OLYMPIA, the capital city of Washington, U.S.A., and the county seat of Thurston county, at the extreme southern end of Puget Sound, so m. S.S.W. from Seattle. It is on Federal high ways 99, IoI and 41o; has an airport of 200 ac. on the Pacific Airway, Io min. drive from the heart of the city; and is served by the Northern Pacific and the Union Pacific railways, motor coach lines and steamboats. Pop. (192o) 7,795 (88% native white); 193o 11,733, a gain of 50.5%. The city occupies 7.07 sq.m., and is surrounded on the landward sides by low green hills.
On the south the Deschutes river flows through a rocky canyon to the Sound. The snow-capped Olympics form the northern horizon, and to the east rises Mount Rainier. The streets are wide and straight ; the public buildings stately. On a fir-clad promontory jutting into the Sound stands the beautiful group of new State buildings, built of white stone in classic design, at a cost of $15,000,000. The trade of the port was valued in 1927 at 80o, consisting largely of floated logs, lumber and lumber products, sand and gravel, oysters and oyster shells. The aggregate output
of the factories in 1927 was valued at $8,945,300. Since 1925 the city has had a commission form of government. The assessed valuation of property in 1928 was $4,987,082. Olympia is the gateway to the Olympic peninsula, and is headquarters of the Olympia National Forest service. The first settlement on Puget sound was made in 1846 at the falls of the Deschutes river, on the site of Tumwater, a mile south of Olympia, under the leadership of Michael T. Simmons, from Kentucky, but in 1849 it was prac tically deserted when the men left for the California goldfields. In 1851 a town (at first called Smithfield) was laid out where Olympia now stands. In 1852 the first newspaper north of the Columbia was established here (the Columbian) and in 1853 the town became the capital of the newly created Territory of Wash ington. It was chartered as a city in 1859. The first governor's mansion still stands and a tablet indicates the site of the first capitol. A monument in Capitol Park marks the terminus of the Old Oregon Trail.