HISTORY of CAPITOL LAKE AREA Tim Keck

HISTORY OF CAPITOL LAKE AREA by Tim Keck History of Capitol Lake Area Capitol Lake is located in the heart of Olympia, Washington on the shores of Budd Inlet in the Puget Sound. In 1846 Levi L. Smith and Edmund Sylvester came to what is now Olympia and made permanent settlements. The two became partners, and under the partnership clause of the land law of Oregon, each located 320 acres, Smith making his residence upon what is now the City of Olympia, and designating it Smithfield. Mr. Sylvester took up the claim on the edge of Chamber's Prairie, better known as the Dunham Donation claim. The area in and around Olympia was a site of beauty when Smith first arrived. Stretching off to the north was the placid waters of the beautiful bay, its shores lined with the primeval forests; in the background the white peaks of the Olympics, to the right was the grand old Rainier, while all around were the gigantic forests of fir and cedar. The two square acres of muddy peninsula between the two arms of Puget Sound formed a small oasis in the wilderness of virgin timber. It was here that Olympia would have its beginnings. The tidal range at the tip of Puget Sound is well over twenty feet. At low tide the peninsula extended nearly a mile south in the form of mudflats teeming with clams and oysters. At extreme high tide much of it was covered by salt water. Under normal tidal conditions the small peninsula somewhat resembled the silhouette of a bear, and the area was called "Chetwoot" by the Indians. It was at this site that Levi L. Smith built the first permanent structure the town of Smithfield, a rude log cabin some sixteen feet square. With the creation in 1848 of Oregon Territory, Smithfield was in Lewis County, Oregon territory, and in the first county elections that year, Smith was chosen as a representative to the Oregon provisional legislature. He never did get the chance though to fulfill his duties: Late in the month of August, while going to New Market in a canoe, Mr. Smith was seized with an epileptic fit, fell into the water and was drowned. After Smith's death, Sylvester moved from his Chambers prairie claim and became the permanent occupant of his dead partner's cabin on tidewater. In 1850 the former Smith claim was dedicated as a town. Edmund Sylvester was still the sole owner of the new municipality, and he decided to launch it with a new name, Olympia. The new name was probably suggested by the beautiful views of the Olympic Range. The first store was established in 1850 by Charles H. Smith and M. T. Simmons and was located at the corner of Main and Second Streets. During the early years, people lived very primitively. There was not many household necessities in the new settlement and luxuries were not missed by these harty pioneers. Only the necessities of life and articles which appealed to the Indians were dealt in at the beginning. It was not until 1852 when George A. Barnes opened a general merchandise store at the west end of First -2- Street that business began to take on a more ostentatious appear- ance. More business houses were opened later by A.J. Moses, J.G. Parker, Sam Coulter, L. Bettman, Goldman & Rosenblatt and Louisson & Company. The first governor of the new territory was Isaac I. Stevens who arrived on the evening of November 25, 1853. The relationship between the white settlers and the Indians was good before Governor Stevens arrived. They shared the same land and worked well with each other in solving problems or differences that would arise. Neither group wanted to get rid of the other because they both felt satisfied and comfortable with the type of life they had. After Governor Stevens arrived, he-began extinguishing all Indian land claims. There were, by 1854, a growing feeling of unrest between settlers and their Indian neighbors, as more and more Of the Indian's choicest land was being appropriated. Further- more, many of the newcomers did not treat the Indians as kindly and fairly as had the first settlers. The cases of Indians murdering white men and white men murdering Indians were on the increase, and it was becoming increasingly apparent to the Indians that murderers of their race were usually hanged, whereas white men who murdered Indians went free. Finally the Indians began fighting back and by 1855 were almost beaten. In 1856 they tried one more time to get their land back but were unsuccessful. The Indian was thoroughly depopulated the area in and around Olympia. In 1858, gold was thought to exist in the Black Hills. When the word spread, people from all over came to take part in it. -3- Olympia, being the only town of importance north of the Columbia and the first on tide water, was the headquarters for miners and miners supplies. The same year, Wells Fargo & Company, established an express office at Olympia. There were many improvements made in the City of Olympia in the year 1858. Underground cisterns were built at the corners of Main, and Third and Fourth Streets. The main source of water had previously been the spring at the northeast corner of Fourth and Main next door to Edmund Sylvester's store. The stumps which dotted Main Street above Fourth were removed, and several blocks of wooden sidewalks were built alongside the streets. The first newspaper was the Cojjjmbian which started printing in 1852. It politically advocated the principles of the Whig Party. In 1853 the Columbian changed to the Washington Pioneer. There also came a change of political affiliations from Whig to Democratic. In 1855, R.L. Doyle established the Northwest Democrat but it soon consolidated with the Pioneer under the title, Pioneer and Democrat. In November, 1860, John Miller Murphy encouraged by leading Republicans of Olympia, established the Washington Standard. In 1861 A.M. Poe established the Over- land Press as a rival to the Standard. It later became the Pacific Tribune. In 1871 L.P. Beach and Governor E.P. Ferry brought to Olympia from Port Townsend the plant of the Puget Sound Courier. In 1874 the Standard and Courier combined to publish a daily, The Olympian. In 1884, the Courier plant was sold to W.H. Roberts and F.A. Dunham, who in addition to publishing the Weekly Courier, -4- issued for a time the Daily Critic. The Courier was sold the following year and the name was changed to Republican Partisan. There was many more papers that were being published around the same time that the previously mentioned were. One of the main industries of the area in the earlier years was logging. There was three sawmills built on the Sound in 1852. During that year shipments of coal, lumber and fish were made to San Francisco, Today, the forest industry and related jobs to it ware still one of the leading industries of the state. Another h^a^y^xemp lover cxfj ob^ in the earlier years was the ^ railroads. Olympia had hoped to become tidewater terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The company had informed the town trustees that it proposed to locate the terminus on Budd Inlet, provided a right of way was obtained from Bush Prairie to tidewater. This was quickly provided and the citizens settled down to await the arrival of the train. Late in November the line reached a tiny settlement called Hodgson's Station in Coal Bank precinct, 15 miles south of Olympia. It never got closer. Instead, it proceeded on to Commencement Bay and the sawmill village of Commencement City, which later became known as Tacoma. In 1874 Olympia decided to build a railroad of their own. Through hard work and strong determination the project was finally completed in July of 1879. The early operation of the railroad was not without its problems and frustrations. Property owners on the west side of the Deschutes waterway had refused to cooperate in the securing of a right of way and it was necessary to build a trestle on the mudflats to carry the line the last couple of -5- miles to the depot at the Fourth Street "Long Bridge". The idea in building a 15 mile line from Olympia to Tenino was to connect it with the main line of the Northern Pacific. The Olympia-Tenino railroad engendered a new industry. With the railroad providing connections with the Northern Pacific and relatively speedy freight transport to Portland, a group of enterprising Olympia citizens formed the Olympia Oyster Company, gathering and shipping the succulent local bivalves in consider- able quantity. Before the oysters had mostly been gathered by Indians and hawked from baskets to the limited Olympia market. Once the railroads came into the area, it began to open up new industries like the Oyster Company and from that more and more people began to come to the Olympia area. Ships going to and from the Olympia brewery carrying freight would pass through the Fourth Street drawbridge. The original capitol site was twelve acres and it was donated in 1854 by Edmund Sylvester. He donated the land so that the :;,v. capitol would remain in Olympia. The first permanent building on the campus were the following: Mansion 1906, Temple 1919, and the Insurance Building 1921. The Legislative Building became the Capitol Building in 1927. That was the same year Olympia was finally determined the capitol site. Today the capitol campus totals 397.25 acres of which the west campus totals 54.25 acres, east campus totals 48,5 acres and Capitol Lake totals 267 acres.

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