Eastern Washington

Eastern Washington is the portion of the US state of Washington east of the Cascade Range. The region contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the fertile farmlands of the Yakima Valley and the Palouse. Unlike in Western Washington, the climate is dry, including some nearly desert environments.

Statehood

There have been sporadic movements to create a 51st state out of Eastern Washington by splitting the current state down the Cascades, but proposals have rarely progressed out of the state legislature's committees. Recent proposals were made in 1996, 1999, and 2005. Proposed names for the new state have included Lincoln, and Columbia, or simply Eastern Washington. Many of these proposals were to include the Idaho Panhandle. See: State of Lincoln for more information.

Eastern Washington tends to vote Republican, whereas Western Washington usually supports the Democrats.

Washington State

Washington State may refer to:

See also

Washington

Washington commonly refers to:

Washington may also refer to:

Geography

United States

Cities and communities

Other features

Outside the United States

Eastern Washington University

Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a regional, comprehensive public university located in Cheney, Washington, with programs offered at campuses in Cheney, EWU Spokane at the Riverpoint Campus and at multiple campus locations throughout the state.

Founded in 1882, the university is academically divided into four colleges: The College of Arts, Letters & Education; The College of Business & Public Administration; The College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics; and The College of Social Science & Behavioral Sciences and Social Work. A fifth college, The College of Health Science & Public Health, is set to open in the fall of 2014 and will be based at EWU Spokane on the Riverpoint Campus.

As of fall 2014, Eastern Washington University enrolled over 13,000 graduate and undergraduate students at both its Cheney and Spokane campuses.

History

Eastern Washington University was established in 1882 by a $10,000 grant from expressman Benjamin Pierce Cheney, and was originally known as Benjamin P. Cheney Academy to honor its founder. In 1889 the school was renamed State Normal School and in 1937 to Eastern Washington College of Education. The campus grew quickly in size following World War II. The school became Eastern Washington State College. During this era, Eastern added various graduate and undergraduate degree programs. In 1977, the school's name was changed for the final time to Eastern Washington University by the Washington State Legislature.

Banks Lake

Banks Lake is a 27-mile (43 km) long reservoir in central Washington in the United States.

Part of the Columbia Basin Project, Banks Lake occupies the northern portion of the Grand Coulee, a formerly dry coulee near the Columbia River, formed by the Missoula Floods during the Pleistocene epoch. Grand Coulee Dam, built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation on the Columbia River created Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, the reservoir on the river behind the dam. The surface of Lake Roosevelt is several hundred feet above the original Columbia River, making it easier to pump water 280 feet (85 m) up and out of the river's canyon into the adjacent Grand Coulee. Two low earth-fill dams, Dry Falls Dam and North Dam, keep the water in the Grand Coulee, thus creating the reservoir named Banks Lake. It is named after Frank A. Banks, the construction supervisor at Grand Coulee Dam.

At the north end of Banks Lake the city of Grand Coulee and the town of Electric City are located. Steamboat Rock State Park is in the north-central portion. The town of Coulee City is at the south end of the lake. From the south end, the water stored in Banks Lake is distributed over a large region for irrigation of the Columbia Basin Project.