Washington State Motto: Alki

Washington has no official state motto. It is the only U.S. state that has never passed a law designating one. All 49 other states have at least one officially adopted motto.

The word Alki (also written Al-ki) is listed as Washington's territorial motto on the state legislature's own website. It appeared on the territorial seal from 1854 through 1889, when it was dropped at statehood and never restored.

On November 13, 1851, Arthur Denny's party of 24 settlers arrived at a beach on the west shore of Elliott Bay. They named the settlement New York-Alki: New York after settler Charles Terry's home state, and Alki because they believed it would someday grow as large. Most of the party moved across the bay the following year and founded Seattle.

Lieutenant J.K. Duncan, part of Governor Isaac Stevens' surveying expedition, designed the Washington territorial seal. He placed Alki beneath the Goddess of Hope, who holds an anchor and points toward the word. The design was described in Olympia's Pioneer and Democrat newspaper on February 25, 1854.

When Washington became the 42nd state on November 11, 1889, jeweler Charles Talcott created a new seal. He based the design on a postage stamp portrait of George Washington and included no motto. The legislature adopted that seal and has never passed a bill to add one.