This one came up during tonight’s pub quiz: What city did Abraham Lincoln designate as the alternate US capital in case something happened to Washington, DC?
The answer – of course – is Port Angeles, Washington.
If you’re like me, you’re saying to yourself, “What!?” (And cursing your guess of Philadelphia, which seemed reasonable.)
At any rate, once I got home, I had to do some net research on this. And this Port Angeles-based site does indeed make the following claim:
My question: really? My follow up question: why, if it’s true, did Lincoln pick Port Angeles out of all the podunk cities in non-states throughout US territories?
It seems, if nothing else, like communication between the new US capital of Port Angeles and the major population centers on the East coast would’ve been problematic. But there may be more to the story here, and I want to know what it is.
It also seems odd to me that Lincoln would pick a city in a territory, and not a state (Washington became a territory in 1853, but did not achieve statehood until 1889).
Interesting. I don’t really trust stuff that’s “common knowledge,” so the myth aspect seems awfully likely. More details on how this potential misinterpretation would be nice, but it looks like that info is hard to come by.