel was the first American ship to reach the Pacific Coast. You might recognize it as the HMS Interceptor from Pirates of the Caribbean or Captain Hook's Jolly Roger from Once Upon a Time.
The complete list of Washington symbols
For the completionists out there, here's what else we've got:
Natural symbols:
- Bird: American Goldfinch (1951)
- Flower: Coast Rhododendron (1892/1959)
- Grass: Bluebunch Wheatgrass (1989)
Cultural symbols:
- Dance: Square Dance (1979)
- Tartan: Washington State Tartan (1991)
Planning your symbol road trip
Want to see these symbols in person? Here's your starter pack:
Must-visit locations:
- Palouse Falls State Park
- Ginkgo Petrified Forest
- Lady Washington tours
- Olympic National Park (marmots)
- San Juan Islands (orcas)
Best photo opportunities:
- Palouse Falls at sunset
- Apple orchards in bloom
- Orca watching from shore
- Marmots if you're lucky
Educational stops:
- Burke Museum (Suciasaurus rex)
- Washington State History Museum
- Local oyster farms
- Pickleball courts everywhere
What these symbols really tell us
After diving into all 23 symbols, some patterns emerge. Washington lets kids lead political campaigns and sometimes they win. We turn mistakes (like medicine box portraits) into traditions. We'll adopt Oregon's suggestions out of spite, then make them economically vital. We'll fight for three years over vegetables.
These symbols show a state that takes democracy seriously at every level. Where else would fourth-graders lobby for three years straight? Where else would 25,000 students vote on the state insect? Where else would a cough syrup label become the state seal?
The symbols also reveal our challenges. The 73 remaining Southern Resident Orcas. The Olympic Marmots threatened by an ecological imbalance we created. The steelhead populations struggling against human interference. Even our symbols remind us that conservation matters.
But mostly, these 23 symbols tell the story of a state that's still figuring itself out. We're the place that invented pickleball in a backyard and made it official. We're the state that produces most of America's apples and almost all of Hollywood's frog sounds. We're the people who put a medicine box portrait on our flag and keep it there a century later.
That's Washington: a little weird, surprisingly democratic, economically powerful, ecologically concerned, and absolutely committed to letting elementary school students write laws. Our symbols aren't just emblems… they're autobiography.
