The Sunday Olympian’s Looking Back theme for 2024 was Many Voices, celebrating our diverse and rich history. Oysters have been a staple of Pacific Northwest diets for thousands of years. While oysters were originally harvested by Native Americans, by the 1930s Japanese immigrants were the primary source of harvesting labor in Thurston County. Pictured here are harvesters doing the back-breaking work of loading oysters into a scow.
unknown photographer, early 1900s, courtesy State Capital Museum, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1950.8.6
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2024