That’s because they devolved.
Are they greasy?
I suspect the OP is not a native English speaker, but as near as I can tell, here is the question:
“Where did most white Americans who live in Washington State come from? That is, what part of the United States? Also, did New England Yankees migrate to Washington State and Oregon the way people from Upstate New York did?”
I’m surprised too, because in my experience Pennsylvania (at least the western part) is full of Polish surnames, and I’m pretty sure the same is true for at least parts of New York and thereabouts. Why are they not represented on the map?
My family came over from the UK at various times and settled in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. My mom and I moved to Washington State from the east coast. I imagine a lot of the original settlers in the west came from all over the eastern US, looking for gold, homesteads, railroad work, etc. Don’t know if there’s any specific pattern regarding where they came from originally.
There would have been a lot of Irish and Chinese folk, certainly, given the high populations of same working on the railroads. Many of them would probably have stayed out west rather than going back east once the lines were finished.
There have been several large waves of migration from the South to the West.
The first was the California gold rush. What’s important to know about the California gold rush is that it was most immediately preceded by the Georgia gold rush. And just as the gold in Georgia started to play out, word arrived of the discovery of gold in California. Experienced miners from Georgia left the state in droves and headed west. (And yes, they stayed in California. Several branches of my own family headed west during that time, and their descendants are there today. My own ancestors stayed behind in Georgia.)
A second wave came after the Civil War, when many footloose and disheartened Confederate veterans flooded into Texas and points west with or without their families. Depressed economic conditions in the South lingered for decades, and provided further impetus for westward movement, which continued steadily in the late 19th century.
Finally, of course, there was a surge westward during the Great Depression, as a result of the Dust Bowl making farming conditions in much of the South untenable.
Note the trails to the West on this map. Settlers in the West came from all of the eastern states. New Mexico, Arizona, and California, in particular, experienced large influxes of Southerners settlers.
To answer the OP’s specific questions, it is likely that most (but not all) of the settlers in Washington and Oregon came from northeastern and midwestern states. By the same token, it is likely that most (but not all) of the settlers in New Mexico and Arizona came from southern states.
Regionalism is a problem? Do tell.
The poster Jeneva replied to was a spammer, and I’ve deleted his/her/its posts.
Yes, it’s spelled that way too.