city of olympia saved pages – Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum

Cultural History of the Olympia Oyster, by Ed Echtle

October 8, 2022

This article, written for the City of Olympia, was captured from the Wayback Machine and posted here for information purposes.

Introduction

Oyster Table at Percival Landing For millennia, the native people of Puget Sound relied on the Olympia Oyster as a key part of their food supply. Its abundance in South Sound gave the Squaxin people a valuable asset to share and trade with their neighbors and allies throughout the region.

When American settlers arrived on Puget Sound in the mid-1800s, they also depended on shellfish as a staple food. Very early on, Olympia Oysters became an export product, allowing the development of one of Washington’s most enduring industries.

Despite early overharvesting, environmental threats and political controversies, the Olympia Oyster remained an important cultural icon that continues to symbolize the area to the present. Its importance to the diverse peoples and natural environment of Washington throughout history makes its story key to understanding this place.

Natural History

1948 map of Olympia Harbor, NOAA Ice Age glaciation over thousands of years shaped the inland waterways that comprise Puget Sound. When the last glaciers receded 11,000 years ago, the many channels left behind filled with seawater, allowing shellfish and other marine life to populate the inlets. Olympia Oysters are found from Alaska to Baja California._¹ The numerous shallow bays of South Puget Sound provide…

The numerous shallow bays of South Puget Sound provide ideal habitat for Olympias. In the mild climate, spawning begins in May and continues through August.^₂ Despite their small size, Olympia Oysters require several years to reach full maturity and may live as long as fifty years.^₃

Olympia Oysters are sensitive to environmental factors and mainly grow below mean low tide where they are always covered with water. They require clean water to thrive and naturally occurring temperature extremes sometimes damage them.^₄ If frozen while tide is out in winter, oysters may float to the surface as a mass on an incoming tide resulting in a large die-off and a feast for gulls.^₅

Native Uses

Lester and Johnny John 1880-1920, Washington State Digital Archives Local native peoples referred to the Olympia Oyster as “Kloch Kloch”. Ancient piles of discarded shells throughout south Puget Sound show the Olympia Oyster has always been a key part of native peoples’ diet in this region. At what is now Olympia, a Squaxin village called bəsčətxwəd meaning “a place that has bears” existed well into the 1850s. Located on the original shoreline on what is now…

Located on the original shoreline on what is now Columbia St, one early settler described it as, “…about a dozen one-story frame cabins … covered with split-cedar siding, well ventilated, but healthy.”^₆

For millennia, the south end of Steh-Chass, later called Budd Inlet by whites, was very shallow, and low tide exposed vast mudflats teaming with shellfish, much like neighboring Noo-She-Chatl (Henderson Inlet), Squi-Aitl (Eld Inlet) and T’Peeksin (Totten Inlet).

Although its original source is unclear, a saying used throughout the Pacific Northwest is, “when the tide is out the table is set,” referring to the abundance of food contained in the tidelands.

The Squaxin people who lived on the inlets gathered mussels, clams and oysters and granted harvesting rights to other tribes in exchange for access to food-gathering sites they controlled. Scattered along the shores of Steh-Chass/Budd Inlet were seasonal villages, used by visiting Chehalis, Duwamish, Nisqually, Skokomish, and Suquamish, among others. Tribes from east of the Cascade Mountains also travelled to South Sound to gather shellfish, trade, and strengthen family and social bonds, a tradition that continues today.^₇

American Settlement

Oyster shucking 1909, Washington State Historical Society When American settlers first arrived in late 1845, it was too late in the season to plant crops so they relied heavily on shellfish. Andrew J Chambers, who arrived in 1847, recalled oysters were critical to settlers’ survival their first winters here.^₈ Thomas Prather recalled that in 1853, “There was a big band of Indians camped on the west side, coming to this side in canoes for the purpose of…

bartering fish, oysters and berries for sugar, flour, bacon and calico.”^₉

The importance of shellfish to American relocating to Puget Sound is also reflected in the song, “The Old Settler” written by Olympia Mayor Francis Henry in 1874. It catalogues the hardships faced by settlers, but concludes with the verse:

No longer a slave of ambition,
I laugh at the world and its shams,
And I think of my happy condition,
Surrounded by Acres of Clams

By 1854 settlers increasingly encroached on traditional native food gathering resources. In December, Washington’s first territorial governor Isaac Stevens concluded the first of several regional treaties at Medicine Creek, a few miles east of Olympia. Stevens appointed representatives from among the natives and grouped smaller bands under new tribal designations. The Squaxin Tribe was formed out of several smaller bands that lived along South Puget Sound inlets. In exchange for their agreeing to allow American settlement, the Governor guaranteed natives’ right to continue gathering food “in common” with American settlers in their “usual and accustomed places.”^₁₀

However, by late 1855 some Western Washington natives angered by the treaty terms attacked settlers and fought US troops and volunteer militiamen into 1856. Settlers in Olympia built fortifications and banished all natives from the town. Many Squaxin people spent the conflict in an internment camp on Squaxin Island, just north of Olympia. After the war, natives returned to Olympia to work and trade, but new town laws prohibited their residence in city limits. Afterwards they resided in nearby camps along the shores of Budd Inlet and continued to provide labor and trade gathered foods with American settlers.

Early Oystering in Washington

Delivering oysters to the steamship, ©The Susan Parish Collection/Shadow Catchers The first people to offer oysters for sale were natives. George Blankenship recalled native women harvested oysters in the mud flats around Olympia for sale or trade for clothing or other household goods.^₁₁ Gathering took place at low tide, day or night. Some natives built fires on sleds with iron tops to provide light and warmth as they harvested.^₁₂ Pioneer Olympia merchant Gustave Rosenthal recalled, “… oysters were sold only by Indian women, carrying a basket of a quarter bushel on their backs, supported by a strap across their foreheads.”^₁₃ Others remembered native women sitting along streets in Olympia with hand-woven baskets filled with oysters for sale. After the advent of automobiles and highways, some natives sold shellfish in hand-woven traditional baskets to tourists on the steps of the State Capitol building.^₁₄

Early Chinese immigrants also took up small-scale oyster harvesting, in competition with natives. Chinese arrived in Olympia by the early 1850s. Barred by whites to work in direct competition with white male labor, oyster gathering was one of the few opportunities available to them. Competition with native oyster harvesters led to an informal agreement between the two groups: Chinese gathered Oysters in the tide flats south of Fourth Ave while natives gathered to the north.^₁₅

The first large-scale export of oysters from Washington began at Willapa Bay, on the Washington coast. During and after the 1849 California Gold Rush, demand for oysters in the boomtown of San Francisco created a thriving trade. While Olympia Oysters were small, (2400 shucked oysters per gallon,) they were prized for their unique “coppery” taste and became a traditional food for celebrations of financial success.^₁₆

At Willapa, natives worked for American entrepreneurs, providing the main source of labor in the oyster beds.^₁₇ However, the “oyster boom” at Willapa soon led to overharvesting and a need for regulation. The first Washington Territorial Legislature passed laws in 1854 requiring permits for harvesting unless the harvester was a resident of Washington, and later banned all harvest by nonresidents.^₁₈

Puget Sound Industry Beginnings

Oyster Bay Claims 1893, Washington State Digital Archives Initially oysters growing in south Puget Sound were too remote to survive transport to California by sailing ship. As settlement of the northwest continued, demand for oysters increased in the region, especially in Seattle and Portland. By the 1860s entrepreneurs looked at South Puget Sound oysters as the next great extraction industry. To promote the idea, local press referred to the tidelands as “oyster mines.”^₁₉

The first known commercial export of Oysters from South Sound was by Adam Korter, from Oyster Bay in Totten Inlet, but the effort failed to generate much interest.^₂₀ Olympia merchant Gustave Rosenthal began buying oysters from native women in 1868 for sale to restaurants around Puget Sound with better results.^₂₁

By the 1870s enough people were engaged in oyster harvesting that the Territorial Legislature passed a measure granting exclusive use of up to ten acres of oyster beds to applicants in order to prevent “claim jumping” by competing harvesters.^₂₂ The ability to secure legal claim, if not ownership, encouraged oyster harvesters to make improvements on the tidelands. In 1878 AB Rabbeson, RP Shoecraft and TC Van Epps founded the Olympia Oyster Company, the first incorporated oyster company on Puget Sound.^₂₃ Later that year Joseph Gale, AJ Smith and David Helser came to Oyster Bay from Olympia and established an oyster business.^₂₄ Just two years later, local producers shipped $100,000 of local oysters to Portland Oregon via the recently completed railroad.^₂₅

The rapid increase in harvesting on South Puget Sound inlets led to a sharp decline in the natural oyster population as early as 1881. Oyster growers quickly realized they had to regulate the harvest before oysters disappeared from local waters. That year Gale, Taylor, Smith and ten others, founded the Puget Sound Oyster Association (PSOA) to coordinate the industry. PSOA oversaw the restoration of oyster beds and advocated practices to better maintain the oyster population.^₂₆

After Washington achieved statehood in 1889, the legislature passed the “Callow Act” allowing the purchase of oyster tideland from the state. The state required purchasers to file a survey and map of their land with their application. After 1918 the state also established “seed grounds” or reserves where harvest was banned to maintain spawning stocks.^₂₇ These measures further protected the investments of growers in their oyster beds spurring growth in the industry.^₂₈

Oystering Families

Earl G, John and Earl Brenner Jr., The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster The physical demands and round-the-clock schedule of oyster cultivation and processing made early shellfish enterprises family affairs. Squaxin families were among the first to enter the rapidly industrializing oyster business. The Charley, John, Jackson, Kettle, Krise, Simmons, Slocum, Tobin and Wohaut families not only harvested oysters on Eld, Totten and Little Skookum Inlets west of Olympia, they also filed official land claims as soon as they were able and constructed culling houses, floats and other structures and developed contracts with shippers as the industry developed.^₂₉

The small numbers of white settlers engaged in the early oyster business on rural Eld and Totten Inlets fostered interdependence between white and native families and intermarriage was common. Adam Korter began his oyster business with his native wife in the early 1860s. Joe Gale, another founder of the industry, married Katie Kettle, a member of a prominent Squaxin family. English immigrant Harry Weatherall married Sallie, a Squaxin woman. Married couples worked in partnership and in some instances native women were able to control land themselves.^₃₀ In the case of Katie Gale, courts awarded her and their children ownership of half their oyster claim after a divorce from Joe.^₃₁ However, after oysterman Harry Weatherall died, Sallie was unable to convince courts they were legally married and his relatives inherited their claim.^₃₂

Others taking out early oyster claims on South Sound inlets included SK Taylor, Jesse Bowman, AS Ruth, William H. Kneeland, David H Helser, J Y Waldrip, Charles Brenner, Simmons, CN Allen, CR Talcott, John Blass, AD Simmons, WJ Doane, JJ Brenner, and EN Steele; also, J. H. Deer, Dan & Dennis Hurley, Thomas O’Neil and AL McDonald.^₃₃ While not all lived on the bays, those who did comprised a tightly-knit community bound together through economic interdependence, marriage and other social ties.

“Famous Oysters”

Crane’s Café in Olympia 1950, ©The Susan Parish Collection/Shadow Catchers How oysters found the length of the Pacific Coast of North America acquired the name “Olympia Oysters” remains unclear. While restaurants featuring local oysters in Olympia date nearly to the earliest settlement, it wasn’t until Captain Woodbury J Doane’s Oyster House opened in Olympia in the 1880s that “Olympia Oysters” gained wide notoriety.

Born in Maine, Doane went to sea as a young man. He arrived in California in time for the 1849 Gold Rush, but soon returned to work on steamboats in British Columbia during the Fraser River Gold Rush. After Doane relocated to Olympia, he opened his Oyster House Restaurant on the southwest corner of Fifth and Washington. Initially Doane and his sons raked, processed and cooked the oysters themselves; later he employed Chinese cooks.^₃₄ By the 1890s Doane’s Oyster House garnered a wide reputation as a must-visit eatery due his widely praised “Oyster Pan Roast.”

While Doane was outgoing and jovial, he kept his oyster pan-roast recipe a closely guarded secret. Some suspected Doane’s Chinese cooks were responsible for the recipe, enhancing the oysters with techniques and seasonings unknown to Doane.^₃₅ In one interview, Doane admitted his “secret” was the addition of an “imported sauce.”^₃₆

Doane’s Oyster House became popular among legislators who discussed political affairs over plates of oysters. Several attempts by other Washington cities to remove the Capitol from Olympia for themselves were countered by “pro-Olympia” Oyster feeds, conducted throughout Washington by local boosters. Earl Steele gave this account in 1957:

[The location of the capitol] was put to a vote of the people and the contest became very spirited. The people of Olympia got their heads together and planned a campaign; they arranged for public meetings in many of the most populated points in Eastern Washington, supplied themselves with a goodly quantity of oysters and the battle was on. Their arguments why the Capital should remain in Olympia were many and forcefully stated, but the clinching argument was the oyster dinner following the meeting. They created a warmth and friendly spirit and the oysters were so well liked that much publicity was given, not only to the merit of the arguments, but to the merit of the oysters. Olympia won the election, and the oyster dinners were given the credit.”^₃₇

The practice led some in the press to dub the Oyster Olympia’s “succulent lobbyist.”^₃₈ Steele believed this campaign, along with Olympia being the largest town close to the most productive beds, led to the name.^₃₉

However, an earlier account by pioneer oysterman Joseph Gale adds another layer to the story of how the Olympia Oyster got its name. To promote sales early in the industry, Gale stated, “…we sent 50 boxes to San Francisco and found nobody knew anything about them. At first they wouldn’t sell. Then we hired men to go into restaurants and call for Olympia Oysters and thus worked up a field for them.”^₄₀

Industry Growth

The JJ Brenner Oyster Company in 1914, Washington State Historical Society While small-scale processing happened at the oyster beds, companies including the JJ Brenner Oyster Co, Olympia Oyster Company and the Olympia Packing Co. built processing plants in Olympia, nearer to railroad and the port for shipping.^₄₁ The first, opened by Brenner in 1893, was located along Fourth Avenue west of downtown.^₄₂ Others soon followed choosing sites near Brenner’s and close to the recently completed Northern Pacific railroad station.^₄₃ Built before filling created land north of West Fourth Avenue, these structures were built on pilings, allowing boats to offload oysters directly to the processing plants.

Increasing demand for oysters and unusually cold winter weather led to growers to adopt the “French Parking System” in 1895 to protect oysters from extreme weather conditions and maximize production. They built dikes and terraced the tideland to keep water on the oysters even at low tide, minimizing the risk of freezing in the winter months. Growers also diked and bedded tidelands that had no natural oyster populations, creating artificial beds.^₄₄

In 1909 the Olympia Oyster Investment Co., Inc., was incorporated by W. H. Kneeland J. Y. Waldrip, O. C. Hanson and became the largest oyster company in Washington State.^₄₅ That year also saw Olympia Oysters shipped as far east as Chicago.^₄₆ Olympia Oyster growers also mounted an exhibit for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Worlds’ Fair in Seattle, which included a scale model of oyster beds and processing facilities on South Sound.^₄₇

Harvest and Processing

Oystermen and shell piles ca. 1915, ©The Susan Parish Collection/Shadow Catchers The process of harvest and processing oysters changed little in more than a century. Oyster harvest takes place in nearly all weather conditions and much of the work is still best done by hand.^₄₈ In a 1974 interview Dick Helser, whose father began working oyster beds in 1878, described the harvesting process as cold, wet and exhausting, as harvest took place at low tide, day or night.^₄₉

To begin, harvesters position floats over oyster beds at high tide, then fork oysters into the float after the tide recedes. When high tide returned, they poled the floats to culling houses anchored in the bay.^₅₀ Oysters were then transferred to “sink floats” described as “an upside down float containing two feet of water to keep the oysters fresh.”^₅₁

Cora Gingrich Chase described the process:

From the sinkfloat they were forked into a wheelbarrow, rolled into the culling house, up a plank, and dumped onto the culling table. All day long the cullers sorted out the large oysters, knocking off smaller oysters, barnacles and debris with a culling iron (a thin piece of metal, easily grasped.) and dropping the marketable oysters into a five-gallon kerosene can, then raked the cullings down the hopper at the edge of the table. The cullings were forked onto a float and bedded by forking them into the water over the ground from which [they were] taken up.^₅₂

Pioneer oysterman JJ Brenner also described oyster processing in 1908:

The much-sought bivalve is raked from its bed by tongs, and all sizes, ages and kinds are thrown in a heap at the bottom of a float. From this they are gathered into piles for assortment, the cull and young oysters being thrown back upon the beds and the marketable oysters put up into bags containing 115 pounds each. After the oysters are gathered, sorted and sacked they are shipped to Olympia; where they are turned out to the openers to be shucked and put up for the market. They are opened into quart measures and placed into pans to be washed. They are then put up in tubs, pails and cans and shipped.^₅₃

Early producers sometimes rowed their oysters to Olympia from their oyster beds. By the late 1800s steamboats plied the waters between Shelton and Olympia carrying passengers, freight and mail, stopping in the bays to take on passengers and cargo. Later, as the oyster industry developed, a number of boats built specifically for this purpose took over transporting oysters to processing. After gas and diesel powered boats appeared on Puget Sound in the early 1900s, the larger oyster firms built and operated their own launches called “tenders” to ferry oysters to town and workers to the bays.

The grueling work took its toll on laborers; drowning, exposure and injury impacted the workforce on occasion. In 1914, Chinese immigrant Locke Mai lost his life falling from an oyster float at Henderson Inlet.^₅₄ While working on an oyster scow at Mud Bay, Y Watanabe slipped overboard and drowned when his oyster boots filled with water.^₅₅ County records list the names of others who lost their lives working the oyster beds as well.

Asian Labor & Families

Joe Miyagi ©The Susan Parish Collection/Shadow Catchers As the oyster industry expanded, need for outside labor increased. Like other industries, oyster producers turned to Chinese contract laborers beginning in the 1880s. In Olympia, several Chinese contracting companies including Hong Hai, Sun Wo, Hong Yek Kee and Quong Yuen Sang acted as brokers between companies and the laborers. During harvest these laborers resided in float-houses and bunkhouses near the oyster beds.

While documentation of individual names are few, they do appear occasionally in records. Tom Kee worked as foreman for Joseph and Katie Gale’s oyster beds.^₅₆ Cora Gingrich Chase, who lived on oyster bay in the early 1900s, recalled hearing Chinese men sing to pass the time as they worked.^₅₇

After congress passed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Law limiting immigration of “unskilled” laborers, the oyster industry turned to Japanese immigrant labor.^₅₈ Initially hired through the same Chinese contractors, they eventually developed their own contracting networks and worked throughout the oyster industry. By the 1930s Japanese Oyster workers were the dominant labor force in the oyster beds and culling houses.^₅₉

As early as 1920 there were approximately twenty Japanese families residing at Mud Bay and Oyster Bay.^₆₀ Many Japanese came intending to stay permanently, and began families. These families also worked collectively in the oyster business. A few made inroads as leaders in the industry: in 1935 the Yoshihara family in Mason County incorporated the West Coast Oyster Company despite laws forbidding land ownership by Japanese non-citizens.^₆₁

Changing Fortunes

Land grading at Oyster Bay, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, UW5780 By the late 1800s, increased population and new industries around Budd Inlet impacted the Olympia Oyster population on Budd Inlet. Sewers drained directly into the bay and industrial waste made shellfish in Budd Inlet unsafe to eat.^₆₂ Meanwhile, extensive harbor dredging operations from the 1890s onward further decimated shellfish populations.

Even in the relatively unpolluted waters of the other inlets, unsustainable practices negatively affected oyster populations. Initially, harvesters took the best oysters and simply dumped young oyster “culls” on beach.^₆₃ Further, removal of shells degraded habitat necessary for oyster reproduction.^₆₄ Over time, harvesters adopted more sustainable practices, but other challenges followed.

The reduction of the Olympia Oyster populations led the industry to introduce non-native oysters to meet demands. As early as the 1890s, growers transplanted the Eastern Oyster to Willapa Bay. Larger and faster-growing than the Olympia Oyster, it was introduced to Puget Sound as well. In 1899 oyster growers also attempted to transplant Pacific Oysters from Japan. After several failed attempts it began proliferating locally by the 1920s, further displacing Olympia Oysters.^₆₅

Additionally, new species of predators arrived with the transplanted oysters including the Oyster Drill Snail. The comparatively slow growth of Olympia Oysters, coupled with its susceptibility to these new threats further accelerated the Olympia’s decline.^₆₆

In 1927 a wood pulp mill for paper production opened at Shelton. Soon after, waste “liquor” sulfites dumped into Puget Sound damaged shellfish populations in nearby inlets, especially the sensitive Olympia Oyster. Oyster growers sued the mill in 1931 and courts ordered the mill to dump its waste inland.^₆₇ However, sulfites continued to wash into Puget Sound. Public protests by oyster growers in Shelton against the mill were opposed by millworkers who pelted them with fruit.^₆₈

The prominence of the oyster industry made its leaders prominent community leaders as well. In 1932 pioneer oysterman Earl N Steele was elected Mayor of Olympia.^₆₉ During his term in office, the historic US Frigate Constitution visited Olympia as part of a tour of the Pacific Coast to raise funds for its preservation. The large celebration at Olympia included specially minted “Oyster Money” for use in town by visitors in the form of oyster-shaped tokens. Oyster Money was legal tender in Olympia during Constitution’s ten-day visit.^₇₀

By the end of the 1930s, the Olympia Oyster’s waning numbers, small size and sensitivity to pollution made it a tiny part of shellfish production on Puget Sound. However, rapid changes brought about by war and recovery in coming years set the stage for its return.

WWII and After

Shortly after Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor naval base at Hawaii, US authorities barred all people of Japanese ancestry from the west coast. The War Relocation Authority sent Japanese at Olympia and Oyster Bay to the Tule Lake Relocation Center in northern California. During the war, the oyster industry hired white women to replace Japanese workers in the culling and opening plants.

Unlike their male counterparts, women were paid by the piece, with no benefits or overtime pay.^₇₁

War with Japan also ended the import of Pacific Oyster seed from Japan.^₇₂ After the war, the oyster beds were in poor repair, due to the lack of experienced workers to tend them. Local oyster growers recruited experienced Japanese oyster workers to come to Olympia. Several families answered the call, including the Abo, Kajihara, Kanda, Marikawa, Sato and Yoshimura families; many continue their residence in the area to the present.^₇₃

Refrigerated trucks and better roads led the JJ Brenner Oyster Co and the Olympia Oyster Co to build new processing plants near their beds at Oyster Bay in the 1950s, leaving the aging Olympia plants derelict.^₇₄ The 1924 Olympia Oyster Co culling house became the Olympia Oyster House restaurant, remaining in business almost continuously since.^₇₅

The 1950s saw increased official attention paid to industrial pollution across America. A Federal Report listed Puget Sound as 6th most polluted waterway in US.^₇₆ In 1953 a mysterious ailment nearly ended the remaining Olympia Oyster production.^₇₇ Conditions in South Puget Sound inlets began to improve after 1957 when the pulp mill in Shelton shut down. Almost immediately, South Sound shellfish populations showed signs of recovery.^₇₈

By the 1950s, canned oysters from Asia entered the American Market, driving down prices. To compete, American oyster growers refocused their efforts on the fresh oyster market.^₇₉ They renewed attempts to create a hatchery system and finally developed a successful hatchery at Quilcene, now [2013] the largest in the world. The oyster industry, in collaboration with the State of Washington, also developed hatcheries at Totten Inlet and elsewhere on Puget Sound.^₈₀

Despite the renewed growth and stability in the local oyster Industry, commercial yields of Olympia Oysters in Washington State dropped by more than 98% between 1881 and 1961.^₈₁ Reliance on larger and hardier Pacific and Eastern oysters made marketing Olympia Oysters a low priority. However, Olympia Oysters retained their cachet as a status food, and a small “boutique” market kept it part of production. In the 1970s scientists finally developed the first reliable hatchery methods for Olympias, setting the stage for its future return to wider use.^₈₂

By the 1970s, popular support for cleaning up industrial pollution in America swelled. In 1972 the US passed the Clean Water Act, requiring the monitoring of industrial waste flowing into waterways.^₈₃ Additionally, environmentalists began examining the effects waste from failing septic systems and runoff from household chemicals, leading to legislation managing these issues as well.^₈₄ The oyster industry’s understanding of the effects of pollution on oysters made them leading advocates for measures promoting clean water.

Changing Tides

Hanging oyster growing system, ©The Susan Parish Collection/Shadow Catchers As the industry grew, many native tideland owners’ families sold off their oyster beds to larger companies. However, natives continued shellfish gathering to supplement their incomes. Over the ensuing decades, property-owners increasingly blocked their access to natural beds on privately-owned tidelands.

By the 1950s and 1960s, northwest native peoples increased political agitation for enforcement of the 1850s treaties’ guarantee of “equal access” to gather food in “usual and accustomed places.” Northwest tribes engaged in a series of “fish ins” and other acts of civil-disobedience to demand their rights.

In 1974 Federal Judge George Boldt affirmed the treaty-guaranteed equal access to resources for natives.^₈₅ In response to the ruling, native entrepreneurship in seafood industry again bloomed. Locally, the Squaxin people purchased the existing Harstine Oyster Company and renamed it Salish Seafoods, developing shellfish farms along the shores of South Sound inlets in tidelands harvested by their families for centuries.^₈₆

In 1994 the courts agreed the treaties guaranteed equal access to naturally-occurring oysters on privately-held tidelands as well.^₈₇ Rather than fight the law, natives and the oyster industry forged a partnership where all parties shared responsibility for managing and harvesting shellfish. Since that time industrial shellfish producers increasingly work in cooperation with tribes to ensure protection of environmental conditions needed to sustain oyster proliferation.

Stewardship and the Return of Olympia Oysters

Booklet illustration, Washington State Historical Society In recent decades, new influxes of immigrant workers filled the need for seasonal labor in the shellfish industry formerly the domain of Chinese and Japanese immigrants. Southeast Asians fleeing economic and political oppression in the 1970s and 1980s became an important workforce in the industry. More recently, Hispanic workers have become a key part of the shellfish industry…

More recently, Hispanic workers have become a key part of the shellfish industry labor pool and many now live and raise families in Mason and Thurston Counties.^₈₈

In the 1990s scientists as well as environmental advocates recognized the importance of Olympia Oysters as a “keystone species,” an important indicator of Puget Sound’s overall environmental health. Gradually, researchers developed a greater understanding of its crucial role in maintaining appropriate habitat for other marine life, as well as providing an important food source for diverse aquatic species..^₈₉

With that recognition, a collaborative effort between many stakeholders, including the Squaxin, Skokomish, and Suquamish tribes, as well as oyster growers and the State of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife began efforts to reestablish Olympia Oysters. Drawing on surviving “remnant populations” found in isolated tidelands, the effort has spawned renewed populations of Olympia Oysters.^₉₀

In the 21st Century Olympia Oysters are making a comeback. At present, they remain a small part of shellfish production as other species still generate greater profits. But many tideland farmers make an effort to keep and grow Olympias as a connection to place and history. “For them, it’s a labor of love,” says Bruce Brenner, great-grandson of oyster pioneer JJ Brenner.^₉₁

The Olympia Oyster’s deep connection with the history of Olympia and South Puget Sound cements its status as a distinctly northwest food. Understanding its uses through time, its cultural significance, and the environmental stewardship that led to its ongoing recovery offers numerous lessons in public and private resource management and changing environmental values. If the lessons take hold, it may remain the case that, “when the tide is out, the table is set.”

Sources

¹Jacqueline White, Jennifer L. Ruesink* And Alan C. Trimble, “The Nearly Forgotten Oyster: Ostrea Lurida (Olympia Oyster) History And Management In Washington State” Journal of Shellﬁsh Research, Vol. 28, No. 1, 43–49, 2009.
²Kincaid, “Oyster Culture in Washington” in Transactions of the Pacific Fisheries Society at its Second Annual Meeting, 1915. Seattle, The Society, 1916.
³Jacqueline White, Jennifer L. Ruesink* And Alan C. Trimble, “The Nearly Forgotten Oyster: Ostrea Lurida (Olympia Oyster) History And Management In Washington State” Journal of Shellﬁsh Research, Vol. 28, No. 1, 43–49, 2009.
⁴Jacqueline White, Jennifer L. Ruesink* And Alan C. Trimble, “The Nearly Forgotten Oyster: Ostrea Lurida (Olympia Oyster) History And Management In Washington State” Journal of Shellﬁsh Research, Vol. 28, No. 1, 43–49, 2009.
⁵Frank Mossman, “Early Days in Mason County” in Told by the Pioneers; Tales of Frontier Life As Told by Those Who Remember the Days of the Territory and Early Statehood of Washington Volume II, Works Progress Administration, 1938, 217.
⁶Hubert Howe Bancroft and Frances Fuller Victor, History of Washington, Idaho and Montana, 1845-1889. San Francisco: The History Company, 1890, 55.
⁷Llyn DeDanaan, email correspondence with author, 21 December 2012.
⁸Chambers, Andrew Jackson, and Margaret White Chambers. Recollections. Fairfield, Wash: Ye Galleon Press, 1975., 25-26.
⁹Blankenship, Georgiana Mitchell. Early History of Thurston County, Washington: Together with Biographies and Reminiscences of Those Identified with Pioneer Days. 1914., 136.
¹⁰Clifford Trafzer, “Washington’s Native American Communities” in White, Sid, and S. E. Solberg. Peoples of Washington: Perspectives on Cultural Diversity. Pullman, Wash: Washington State University Press, 1989, 10.
¹¹Blankenship, Lights and Shades, 85-86.
¹²Frank Mossman, “Early Days in Mason County” in Told By the Pioneers, Volume II, 217.
¹³Blankenship, George E. Lights and Shades of Pioneer Life on Puget Sound. Olympia, Wash: [s.n.], 1923., 197.
¹⁴Karen Johnson, personal communication with author, 25 January 2013; Squaxin Museum Display.
¹⁵Budd Inlet originally extended to Tumwater. A dam on 5^th Avenue built in the early 1950s created Capitol Lake . Steele, Earl N. The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster. Elma, Wash: Fulco Publications, 1957, 9.
¹⁶Jacqueline White, Jennifer L. Ruesink* And Alan C. Trimble, “The Nearly Forgotten Oyster: Ostrea Lurida (Olympia Oyster) History And Management In Washington State” Journal of Shellﬁsh Research, Vol. 28, No. 1, 43–49, 2009.
¹⁷Bancroft, Hubert Howe, and Frances Fuller Victor. History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana: 1845-1889. San Francisco: History Co, 1890, 347.
¹⁸Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana: 1845-1889, 347.
¹⁹“Oyster Mines” Puget Sound Herald, 13 May 1859.
²⁰Prosser, A History of the Puget Sound Country, 256; “Thurston County Oyster Industry” The Coast, March 1909, 153.
²¹“G Rosenthal Tells of Pioneer Times” Olympia Record, 20 June 1918; Blankenship, Lights and Shades, 197.
²²Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana: 1845-1889, 347.
²³Rathbun, John C. History of Thurston Co., Washington. Olympia, Wash: [s.n.], 1895., 73; Newell, Gordon R. So Fair a Dwelling Place: A History of Olympia and Thurston County, Washington. [Olympia, Wash.]: G.R. Newell, 1985., 83; Newell, Gordon R. Rogues, Buffoons & Statesmen. Seattle: Hangman Press, 1975, 82; “Thurston County Oyster Industry,” The Coast, 1909, 153.
²⁴Prosser, William Farrand. A History of the Puget Sound Country, Its Resources, Its Commerce and Its People: with Some Reference to Discoveries and Explorations in North America from the Time of Christopher Columbus Down to That of George Vancouver in 1792, Vol. I. New York: Lewis Pub. Co, 1903, 286; “Thurston County Oyster Industry” The Coast, March 1909, 153; Chase, Cora G. The Oyster Was Our World: Life on Oyster Bay, 1898-1914. Seattle: Shorey Book Store, 1976., 11.
²⁵Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana: 1845-1889, 348.
²⁶“Thurston County Oyster Industry” The Coast, March 1909, 153-54.
²⁷“Thurston County Oyster Industry,” The Coast, 1909, 154; Gordon, David G., Nancy E. Blanton, and Terry Y. Nosho. Heaven on the Half Shell: The Story of the Northwest’s Love Affair with the Oyster. Seattle, Wash: Washington Sea Grant Program, 2001., 60.
²⁸“Thurston County Oyster Industry,” The Coast, 1909, 153.
²⁹Steele, Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster, 15-16.
³⁰Llyn De Danaan, “Tideland Tales” Columbia Magazine, v21, No 3, (Fall 2007): online at columbia.washingtonhistory.org/magazine/articles/2007/0307/0307-a1.aspx, accessed 28 November 2012.
³¹Chase, The Oyster Was Our World, 83.
³²“Picturesque Character of State Passes” Morning Olympian, 26 June 1913.
³³Steele, Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster, 16.
³⁴Locke Suey Kay, aka Charley Kay worked for Doane as a teenager. He later worked at the Hotel Olympian and opened Kays Café in 1941. Author interview with Bill & Toy Kay, 1997.
³⁵“Memory of Doane’s Oyster Pan Roast Still Lingers” Morning Olympian, 1 November 1922.
³⁶“Olympia Oyster Chat” Tacoma Daily News, 2 November 1897.
³⁷Steele, Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster, 32-33.
³⁸Stevenson, Shanna. Olympia, Tumwater, and Lacey: A Pictorial History. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co, 1996., 54.
³⁹Steele, Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster, 33.
⁴⁰“Olympia Oyster Chat” Tacoma Daily News, 2 November 1897.
⁴¹“Thurston County Oyster Industry” The Coast, March 1909, 154.
⁴²Steele, Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster, 50.
⁴³Bruce Brenner, interview with author, 23 January 2013.
⁴⁴“Thurston County Oyster Industry” The Coast, March 1909, 155; “Olympia the Center and Sole Shipping Point of the Great Oyster Industry” Olympia Record, 29 July 1909, 10.
⁴⁵“Thurston County Oyster Industry” The Coast, March 1909, 154.
⁴⁶“The Famous Olympia Oysters” Morning Olympian, 30 October 1910.
⁴⁷“Olympia the Center and Sole Shipping Point of the Great Oyster Industry” Olympia Record, 29 July 1909, 10.
⁴⁸Chase, Oyster Was Our World, 10.
⁴⁹“Bivalves” in How the West Was Once: A History of West Olympia. Olympia: Jefferson Junior High School, 1974, 22-25.
⁵⁰Frank Mossman, “Early Days in Mason County” in Told By the Pioneers, Volume II, 218.
⁵¹Chase, Oyster was our world, 10.
⁵²Chase, Oyster was our world, 10.
⁵³“Thurston County Oyster Industry” The Coast, March 1909, 154.
⁵⁴“Recover Body of China Boy Drowned at Oyster Beds” Olympia Record, 21 July 1914.
⁵⁵“Heavy Boots Drag Japanese to Death” Olympia Record, 21 July 1917.
⁵⁶Tom Kee’s father was Chinese and mother was native Umatilla from Oregon. Llyn De Danaan, “Katie Gale’s Tombstone” Oregon Historical Quarterly, v106, n4, 650.
⁵⁷Chase, Oyster Was Our World, 21.
⁵⁸Smith (ed.) How the West Was Once, 23.
⁵⁹DeDanaan, personal communication with author, 28 December 2012.
⁶⁰DeDanaan, “Mountain of Shell”.
⁶¹DeDanaan, “Mountain of Shell”.
⁶²“Thurston County Oyster Industry,” The Coast, 1909, 153.
⁶³Frank Mossman, “Early Days in Mason County” 218.
⁶⁴Jacqueline White, Jennifer L. Ruesink* And Alan C. Trimble, “The Nearly Forgotten Oyster: Ostrea Lurida (Olympia Oyster) History And Management In Washington State” Journal of Shellﬁsh Research, Vol. 28, No. 1, 43–49, 2009.
⁶⁵Gordon, Heaven on the Half Shell, 67.
⁶⁶Bruce Brenner, interview with author, 23 January 2013.
⁶⁷Jacqueline White, Jennifer L. Ruesink* And Alan C. Trimble, “The Nearly Forgotten Oyster: Ostrea Lurida (Olympia Oyster) History And Management In Washington State” Journal of Shellﬁsh Research, Vol. 28, No. 1, 43–49, 2009.
⁶⁸Chase, Cora G. The Oyster Was Our World, 14.
⁷⁰Stevenson, Olympia Lacey Tumwater, 186.
⁷¹DeDanaan, “Mountain of Shell”.
⁷²“PCSGA Chronology”
⁷³DeDanaan, “Mountain of Shell”.
⁷⁴Steele, Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster, 51.
⁷⁵“Olympia Oyster Company Packing and Storage Building” WA DAHP Historic Property Inventory Report No 34-873.
⁷⁶“PCSGA Chronology”
⁷⁷“PCSGA Chronology”
⁷⁸Tristan Peter-Contesse and Betsy Peabody, Reestablishing Olympia Oyster Populations In Puget Sound, Washington Washington Sea Grant Program, 2005
⁷⁹Gordon, 146-47, Bruce Brenner, interview with author, 23 January 2013.
⁸⁰Gordon, Heaven on the Half Shell, 132.
⁸¹Jacqueline White, Jennifer L. Ruesink* And Alan C. Trimble, “The Nearly Forgotten Oyster: Ostrea Lurida (Olympia Oyster) History And Management In Washington State” Journal of Shellﬁsh Research, Vol. 28, No. 1, 43–49, 2009.
⁸²Jacqueline White, Jennifer L. Ruesink* And Alan C. Trimble, “The Nearly Forgotten Oyster: Ostrea Lurida (Olympia Oyster) History And Management In Washington State” Journal of Shellﬁsh Research, Vol. 28, No. 1, 43–49, 2009.
⁸³Gordon, Heaven on the Half Shell, 129.
⁸⁴Gordon, Heaven on the Half Shell, 130.
⁸⁵“Federal Judge George Boldt issues historic ruling affirming Native American treaty fishing rights on February 12, 1974” online at http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5282, accessed 6 December 2012.
⁸⁶http://islandenterprisesinc.com/subsidiaries/salish_seafoods/ accessed 8 January 2013.
⁸⁷“Mason County — Thumbnail History”
⁸⁸Bruce Brenner, interview with author, 23 January 2013.
⁸⁹Gordon, Heaven on the Half Shell, 140.
⁹⁰Gordon, Heaven on the Half Shell, 141.
⁹¹Bruce Brenner, interview with author, 23 January 2013.

History of Olympia, Washington

March 20, 2022

[Captured from Wayback Machine from deleted City of Olympia website pages]

Native Roots

Located on the southernmost point of Puget Sound, the peninsula known as Olympia was Steh-Chass to the Coastal Salish who occupied the site for many generations before the American settlement was established.

The end of what we now know as Budd Inlet was a favorite shellfish gathering site for many Coastal Salish tribes, including the Nisqually, Duwamish and Squaxin. Potlatches, the Northwest tribal custom in which tribal leaders shared their wealth with neighboring tribal groups, were held both east and west of the Inlet near Olympia.

The falls of the Deschutes River at Tumwater called “Stehtsasamish” by the Nisqually Indians may have been occupied as a permanent village site for shellfish and salmon harvesting for 500 years or more before the coming of white settlers.

Historic photo. Frontier family in front of old growth tree

European Settlement

Peter Puget and a crew from the British Vancouver Expedition visited the site in 1792. The U.S. Exploring Expedition under Lt. Charles Wilkes came to the site in 1841 and named the waterfront bay Budd Inlet after Midshipman Thomas A. Budd, a member of that expedition.

More about Budd Inlet

A wide, navigable body of water extending north from Olympia about six miles to Boston Harbor. The inlet is shallow at its southern end and requires dredging of a channel for waterborne commerce. Budd Inlet was named by Lieutenant Commander Charles Wilkes for Thomas A. Budd acting master of the Peacock and a member of the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1841. Budd was appointed a midshipman on February 2, 1829. He resigned his commission on April 29, 1853. He rejoined the United States Navy in 1861 and was killed in action March 22, 1862, during the Civil War. In recent years, the inlet has also been called Olympia Harbor.

The first American settlers were Levi Lathrop Smith and Edmund Sylvester who claimed the town site in 1846, naming it Smither or Smithster (and later Smithfield), after themselves. The town was officially platted in 1850 by Sylvester, at which point it was given the name Olympia, as suggested by Isaac N. Ebey, a local resident in recognition of the view of the majestic Olympic mountains seen to the north on a clear day. Sylvester, a Maine native, laid out a town in a New England style with a town square, tree lined streets, land for schools, a Masonic Hall, and capitol grounds.

More about Edmund Sylvester

Edmund Sylvester is known as the founder of Olympia. A native of Eastport, Maine, Sylvester came to Oregon in 1843 at the young age of twenty-two. He remained in the Astoria-Portland area for two years but, being a native New Englander, he felt that the salt water climate would restore his ailing health. Sylvester took up a claim south of Olympia and his partner, Levi Lathrop Smith, whom he had met in Oregon, settled in what is now known as Olympia.

After Smith’s death in 1848, Sylvester, although owner of the area, did not lay out a town until his return from an ill- fated trip to the California gold fields in 1850.

Sylvester was a far-sighted man visualizing his settlement as a capital and center of timber trade although it did not reach its full potential in his lifetime. Sylvester erected the showplace of early Olympia along Capitol Way between Seventh and Eighth Streets facing the water. The home was the largest in Olympia and Sylvester’s strong-minded wife Clara hosted the first meeting of the Woman’s Club there in 1883 and housed a number of visiting suffragettes during the fight of Washington women for the right to vote. The house remained a landmark for many years but was moved in 1961 and later burned.

Drawn to the small peninsula as the first access to Puget Sound from the Columbia River on the Cowlitz Trail, American settlers numbered 996 in the area by 1853. Olympia welcomed the first Custom House on Puget Sound in 1851, and by 1852 was the county seat for the newly organized Thurston County.

More about Thurston County

Thurston County covers 719 square miles at the head of Budd Inlet located at the southern tip of Puget Sound.At the Cowlitz convention in 1851, delegates from the Oregon Territory north of the Columbia River — besides petitioning for a new territory — also asked for a new county to be called “Simmons” in the area then known as Lewis County. The Oregon Territorial Legislature acted on the matter by amended the bill at the request of Michael T. Simmons to memorialize Samuel R. Thurston, Oregon’s first territorial delegate to Congress. Thurston County was created on January 12, 1852. Oregon then encompasses what is now Washington. Thurston was a native of Maine, born in 1816. He attended Maine Weslyan Seminary, Dartmouth and in 1854, graduated from Bowdoin College. He later read law and was admitted to the Maine bar. After he settled for a time in Iowa, Thurston arrived in Oregon in 1847 and began his political life. With the creation of Oregon Territory in 1849, Thurston was elected its first delegate to Congress. He was an ambitious delegate pushing through the Donation Land Claim Law, working to establish mail routes and post offices, lighthouses and procuring a pension for 1812 War veterans, many of whom settled in the territory. He was an eloquent speaker and was tireless in his promotion of Oregon Territory. On his voyage home in 1851 across the Isthmus of Panama, Thurston — just 35 years old — contracted a fever. He died on the steamer California near Acapulco and was buried there. He was later reinterred in Salem, Oregon.

The boundaries of the new county encompassed much of what is now Western Washington, reaching from Willapa Bay northward to the Canadian border and from the Pacific Ocean to the summit of the Cascades.

In late 1852, Jefferson, Pierce, and King counties were carved out of Thurston County, and the final boundaries were set in 1877.

In the early 1850’s, as the settler population grew, ancillary businesses developed; stores, brickyards, boast builders, dry docks, hotels and services for summer visitors. Since there were only trails in this land, heavily forested to the water’s edge, the population was supported by the steamboats collectively called the Mosquito Fleet that used the Sound as a watery freeway to move mail, products and passengers.

In 1854, Daniel Bigelow – an attorney – and his wife Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow built their home in Olympia overlooking Budd Inlet (900 Glass Street, Olympia). Today it is a Museum, and it remains as one of the oldest frame buildings in the State of Washington. Visit the Bigelow House Museum website .

In the mid-1850’s, Olympia developed around the waterfront and quickly became a hub of maritime commerce. Federal officers and those seeking the opportunities of the capital flocked to the city which, at one time, boasted the largest population of any town on Puget Sound.

More about Puget Sound

Early Olympia docks overlooking Puget Sound

The name currently given to the whole of the inland sea of Western Washington, originally named by Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy in honor of Lieutenant Peter Puget. Captain Vancouver sent Lieutenant Puget and a crew to survey the lower part of the sound in May 1792. Puget and his crew spent several days visiting nearly every cove and island in the region. To honor this work, Vancouver named the part of the sound south of the Tacoma Narrows for Puget. Vancouver named the northern part of the sound Admiralty Inlet.

Soon after the first Americans settled Olympia in the mid-1840s, Chinese immigrants arrived in the city. Olympia’s first Chinatown was on 4th Avenue between Columbia and Main (Capitol Way) where several buildings housed a hand laundry, stores and lodging for residents.

More about Olympia's Chinatown

Early on, Olympia emerged as a “Locke Town.” Olympia’s Chinese residents were predominantly from the Lok family villages near the town of Seulbo in Toisan County of Guangdong Province in southern China. Most of these sojourners were male and they relied on family surname associations to provide lodging, meals and social life.

Olympia’s earliest China town was on 4th Avenue between Columbia and Main (Capitol Way) where several buildings housed a hand laundry, stores and lodging for residents.

Although there is no Chinatown in Olympia today, many descendants of the original Chinese pioneers still make their homes in the region. In 1996, Gary Locke, grandson of Suey Gum Locke, who came to Olympia in 1890 as a teenager and worked as a servant, was elected Governor of the State of Washington. He was the first Chinese American elected Governor in the United States. In 2007, Doug Mah was the first person of Chinese-American descent to be elected as Olympia’s Mayor.

Olympia residents elected the town’s first Mayor in 1873 – William Winlock Miller. Before then, a Town President was selected annually from among the members of the Town Board.

In 1890, one year after statehood, Olympia City Marshal George Savidge was the first in City history to be officially referred to as Chief of Police. Prior to 1890, Olympia has a Town Marshall. In the years from 1889-1892, the Olympia Police Department was comprised of the chief, a captain and six patrolmen.

State of Washington Legislative Building under construction 1925

Capital of Washington State

When Washington Territory was formed in 1853, Olympia was named the provisional territorial capital by Isaac Stevens, Washington’s first territorial governor. In 1855, the designation was confirmed by the territorial legislature. Olympia’s incorporation as a Town occurred on January 28, 1859.

In 1856, the territorial legislature appointed a board of commissioners to oversee construction of a new bridge connecting downtown Olympia with the westside. Lack of funds held up the project until 1868 when Thurston County loaned the City of Olympia $1,500. The first westside bridge was built the following year.

An especially difficult blow fell when Olympia was bypassed by mainline railroads in the 1870s. City residents had to build their own line to connect with the Northern Pacific mainline at Tenino – 15 miles to the south.

Olympia’s title of capital was often contested during the early years, and Olympia townspeople fought challenges by Vancouver, Steilacoom, Seattle, Port Townsend and Tacoma for location of the seat of territorial and, later, state government.

In early 1889, Olympia resident and jeweler Charles Talcott was commissioned to create a State seal in time for the convening of the first State legislature in November of the same year. The simple round design with a copy of the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington in the center and the words “The Seal of the State of Washington, 1889” is still the official seal of Washington State.

More about the State Seal

A short time before Washington became a state in 1889, a committee brought an elaborate design for a state seal to Olympia jeweller Charles Talcott and asked him to complete it in time for the meeting of the first Legislature in November of that year. The design submitted by the committee was very complicated sketch, depicting the port of Tacoma, vast wheat fields, grazing sheep and Mount Rainier. Talcott argued that the design was too complicated and would be quickly outmoded by the growth of the state. Something simple, he suggested, would be timeless. He picked up an ink bottle and drew a circle around its base. Next he placed a silver dollar in the circle and drew an inner circle. Between these circles he lettered the words, “The Seal of the State of Washington, 1889”. In the center he pasted a postage stamp bearing a picture of George Washington. The design was quickly accepted by the Legislature. But making the die from the picture of George Washington on a postage stamp was no easy task.. Under magnification the picture was poorly detailed and would have been unsatisfactory when enlarged. George Talcott was given the job of finding a suitable picture and cutting the die. After reviewing a number of pictures, he finally found what he was looking for — a color drawing of George Washington on a packing box of “Dr. D. Jaynes Cure for Coughs & Colds”! Grant Talcott did the lettering and George cut the die. Over the years, more than two dozen variations of the Talcott design were used. In 1967, Seattle graphic designer Richard Nelms was commissioned to create a new insignia. He selected a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington, which was accepted and made the official State Seal by the Legislature. By law, the Secretary of State is the custodian of the Great Seal, which is attached to official documents and certificates issued by the state. The original die and press for the State Seal — now more than 100 years old — is still used by the Secretary of State to impress the seal on official state documents.

Washington was given statehood designation on November 11, 1889, as the forty-second (42nd) state to enter the Union.

More about Washington State

On November 11, 1889, Washington was admitted to statehood as the 42nd state of the Union by the United States Congress, with the same boundaries as at present. Washington extends from the Pacific Ocean on the west to Idaho on the east, and from Oregon on the south to the Canadian Province of British Columbia on the north. Prior to statehood, Washington was first part of Oregon Territory, and later became Washington Territory on March 2, 1853. The name Columbia was favored by residents of the Territory and was suggested in Congress by Senator Stephen A. Douglas. However, the name Washington was chosen instead to honor George Washington, the first president.

When Washington became a state in 1889 with Olympia as the capital, the city grew and prospered adding amenities such as an opera house, city water system, street car line, street lamps, and a new hotel to accommodate visiting legislators. State government has been housed in a series of buildings in Olympia, including the former county courthouse in downtown.

Aerial view of Olympia 1929

Twentieth Century Growth

Changes were made to the topography of the city in 1911-12, when almost 22 blocks were added to the downtown area in a gigantic dredging and filling effort to create a deep water harbor and fill the sloughs to the north and east of the city.

In 1919, the City awarded a contract to Union Bridge Company to build a more reliable bridge concrete bridge connecting downtown Olympia with the westside. The amount of the contract was $132,750.

With increased growth in state government and the economic stimulus of World War I, the city began to grow in population and development. Olympia became a center of lumber processing and the city boasted as new smokestacks went up on the waterfront. Downtown buildings were constructed and residential areas south and west of the city developed. By the time of the completion of the grand domed legislative building in 1927, the city had become a fitting setting for such an imposing structure.

An earthquake in 1949 damaged or destroyed many historic downtown buildings, which were quickly rebuilt. Today, downtown Olympia is a charming mix of historic, mid-century, and contemporary architecture.

State government grew rapidly in Olympia after World War II, but many state offices were moving to other parts of the State. A Washington State Supreme Court decision in 1954 mandated that Olympia was the seat of government and that state office headquarters must locate here.

The 1950’s ushered in construction of a new freeway through Olympia and her neighboring communities of Tumwater and Lacey. Interstate 5, which runs from the southern tip of California to the Washington State/Canadian border, is a vital transportation link for Olympia and the Puget Sound region.

In the 1960’s the time of smokestacks and plywood mills drew mostly to an end along Olympia’s waterfront when the Simpson, Georgia Pacific, and St. Regis mills closed, victims of changing markets.

Long time residents still mention the “Columbus Day” storm which hit the northwest on October 12, 1962, with seventy-eight mile per hour winds. Two people were killed in the Olympia area and extensive damage was caused to buildings and trees.

A new era began at the close of the 1960’s when The Evergreen State College was authorized by the state legislature on Cooper Point road at the site of historic Athens University, just west of the Olympia City limits. The institution has changed and enlivened the Capital City’s cultural and social climate.

Toward the end of the 20th century, Olympia experienced rapid growth as individuals and families continued to relocate to the Pacific Northwest. In 1994, the Olympia City Council adopted the City’s first Comprehensive Plan produced under the new Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA). The Forward of the 1994 Plan stated that it “reflects the realities faced by Washington’s fast growing counties and cities in attempting to find the balance between planning responsibly for our future population while preserving the qualities our residents so appreciate.”

Credits:

Introduction and Copy
– Lacey, Olympia, and Tumwater, A Pictorial History by Shanna B. Stevenson, published by The Donning Company/Publishers, 1985. Much of the copy on this page is reprinted from this book with permission of the author.

History of European Settlement, Olympia as the Territorial and State Capital, Olympia’s Chinatown, Twentieth Century Growth, Twenty-First Century Vision
– Image of the Bigelow House courtesy of Bigelow House Museum
– The Olympia History information presented on this page has been mostly copied or paraphrased with permission from Lacey, Olympia, and Tumwater, A Pictorial History by Shanna B. Stevenson, published by The Donning Company/Publishers, 1985

Budd Inlet
– Information from Thurston County Place Names: A Heritage Guide by the Thurston County Historic Commission, Edited by Gayle Palmer and Shanna Stevenson, November 1992)

Edmund Sylvester
– Information from Lacey, Olympia, and Tumwater – A Pictorial History by Shanna Stevenson, The Donning Company/Publishers, 1985.
– The picture of Edmund Sylvester (date unknown) is provided courtesy of the Washington State Library.

Olympia, Puget Sound,Thurston County, Washington State
– Information from Thurston County Place Names: A Heritage Guide by the Thurston County Historic Commission, Edited by Gayle Palmer and Shanna Stevenson, November 1992)

Washington State Seal
– Information is reprinted from the Washington Secretary of State website. The Seal is published with permission from the Secretary of State’s office for educational purposes only.

History of the Washington Center for the Performing Arts

March 20, 2022

[Captured from Wayback machine that archived deleted City of Olympia pages]

By Ed Echtle

Introduction

WCPA 2014 For nearly 90 years, the theater on South Washington Street in Olympia has served as a hub for entertainment, public meetings and social events. Originally built as the Liberty Theater in 1924, it reopened in 1985 after an extensive renovation as the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. Throughout its history, the theater’s programming reflected changing fashions in entertainments as well as the changing fortunes of Olympia’s downtown.

Although it begun as a for-profit venture, the theater’s evolution into an anchor for Olympia’s downtown and as a key cultural space for the larger community parallels the reemergence of Olympia’s historic town center as the South Sound’s principal social space. As the Washington Center for the Performing Arts continues its mission, understanding how the vision for its creation emerged from a combination of the community’s needs and the theater’s past uses is key to understanding its significance in Olympia’s community history.

Grand Theaters for Olympia

The Liberty Theater By the end of WWI, movies were a booming industry in the US. In the early 1920s, Olympia had two smaller movie houses, the Rex and the Ray. The Olympia Opera House, built in 1890 on East Fourth Ave. by newspaper pioneer John Miller Murphy, was becoming a relic of the past as its earlier grandeur faded with use and time. As 1920s audiences nationwide increasingly expected movie-going to be an elegant experience, competing entrepreneurs planned two new larger, more refined theaters to provide Olympia’s moviegoers with more luxurious facilities.

By 1924, a race was on between construction crews to see which of the two new theaters would open first. The Zabel Family, owners of the Rex and the Ray, were behind the Capitol Theater project on 5th Avenue, designed by prolific local architect Joseph Wohleb. Nearby, the Reed-Ingham Investment Co. developed the Liberty Theater as part of a larger project that included an adjoining indoor garage to help accommodate Olympia’s increasing numbers of automobiles. Situated across Washington Street from the Hotel Olympian and less than a block from what was then the State Capitol, the Liberty Theater and Garage was poised to take advantage of the influx of people and cars that arrived for legislative sessions.

Family Business

The site of the new Liberty Theater was formerly the location of the Thomas Milburne Reed family home. Reed arrived in 1857 as a Wells Fargo agent, just a few years after Olympia’s founding. By the 1860s he was elected to the Washington Territorial Legislature where he served as speaker of the house in 1862-63. He later served in a number of appointed positions in Washington and Idaho Territories and won election to the legislature again in 1878-79, serving as president of the Council (Senate). Reed was also an astute businessman and developed the Reed business block adjoining his home in 1891 which housed Olympia’s post office until 1914.

By the time Reed died in 1905 his son, Mark Reed, was manager of the Simpson Timber Co. in Shelton, Washington and was married to Irene Simpson, daughter of company founder Sol G Simpson. Mark Reed also later served in the Washington State legislature during the 1910s. As his business interests expanded, he formed the Reed-Ingham investment Co in partnership with Dr. George W Ingham of Olympia. Ingham was married to Emma Reed, Mark’s sister, and was an avid local investor with interests in the South Sound oyster industry and the Olympia Knitting Mills. Among their many projects, they decided to redevelop the site of the old Reed family home on South Washington Street, adjacent to the Reed Block and increasingly surrounded by Olympia’s expanding business district.

Accessible Elegance

The Reed-Ingham investment Co retained Mark Purvis of Seattle as architect for the new facility. Purvis was an accomplished theater designer with decades of experience including Murphy’s 1890 Opera House. Among Purvis’ other projects were the Columbia and the Mack Theaters in Longview and Port Angeles Washington. Reed-Ingham also hired the Seattle firm of Jensen and Von Herberg to build and operate the new facility. Jensen and Von Herberg were renowned in the field of theater building, having managed construction of Liberty theaters in Portland Oregon and Seattle, as well as the Neptune, also in Seattle.

By August 1924 it was apparent the Liberty Theater would open first, beating the Capitol by nearly two months. A two-page feature in the Morning Olympian newspaper lauded the new facility’s fine interior finish and included ads placed by many of the subcontractors and suppliers congratulating the Liberty’s management and touting their own involvement in the construction of the theater.

The well-appointed theater drew lavish praise in the local press. Primary colors of the Liberty’s interior design theme were blue and bronze. Upholstered seats, a new feature in Olympia’s movie houses, offered new levels of comfort to patrons. The Liberty also installed “thick velvet carpet [that] will yield to the tread like beds of moss.” Like its counterparts in larger cities, the Liberty also employed uniformed ushers to escort patrons to their seats.

The grand opening on Saturday August 30, 1924 featured “The Last Hour” a silent melodrama, as well as five vaudeville acts and “two concerts given by premier organist Esther Stayner, from Chicago and Spokane.” The affair brought out large crowds and the opening was standing room only.

The Liberty’s managers intended Stayner’s performance to showcase their impressive Wurlitzer organ. Jensen and Von Herberg made such organs integral parts of their theater designs. The theater’s organ was equipped with two keyboards and nine “ranks” or sets of pipes. Installed by Sandy Balcom of Seattle, a large loft above the stage housed the pipes. The organist also controlled a variety of percussion instruments through the keyboard, including a glockenspiel, snare and bass drums and chimes. The organ also produced sound effects including horse-hoof beats and bird twitters to enhance the silent movie experience. Among the early performers on the Liberty’s Wurlitzer was Oliver Wallace who played for the 1924 New Year’s Eve program. Wallace went on to score several Disney studio features including Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland. Together with collaborator Frank Churchill, Wallace won an Oscar in 1941 for his work on Dumbo.

Shortly after its opening, the Moore Amusement Co of Seattle assumed management of the Liberty Theater as part of a chain of Liberty Theaters in Oregon and Washington. Afterward, the Liberty settled into a routine cycle of programs, mainly movies and vaudeville acts. However, its cache as a well-appointed venue attracted other uses as well. After Roland Hartley was elected Governor, state building engineers raised concerns that the old capitol building on Legion Way and Washington Street was structurally incapable of supporting the crowds expected for the inauguration. Event planners quickly booked the nearby Liberty Theater, where Hartley took the oath of office in January 1925, beginning the theater’s decades-long career as a site for public events.

As the movie industry grew, the Fox Theater Chain acquired the Moore Amusement Co. and later merged with West Coast Theaters becoming Fox West Coast in 1929. That year, the Liberty featured On With The Show, the first ever feature-length color film with sound.

The Great Depression and Wartime

Theater ad replica While feature films were the Liberty’s main offering, from early on, weekend matinees for children were a staple at the theater. Former Olympia Mayor Bill Jacobs recalled attending the Liberty as a child, to catch the weekly cartoon lineup billed as “Popeye Theater.” While vaudeville performances were becoming less fashionable, live performances in the theater continued in diverse forms.

One of the more unusual were the midnight “Spook Frolics” presented by performers such as “Francisco” who travelled the west coast in the 1930s and ‘40s. Francisco and similar acts did not claim to be spiritualists but managed to scare audiences with eerie sounds and visual effects, including floating tables, spirit writing, disembodied voices and invoking rapping noises throughout the theater.

Despite its role as a respite from daily life, the realities of the world intruded on moviegoers the afternoon of December 7, 1941. In later years reporter Gus Angelos recalled he and his sister, aged 10 and 11 at the time, were startled when their movie abruptly cut off and the house lights came on. Theater manager Harold Murphy took the stage and announced that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor and that all military personnel were to report to their posts immediately. “We didn’t stay for the rest of the show. We ran all the way home, and home was on the eastside of town, several miles away.”

During the war theater attendees kept abreast of wartime events through newsreels preceding feature films. In addition, the USO broadcast live musical performances from the Liberty over the radio, to entertain troops stationed nearby at Fort Lewis.

A New Era

As Olympia entered the postwar years, Olympia’s theater owners prepared for increased numbers of moviegoers as servicemen and women returned to civilian life. Nearby, on Fourth Avenue, a third large downtown theater, The State, opened its doors in 1949. The State sported a modern neon marquee including a large backlit reader board. The Capitol Theater also added a similar lighted marquee trimmed in neon, to advertise its offerings and present a more modern façade.

The Liberty needed refreshing to compete as well. After Wes “Mac” McDonald leased the Liberty in 1948, he invested $75,000 in upgrading the theater. McDonald was an experienced manager and owned another small movie house in Olympia, the Avalon, built in 1928. At the Liberty, workers installed updated heating and ventilation systems while the house received new burgundy damask wall coverings, flower-patterned carpet and the first “self-raising” seats installed in Washington State. McDonald also retained artist Robert Berg who added murals to the stairwells depicting scenes of tragedy and comedy described by the press as “Indo-Chinese” in style. Among the areas most improved in the upgrade was the women’s lounge including walls newly upholstered in chartreuse leatherette. The theater also took on a new name, the Olympic, as well as a new backlit marquee with a large revolving “O” in the style of the Olympia Beer brand logo.

The Olympic also continued hosting special events, as when the Washington Federation of Labor held its 54th annual convention there in 1956. United Churches of Olympia held Sunday services at the Olympic after the 1949 earthquake severely damaged their nearby church, until they dedicated a new church in 1951. Producers of the 1961 film “Ring of Fire” booked both the Olympic and the Capitol Theaters to host concurrent premier showings. Shot in Oregon and Washington, the film’s climax featured the wreck of a steam locomotive in the collapse of a high trestle across the Wynoochee River. At the conclusion of the film the cast including David Janssen, Joyce Taylor and Frank Gorshin appeared on the Olympic’s stage to greet the audience.

Despite improvements to the Olympic, its future was increasingly uncertain. American society was in transition as the automobile became central to daily life and new suburban developments took families farther from downtown. In addition, the advent of television made staying home a more appealing option for family entertainment.

New drive-in theaters in the area offered another alternative to the downtown theaters: the Sunset opened in Tumwater in 1949 and Lacey Drive-In in 1953. Drive-ins not only offered convenience, they promoted themselves as a casual, more private alternative to traditional theater going, inviting young working families to “come as you are.” That same privacy especially appealed to young adults with access to cars, who quickly adopted drive-ins as the preferred destination for romantic dates.

Since the coming of sound film, the aging Wurlitzer organ in the Olympic fell into disuse and was in need of repair and maintenance. In 1962 the Olympic theater management contacted Andy Crow to assess the instrument’s needs. Crow, an accomplished organist in the region, regularly performed at the Music Box, Roxy and Temple Theatres in Tacoma, and the Orpheum and Paramount in Seattle. Crow began maintaining the organ with the help of Les Lehne. In 1971 Andy Crow and business partner Marshall Woodbridge purchased the Olympic for their own, to protect the historic structure and the venerable organ.

Downtown Struggles

Olympia theater By the 1950s diffusion of state agencies to other cities in Washington created operational difficulties and legislators determined to reconsolidate government in the Olympia area. Washington State acquired property across Capitol Way from the legislative building and began construction of new office space on the site. In the process, the state demolished William Winlock Miller High School (known locally as Olympia High School) including its large 1000+ seat auditorium. Since its construction in 1919, the Olympia High auditorium served as the main large-capacity venue for local arts organizations and its loss left the Olympia area with no similar sized space for local productions.

While the state capitol campus was growing, the opening of the Interstate 5 freeway bypass in 1958 began a period of economic decline for Olympia’s downtown. Exacerbating the loss of drive-through tourist revenue was the closing of industries and the departure of larger “anchor stores” to new suburban shopping centers. Meanwhile, movie going became less formal and patrons dressed more casually than they had in the past. In response, movie houses no longer vied with one another to maintain their former grandeur and often deferred expensive maintenance to cut costs.

By the 1970s, new movie house design was more utilitarian, foregoing decorative refinements typical of earlier theaters. Near Lacey, a six-screen multiplex opened in 1979, close to the freeway. In 1980 the recently completed Capitol Mall on Olympia’s west side added another four-screen multiplex. The combination of easy access, abundant parking and more modern sound and projection equipment further hastened the decline of Olympia’s aging downtown movie houses, including the Olympic. Coupled with the advent of home video movie rentals, the classic movie palaces struggled to stay viable.

Owners of the State theater, the newest of the downtown venues, attempted to keep it profitable by partitioning its large auditorium into three screens and showing second-run movies at reduced prices. The Olympic and Capitol Theaters increasingly relied on special events including live performances and classic movie revivals to generate income.

The Movement for a Performing Arts Center

Since the loss of the Olympia High School Auditorium, local arts organizations vied for venue space. While the downtown theaters were capable of accommodating large crowds, their need to generate revenue for their owners often made their use expensive for local arts organizations with tight budgets. However, as competition from suburban movie venues and decreasing attendance caused downtown theaters to struggle for business, they became more affordable and local groups began using them more frequently.

In 1966 local arts advocates including the Olympia Fine Arts Guild (founded in 1942), along with Washington First Lady Nancy Evans, launched the Governor’s Festival of the Arts in Olympia, to bring world class artists and performers to the Capitol City and the Olympic theater served as a principle venue. Performers slated for the six-month event included the Seattle Repertory Players, the Seattle Symphony, and an appearance by actress and singer Pearl Bailey. Afterward the Governor’s Festival of the Arts became an annual event for several years, regularly utilizing the Olympic.

By 1968 local arts supporters founded a new group, Patrons of South Sound Cultural Activities (POSSCA) to take on fundraising for community arts events. As the need for a multi-purpose arts venue grew, local arts advocates also founded The Capital Area Association for the Performing Arts (CAAPA) in 1973. The driving force behind CAAPA was Vern Eke, a 1952 graduate of Olympia High School. Eke went on to earn a doctorate in performing arts at UCLA where he became an instructor. A talented musician, performer and production manager, he returned to the Olympia area in the early 1970s where he managed local productions in smaller venues including the Saint Martin College’s Abbey Theater and the Jade Room in the old Hotel Olympian.

Efforts for a new dedicated performing arts center gradually gained momentum. In response, the City of Olympia agreed to dedicate several acres of surplus land on the Westside for the project in 1976; formerly the city’s solid waste landfill. The site, located near the Black Lake Boulevard entrance to Highway 101, followed the commercial trend of outmigration from downtown. Despite the free land, many supporters found this site remote and preferred a downtown location, presaging the movement for revitalization of Olympia’s downtown.

Meanwhile, CAAPA adopted the name, “Washington Center for the Performing Arts” (WCPA) for the project to underscore their vision of the new facility as a regional venue and garner support from beyond Olympia. While CAAPA’s initial attempt to procure state support in 1977 fell short, in 1979 an endorsement from former Washington first family Dan and Nancy Evans helped persuade the legislature to approve a $1.5 million matching grant for the WCPA project.

That same year, the local architects serving as part of the Regional and Urban Design Assistance Team (R/UDAT) weighed in on the project. Founded in 1967 by the American Institute of Architects to offer growth management guidance to cities across America, R/UDAT authored its first assessment of Olympia’s increasingly vacant downtown core in 1979. In addition to their advocacy for a farmers market, new community center and the redevelopment of Percival Landing as a public space, R/UDAT urged the city to support the WCPA project as an anchor attraction for downtown.

Increasing numbers of stakeholders led the City of Olympia to create the Cultural Arts Advisory Committee (CAAC) in 1980 to steer the project. The city also hired Lynn Schrader as coordinator of CAAC which included representatives from POSSCA, CAAPA, R/UDAT and other local arts organizations. CAAC members embraced R/UDATs recommendation for a downtown site and abandoned plans for the Black Lake Boulevard location.

After an unsuccessful attempt by the city to acquire property on State Avenue, the committee turned its efforts toward repurposing an existing theater. The Olympic theater and garage, since purchased from Crow and Woodbridge by the Moyer Theater chain of Portland, seemed to offer the best combination of location and space. However, not everyone was convinced the aging Olympic could meet their needs, including former board member Lynn Brunton who later recalled, “I can remember the first time I walked through this theater and the garage, I thought, no way, this is not going to work!” In 1981 the committee hired architect Richard McCann to study the feasibility of repurposing the site. McCann, whose other projects included refits of the Orpheum in San Francisco, Seattle’s Fifth Avenue Theater and the Pantages in Tacoma, endorsed the Olympic refit as the best course of action.

CAAC members also determined that operations at the new performing arts center should follow the model used by other cities and turn management over to an independent non-profit. The city made the new organization official in September of 1982, registering “Washington Center for the Performing Arts” with the Secretary of State and appointed a 9 member board.

From the outset the board was made up of people from diverse career backgrounds. Local attorney Judy Henderson served on the original board and later recalled there was a steep learning curve for the newly appointed members: “We did not know performing arts, so we went on a road trip. We went to Eugene Oregon, we went to Seattle, we went to Yakima, we studied performing arts centers and learned the business of keeping it in the black instead of the red!

By 1982 events were winding down in the Olympic. One of the last performers to take the stage was American folk singer and social justice activist Odetta, serving as an artist in residence at The Evergreen State College in 1981-82. By August the city appropriated funds to purchase the Olympic theater from the Moyers chain and passed an ordinance to sell $1.5 million in bonds to match the state’s grant. On October 12 the Olympic’s final feature showing, Das Boot, played to a small audience, most attending in honor of the theater’s closing after nearly 60 years of service.

Immediately after the movie, WCPA supporters gathered in the theater and toasted the milestone with champagne in paper cups. Organist Andy Crow entertained on the venerable Wurlitzer with a selection of standards including “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Sentimental Journey” and “Tumblin’ Tumbleweed.” In the following weeks Crow also oversaw the removal of the organ’s components to storage, to await reinstallation in the new theater.

Building

While demolition of the original theater interior got underway, the WCPA board began fundraising in earnest. In addition, the CAAC and the WCPA board held numerous meetings with local arts groups to determine their needs and develop an operations plan that would facilitate their use of the new theater. Meanwhile the design was taking shape. McCann enlisted acoustic experts Professor Yoichi Ando of Japan and his protégé Dennis Noson of Seattle to consult on the interior design to maximize its acoustic capabilities. WCPA was Ando’s first project in the US. He and Noson proposed an innovative trapezoidal space with hard surfaces to reflect and enhance sound from the stage.

The facility planners were also concerned with accommodating diverse uses. McCann designed the main stage to be expandable by enabling the orchestra pit to rise to stage level. The design also included a second, smaller rehearsal/conference space connected to the main stage via a shared storage area to facilitate transfer of sets and other materials between stages. This smaller space later evolved into a public performing space, known as the “Black Box Theater.”

As excitement over the project increased among arts supporters, local advocates for historic preservation in Olympia raised concerns over the extent of alterations to the original Liberty theater facade. However, the recently formed Olympia Heritage Commission’s apprehensions were trumped by the fact that the city and architects already made most of the key design decisions and any new changes would result in delays and increased cost. In the final design, the retention of one exterior wall and several architectural elements were intended to allude to the original theater and garage, most recognizably the Liberty’s ornate oval vent ports, which became the symbol for the WCPA. In addition, plans called for the reinstallation of a WWI-era street clock donated by the Kluh Family outside WCPA’s entrance. Previously the historic clock stood for decades outside Kluh jewelers in downtown Olympia.

At the conclusion of the demolition phase, city leaders and WCPA supporters gathered in the gutted building in June 1984 for the formal groundbreaking ceremony. By then the WCPA board’s fundraising efforts passed $1.2 million, well on the way to meeting goals. The city also determined that proceeds from the sale of the surplus land in west Olympia originally proposed as the site of the WCPA be used to create an endowment fund for the new organization.

As construction continued into 1985, Robert Stewart replaced Lynn Schrader as director when Schrader departed to manage Pacific Northwest Ballet. Efforts to complete the facility ahead of its opening date accelerated as workers continued installing new fixtures up through opening day. Longtime volunteer Nancy Walsh later recalled she became involved with WCPA after she saw how much work there was yet to be done just days from opening: “I was horrified when I went inside! There was no carpet, the seats were in the lobby, and I thought, ‘I wonder if they need some help.’ So I went home and I called the number and they said, ‘sure, come on down!’”

Premiere week programs at WCPA commenced on September 28 and lasted through October 7, 1985. Programs included a diverse lineup of performers and offerings including the Olympia Symphony and Masterworks Choral Ensemble, A Salute to Olympia Schools featuring local youth musicians and performers, Olympia Chorale, Ballet Northwest, the Seattle Symphony, and the Modern Jazz Society. National acts included comedian David Brenner and the US Marine Band. Headlining the week was a premier gala and solo appearance by entertainer Ben Vereen on October 1st.

Down to Business

WCPA prior to exterior renovation After the festivities of premier week, WCPA settled into the day-to-day business of providing the local performing arts venue its supporters envisioned. While nationally famous performers remained a regular part of programming, more local organizations, including Olympia Junior Programs (OJP,) began utilizing WCPA as well. Founded in 1940, OJP introduces South Sound youth to live theater through daytime matinees in partnership with school districts and was among the number of arts organizations displaced by the loss of the Olympia High School auditorium. Harlequin Productions, founded in 1990 by Linda and Scot Whitney, called the Black Box Theater home until they acquired the nearby State theater as their permanent home in 1997.

While theater and music entertainment dominated WCPA’s programming schedule, it also hosted lectures and public meetings such as the April 1990 appearance of renowned primatologist Jane Goodall who updated the audience on her work since she achieved wide recognition through televised National Geographic documentaries. WCPA also served as a venue for major public policy forums as well. In 1989 the US Department of Fish and Wildlife scheduled a public meeting to stem the controversy over the listing of the spotted owl as an endangered species. Environmentalists and supporters of unrestricted old growth logging squared off in the WCPA to discuss the issue.

In the following years locals nostalgic for the original theater turned out to ensure historical continuity between the WCPA and its predecessor theater. In 1995 WCPA finally gathered enough funds for Andy Crow and friend Les Lehne to reinstall the theater’s historic Wurlitzer, updated with a three-keyboard console connected to 23 ranks of pipes, including many components from the 1924 original. With the organ installed, WCPA paid homage to its past by offering silent movie revivals in the late 1990s. Appreciative audiences got a taste of the silent-film era through showings of Charlie Chaplin movies including “Easy Street,” “The Tramp” and “Those Love Pangs” as well as a presentation of DW Griffith’s “Way Down East,” and Douglas Fairbanks in “The Mark of Zorro,” accompanied by Crow on the theater’s renovated Wurlitzer.

In 2011 Staff, volunteers and supporters celebrated 25 Years of successful performances at the WCPA with a program lineup that included the return of the theater’s inaugural headliner, Ben Vereen. Longtime associates of WCPA also took the opportunity to share their favorite moments in the theater since its opening. Board member Bob Haase recounted Tony Bennett’s performance in 2002 when Bennett asked for the amplification to be switched off so he could demonstrate the exceptional acoustics of the space. Former WCPA director Tom Iovanne recalled Gregory Hines’ appearance shortly before Hines’ death in 2003. Hines’ illness was unknown to the audience at the time but he delivered a memorable performance which included inviting audience members who brought their tap shoes to join him on stage for a number.

New Again

Performers at the WCPA dedication 2014 In recent years the WCPA facility itself showed increasingly troublesome signs of age. By 2008 its artificial stucco exterior reached the end of its service life and required replacement. Since that time the City of Olympia undertook an extensive renovation of the facility including a new brick and stone exterior. The renovation began in April 2013 with workers replacing the roof, exterior, and the original mechanical systems.

As the WCPA performing arts enters its next phase, it continues to provide the region with a world-class venue for local and nationally-known performers as well as space for community events, lectures and discussions. As of 2013, the number of community arts groups that share use of WCPA has grown to twenty-seven. A new director, Jill Barnes, took on guiding WCPA in spring, bringing her desire to facilitate even more public participation through increased interaction between visiting artists and the community.

Since the opening of the Liberty in 1924, it has been a place where Olympia residents and their friends and neighbors from around the region immersed themselves in an extraordinary diversity of arts and entertainment experiences. The community spirit that led to the creation of the WCPA still inspires the current staff, volunteers and supporters to continue that legacy through ongoing cultivation of programs that transcend the stage, firmly rooted in the community partnerships that made WCPA possible. It’s renewal helps insure it will continue serving as an important cultural anchor for Olympia’s downtown and the surrounding community for generations to come.

Sources

Washington Center Exterior, Courtesy City of Olympia

The Liberty Theater by Vibert Jeffers ©Susan Parish Collection/Shadow Catchers

Thomas Milburne Reed, Courtesy of the Olympia Historical Society

Zabel film, Courtesy of the Richard Talcott Collection

Reproduction of Liberty-era Advertisement, painted by Ira Coyne, Courtesy of City of Olympia

The Olympic Theater, 1964, Courtesy of Washington State Archives

The Olympia Theater, 1984 (postcard), Courtesy of City of Olympia

Andy Crow and his Wurlitzer, Courtesy of Andy Crow

Exterior walls of Liberty/Olympic Theater, 1984, Courtesy of City of Olympia

Washington Center for the Performing Arts, ca 1990, Courtesy Washington Center for the Performing Arts

Washington Center Dedication performance, Courtesy City of Olympia

History of Olympia Fire Department

March 20, 2022

[Captured from Wayback machine that archived deleted City of Olympia pages]

The Beginning

Historic Olympia Fire Department

Olympia’s first fire fighting unit, Barnes’ Hook and Ladder Brigade, was organized in the early 1850’s. Columbia Number 1, the first fire engine company to be established in Washington Territory, was formed in Olympia in 1865. Olympia’s first salaried fireman was hired in November 1889. By 1930, the Fire Department employed nine fire fighters and an electrician.

Growing in Numbers

In 1959, the Olympia Fire Department initiated a three-platoon system to meet the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and added seven firefighters, for a total of 27. In 1968, 12 more firefighters were hired to staff the Eastside and Westside substations, which opened due to population growth and annexations, bringing the total number of firefighters to 39. In 1975, the Westside Station was closed to reassign personnel to a newly created Fire Prevention Bureau, boost staffing at the Eastside Station, and establish a Fire Mechanic’s position. The Department established the Fire Prevention Bureau to fulfill its legal obligations under the Uniform Fire Code as part of the Washington State Building Code and Standards Act. In 1978 the Westside Station was re-opened with existing staffing.

In 1987, six firefighters were hired to staff an aid unit at the Westside Station, which increased total staffing to 46. To reduce the firefighter workweek to 53 hours and comply with a change in the fair Labor Standards Act, three firefighters were hired in 1988.

Medic One

Early Medic One vehicle The Thurston County Medic 1 System was initiated in 1974. Through an Intergovernmental agreement, the Olympia Fire Department hired six paramedic firefighters. In 1976 an additional paramedic was hired to improve the supervision of the paramedics. In 1988 an eighth paramedic was hired to comply with the reduction in work hours required by the Fair Labor Standard Act. In 1993 a ninth paramedic was hired to balance the three shifts and eliminate the need for paramedics to float. The Westside SPRINT unit was opened in 2000, and four paramedics were hired due to lengthening response times in the Northwest portion of the county. Following the earthquake, February 28, 2001, the SPRINT unit was temporarily converted to a full medic unit due to the closure of the 4th Avenue bridge. In January 2002 Medic 10 was changed from a temporary status to a permanent status and 3 additional paramedics were hired. At this time Olympia Fire Department currently employs 18 field paramedics, three of which are Paramedic Lieutenants.

OFD Today

Today, the City of Olympia Fire Department (OFD) is an all-career department with 100 members total. The department deploys four engines, one ladder truck, two medic units and a battalion unit. The engines and truck are staffed with three firefighters and an officer, while the medic units are staffed with two firefighter/paramedics. At minimum staffing, there is a full complement of 20 members on duty. OFD covers approximately 25 square miles and in 2019, responded to 13,810 calls for service.

Chronology of Elected Officials

March 20, 2022

[Captured from Wayback machine that archived deleted City of Olympia pages. Links in green typeface were in original document; links with blue typeface are provided by OHS/BH to other pages on this website (some individuals will have links to more than one page). Links in bold face indicate that an image of the official is found elsewhere on this site. Corrections to the original are shown in brackets]

Historic Headshot collage: Evans, Elwood, Steele

Olympia’s Leadership

Olympia was named the capital city of Washington Territory on November 28, 1853. Incorporation as a Town occurred on January 28, 1859 by act of the territorial legislature. In 1882, the Town of Olympia incorporated as the City of Olympia.

Olympia has changed its form of government several times. What began as a Board of Trustees became a single Mayoral election, followed by a three person Commission and finally the Council-Manager system we use today.

Historical Documents from City of Olympia Archive

Act to Incorporate (Charter) the Town of Olympia, Washington, adopted by the Washington Territorial Legislature, January 28, 1859
First Town of Olympia Board Minutes, February 12, 16 and 24, 1859
Town Board Minutes, April 14, 1859 – Selection of Officers for first elected Town of Olympia Board of Trustees
Town Board Minutes, April 12, 1871 – Selection of Officers by Trustees (editor note: appears to be last year when a Town President was selected by and from within the Board of Trustees)
Town Board Minutes, April 3, 1872 – states that W. W. Miller was duly elected Mayor in a municipal election on April 1, 1872 (editor note: appears to be first direct election of an Olympia Mayor)
Directory of City Officials (1859-1904) published in 1904

Board of Trustees | 1859-1871

The Act of Incorporation provided that an election of officers should take place on the first Monday of April each year. Article 8, Section 1, also designated an interim Board of Trustees to serve until the first election.

Members of the interim Board of Trustees for the Town of Olympia appointed by Act of the Territorial Legislature were George A. Barnes, Joseph Cushman, Elwood Evans, T. F. (Thornton Fleming) McElroy, and James Tilton. At the first meeting of the interim Board on February 12, 1859, Cushman was appointed by his fellow trustees to serve as Chairman, and on February 24, 1859, he was elected by his fellow trustees to serve as President of the Board of Trustees until the election in April.

The first election of Town of Olympia Board of Trustees was held April 4, 1859. At the organizational meeting of the first elected Board on April 14, 1859, Elwood Evans was selected by his fellow trustees to serve as Town President for the year. George A. Barnes was selected to serve as Treasurer.

List of Town Board Presidents, 1859-1871:

Joseph Cushman | 1859 (Interim February-April), 1863
Elwood Evans Elwood Evans| 1859-1861
George A. Barnes George A. Barnes| 1862, 1866-1869
E[dward] Giddings | 1864
B.G. [F.] Yantis Benjamin F Yantis| 1865
Francis Henry Francis Henry| 1870-1871

Mayoral | 1872-1924

According to the City Official Directory for the Year 1904 compiled by then Clerk V. A. Milroy, the Office of Mayor was created November 11, 1873 which replaced the President of the Board position.

However, in official Town Minutes maintained by the City of Olympia Clerk’s Office, W. W. (William Winlock) Miller is shown by the Clerk as being elected “in a municipal election” to the position of “Mayor” on April 1, 1872, and again on April 7, 1873. Town Minutes for officer elections prior to 1872 refer to the position as Town Board “President,” and the appointment to that position was from within and by the Trustees.

List of Mayors, 1872-1924:

William Winlock Miller William Winlock Miller| 1872-1873
Ike [Isaac] C. Ellis | 1874
Thornton F. McElroy Thornton F. McElroy| 1875
J[ames] C. Horr | 1876, 1891
J.P. Hudson | 1877
E[sdras] N. Quinette [Ouimette] | 1878-1879
George A. Barnes George A. Barnes| 1880
E[dward] T. Young | 1881
Dr. Nathaniel Ostrander | 1882-1883
J[ohn] S. Dobbins | 1884
A[lbert] A. Phillips | 1885
A[ndsworth].H. Chambers | 1886-1888
J[ohn] F. Gowey | 1889-1890
Gen. R[ossell] G[albraith] O’Brien | 1892
J.W. Robinson | 1893
C[hampion] B[romwell] Mann | 1894-1895
Chas H. Ayer | 1896
John Byrne | 1897
Geo[rge] B. Lane | 1898
Caleb Springer (C.S.) Reinhart Caleb S. Reinhart| 1899-1901
Clarence J. Lord | 1902-1903
H[arvey] G. Richardson | 1904
Dr. P[hilip] H. Carlyon | 1905-1906
Thos. McLarty | 1907
W.A. Hagemeyer | 1908
Mitchell [Mitchel] Harris | 1909-1911
Dr. Wayne L. Bridgfors [Bridgford]| 1912
George A. Mottman | 1913-1916
Jesse T. Mills | 1917-1920
C.H. Bowen | 1921-1922
Geo. W. Draham | 1923-1924

Commissioners | 1925-1982

On November 16, 1925 the City government was changed to a three-member elected commission composed of the Mayor (Commissioner of Public Safety), Commissioner of Finance, and Commissioner of Public Works.

The Commission originally began serving three 3-year terms. In 1950 their terms were increased to four years.

List of City Commissioners, 1925-1982

1925-1928

James C. Johnson | Mayor, Public Safety
E.N. Steele Earl N. Steele| Commissioner of Finance
Frank H. Phillips | Commissioner of Public Works

1929-1931

George N. Mills | Mayor, Public Safety
E.N. Steele Earl N Steele| Commissioner of Finance
C[harles] L. Dufault | Commissioner of Public Works

1932-1934

E.N. Steele Earl N Steele| Mayor, Public Safety
W[illiam] Manier | Commissioner of Finance
*C[harles] L. Dufault | Commissioner of Public Works
Edw[ard] C. Dohm | Commissioner of Public Works

1935-1937

Dr. F[rancis] B. Longaker | Mayor, Public Safety
David Gammell | Commissioner of Finance
Edw[ard] C. Dohm | Commissioner of Public Works

1938-1940

*Dr. F[rancis] B. Longaker | Mayor, Public Safety
David Gammell | Commissioner of Finance, Mayor
M.Y. Haskett | Commissioner of Finance
Edw[ard] C. Dohm | Commissioner of Public Works

1941-1943

J.T. Trullinger | Mayor, Public Safety
M.Y. Haskett | Commissioner of Finance
Otis Gray Murray | Commissioner of Public Works

1944-1946

J.T. Trullinger | Mayor, Public Safety
M.Y. Haskett | Commissioner of Finance
Otis Gray Murray | Commissioner of Public Works

1947-1949

Ernest Mallory | Mayor, Public Safety
Dan L. McCaughan | Commissioner of Finance
W.A. Kellogg | Commissioner of Public Works

1950-1953

Ralph A. Swanson | Mayor, Public Safety
Dan L. McCaughan | Commissioner of Finance
*J. Ross Roberson | Commissioner of Public Works
J.F. (Jack) Hamilton | Commissioner of Public Works

1954-1956

Amanda Benek Smith | Mayor, Public Safety
Claude Yount | Commissioner of Finance
J.F. Jack Hamilton (Died 10/13/54) | Commissioner of Public Works
Thomas Allen | Commissioner of Public Works

1957-1960

Amanda Benek Smith | Mayor, Public Safety
*Frank McClanna | Commissioner of Finance
Dr. Matthew Kast | Commissioner of Finance
*Peter F. Skoog | Commissioner of Public Works
*Herbert Legg | Commissioner of Public Works
Clarence Shain | Commissioner of Public Works

1961-1964

Neil R, McKay | Mayor, Public Safety
Thomas Allen | Commissioner of Finance
Ed Krenik | Commissioner of Public Works

1965-1969

Neil R. McKay | Mayor, Public Safety
Thomas Allen | Commissioner of Finance
Gil Olson | Commissioner of Public Works

1970-1973

Thomas Allen | Mayor, Public Safety
George Earsley | Commissioner of Finance
*Gil Olson | Commissioner of Public Works
Keith Kisor | Commisioner of Public Works

1974-1977

Thomas Allen | Mayor, Public Safety
George Earsley | Commissioner of Finance
Keith Kisor | Commissioner of Public Works

1978-1981

Lyle Watson | Mayor, Public Safety
Ron Rants | Commissioner of Finance
Wm. Jacobs | Commissioner of Public Works

1982

Lyle Watson | Mayor, Public Safety
David Skramstad | Commissioner of Finance
Wm. Daley | Commissioner of Public Works

Council/City Manager | 1982-Present

On May 18, 1982, the voters of Olympia approved the Council-Manager form of government. A new 7-member City Council was elected on November 2, 1982 and assumed office on November 18, 1982. The first meeting of the newly elected City Council was November 23, 1982. The Mayor was selected by the Councilmembers for a two-year term in January of each even numbered year.

In 1991 the voters approved the selection of the Mayor through election by the citizens, rather than through appointment by the Council. The Mayor is elected to serve a 4-year term.

List of Mayor & Councilmembers, 1982-Present [page removed from City website in 2021]

1982-1985

David Skramstad | Mayor
Pete Knittle | Mayor Pro Tem
Mary Lux
Gilbert Carbone
William Daley
Holly Gadbaw
Joan Kelly

1986-1987

William Daley | Mayor
Gilbert Carbone | Mayor Pro Tem
Pete Knittle
Mary Lux
Holly Gadbaw
Joan Kelly
Rex Derr

1988-1989

Holly Gadbaw | Mayor
Rex Derr | Mayor Pro Tem
Gilbert Carbone
Pete Knittle
Mary Lux
William Daley
Cora Pinson

1990-1991

Rex Derr | Mayor
Mary Lux | Mayor Pro tem
Gilbert Carbone
Holly Gadbaw
Sandra Romero
Nina Carter
Cora Pinson

1992-1993

David Skramstad | Mayor (Resigned 3/2/93)
Bob Jacobs | Mayor (Appointed to replace Romero, Selected to become Mayor post resignation)
Mary Lux | Mayor Pro Tem
Rex Derr
Holly Gadbaw
Nina Carter
Mark Foutch
*Sandra Romero (Resigned 1/5/93)
Margaret McPhee (Appointed to replace Skramstad)

1994-1995

Bob Jacobs | Mayor
Mark Foutch | Mayor Pro tem
Pat Cole
Mary Lux
Holly Gadbaw
Margaret McPhee
Jeanette Hawkins

1996-1997

Bob Jacobs | Mayor
Mark Foutch | Mayor Pro Tem
Pat Cole
Laura Ware
Holly Gadbaw
Margaret McPhee
Jeanette Hawkins

1998-1999

Bob Jacobs | Mayor
Mark Foutch | Mayor Pro tem
Stan Biles
Laura Ware
Holly Gadbaw
Margaret McPhee
Jeanette Hawkins

2000-2001

Stan Biles |Mayor
Mark Foutch | Mayor Pro tem
Laura Ware
Curt Pavola
Holly Gadbaw
Margaret McPhee
TJ Johnson (Appointed 8/15/00 to replace McPhee)
Jeanette Hawkins

2002-2003

Stan Biles | Mayor
Mark Foutch | Mayor Pro Tem
Laura Ware
Curt Pavola
Matthew Green
Doug Mah
Jeanette Hawkins

2004-2005

Mark Foutch | Mayor
Laura Ware | Mayor Pro Tem
Matthew Green
Jeanette Hawkins
Joe Hyer
TJ Johnson
Doug Mah
Curt Pavola

2006-2007

Mark Foutch | Mayor
Laura Ware | Mayor Pro tem
Joe Hyer
TJ Johnson
Jeff Kingsbury
Doug Mah
Karen Messmer

2008-2009

Doug Mah | Mayor
Joe Hyer
Jeff Kingsbury
Joan Machlis (Appointed 1/7/08 to open position when Mah became Mayor)
Karen Messmer
Craig Ottavelli
Jeannine Roe (Elected to open position 11/24/09, replaced Machlis)
Rhenda Strub

2010-2011

Doug Mah | Mayor
Craig Ottavelli
Rhenda Strub
Karen Rogers
Stephen H. Buxbaum
Jeannine Roe
Joe Hyer (Resigned 4/10/10)
Steve Langer (Appointed 5/25/10 to replace Hyer)
Jim Cooper (Elected November 2011 to complete term)

2012-2013

Stephen Buxbaum | Mayor
Jim Cooper
Julie Hankins (Appointed 1/10/12 to open position when Buxbaum became Mayor)
Nathaniel Jones | Mayor Pro Tem
Steve Langer
Jeannine Roe
Karen Rogers

2014-2015

Stephen Buxbaum | Mayor
Jim Cooper
Julie Hankins
Nathaniel Jones | Mayor Pro Tem
Steve Langer
Jeannine Roe
Cheryl Selby

2016-2017

Cheryl Selby | Mayor
Jim Cooper
Julie Hankins
Nathaniel Jones | Mayor Pro Tem
Jessica Bateman
Jeannine Roe
Clark Gilman (Appointed 1/4/16 to open position when Selby became Mayor)

2018-2019

Cheryl Selby | Mayor
Jessica Bateman | Mayor Pro Tem (2019)
Jim Cooper
Clark Gilman
Nathaniel Jones | Mayor Pro Tem (2018)
Lisa Parshley (Elected to open position, replaced Julie Hankins)
Renata Rollins (Elected to open position, replaced Jeanine Roe)

Mosquito Fleet

March 20, 2022

[Captured from Wayback machine that archived deleted City of Olympia pages]

What is the Mosquito Fleet?

The Mosquito Fleet was the myriad of steamboats that served the Puget Sound’s shipping and transit needs for the more than 50 years that straddled the dawn of the 20th century. The name, so the story goes, came from a fellow in an office overlooking Elliot Bay and remarking as he observed all the boat activity that it looked like a “swarm of mosquitoes.”

In the early 1850’s, as the settler population grew, ancillary businesses developed; stores, brickyards, boat builders, dry docks, hotels and services for summer visitors. Since there were only trails in this land, heavily forested to the water’s edge, the population was supported by the steamboats collectively called the Mosquito Fleet that used the Sound as a watery freeway to move mail, products and passengers.

Steamship dining room The fleet was the lifeblood of the community and commerce that launched the Pacific Northwest. Steamer schedules governed daily lives, and the whistle of an approaching boat was the call to collect the mail, greet friends, or send a package. To ride on a steamboat was an occasion, a chance to visit and enjoy the leisurely, often long passage to the city. Old-timers recall the smooth, gleaming wood on the passenger cabins, the box lunches en route, and the fact that, for a child, the journey enlarged the world.

About the Boats

In short, a Mosquito Fleet boat was a craft of any size that performed any required task on Puget Sound.

Size

The smallest was less than 40 feet long and the largest nearly 300 feet. As passenger and freight businesses grew, the boats became larger, and there came a distinction in nomenclature. Generally boats over 50 feet were called steamboats; those under that were called launches.

Routes

When they first arrived (the Beaver was the earliest to the Northwest in 1836), these boats ran all over Puget Sound and even into Canada. They simply went where they were needed. By 1880, they began to settle into regular routes, though boats changed hands and moved to different parts of Puget Sound quite often.

Fuel

In the beginning, they were steam powered, first by wood, later by coal, and still later by oil. There were experiments: non-steam engines boiled naptha (an idea soon abandoned) and then, more safely, were fueled with gasoline. Boilers sometimes exploded, or heat caused fires with disastrous results.

Cargo

They fleet delivered passengers, mail, newspapers, produce, fish, eggs, bricks, shingles, brush, logs and more. Basically if there was water access and it could be loaded or towed, a Mosquito Fleet boat took care of it.

So many boats did so many different duties that it was not always possible to define a boat as a tugboat, freight boat, or passenger boat.

Boat Design and Construction

The End of an Era

Mosquito Fleet crew The Mosquito Fleet era ended as customers switched their allegiance to cars and paved highways. The traditional design of the steamers were outmoded, too, as newer boats came down the ways with gasoline or diesel motors instead of steam, propellers instead of paddle wheels, and steel instead of wooden hulls. To survive, the fleet tried to adapt, the larger boats finding new life as ferries, the smaller ones as tugboats, freighters, or excursion boats. Ultimately, they did not endure. By the 1920’s, car ferries were taking over, and passenger-only patronage was declining. By the 1930s, they were gone.

E.N. Steele

March 20, 2022

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E.N. Steele

About

E.N. Steele

E. N. (Earl) Steele was born April 19, 1881 in Altoona, Iowa, the son of John and Margaret (Newell) Steele. He married Clara Remdt of Findley, Ohio, on December 25, 1917. They had three children: Margaret Steele Everst, Richard N. Steele, and Bonnie J. Steele Lindsay.

Mr. Steele was public school teacher in Tenino, Washington in 1903-04. A lawyer, he was a member of the Washington State Bar Association engaged in private law practice in Olympia from 1904-45. He was owner and manager of the Oyster Company in Olympia, 1922-50, the Rockpoint Oyster Company at Samish Bay, Washington (1922-50), and past president of the Pacific Coast Oyster Growers Association. He authored two notable books about oysters, The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster and The Immigrant (Pacific) Oyster.

In 1925, when the City of Olympia changed from a Mayor/Council form of government to the Commissioner form, Steele was elected Commissioner of Finance, a position he held until he was elected Mayor and Commissioner of Public Safety in 1932.

Steele was also elected to the Washington State Legislature as a State Senator representing the Thurston County area. Earl N. Steele died in 1968.

More information:

The Following is the Forward to Steele’s The Immigrant Oyster. It was written by Charles R. Pollack of Seattle in 1962.

It is only occasionally that a man who starts the development of a new idea or industry, stays with it through the formative stages, meeting problems as they arise; and the fruition of his dreams in a successful industry developed; employing several hundred people; providing profits for not only those who worked with him through the trying periods of small successes, but to others later engaged in the industry; hampered by temporary obstacles and failures, to the achieved goal, such a man is the author of this book.

It has been this writer’s privilege to know the author of this book since his Pacific oyster operations started in 1924, when his company imported the first large cargo of Japanese oyster spat (seed) from the Miyagi Prefecture area of Japan. Previous small shipments of trial spat had been imported for a few preceding years prior to Messrs. Steele and Barnes taking over the program under the name of the Rock Point Oyster Company at Blanchard, Washington.

Earl Newell Steele was born in Altoona near Des Moines, Iowa, April 19, 1881; lived at Perry, Iowa, where he graduated from high school and entered the University of Iowa in 1900; graduated in law the Spring of 1903. It is a recorded fact that Steele traveled from Perry, Iowa, to Iowa City by bicycle, and mainly through his own efforts financed his schooling and graduated in law from Iowa State University in 1903.

Coming to Washington in August, 1903, Steele taught school at Tenino near Olympia for eight months, and then having passed the State Bar examination, he opened his law office at Olympia in 1904, where he practiced his profession for over forty years.

Public spirited and interested in the development of his community, he served as a Director of the Olympia Chamber of Commerce three years and its President two years; elected Olympia City Commissioner of Finance he served seven years, and was appointed Mayor to replace the Mayor who passed away; he served two years in this position; elected State Senator from Thurston County in 1932, he served four years in the Washington State Senate with very considerable distinction.

In 1907 and continuing to this date, being so close to the Oyster operations around Olympia, Steele took a great interest in the practical growing of oysters and with it the scientific development and improvement of the industry. With his summer home on Oyster Bay, the large production area for the Native Olympia Oysters, his interest which might have been called a hobby, developed with the purchase of oyster acreage into a regular profitable business side line.

Jn 1912 he was elected Secretary of the Olympia Oyster Growers Association and held that office until 1941, over 35 years. Principally through his tireless efforts the advertising of the Olympia Oyster Growers Association developed the Pacific Coast demand for these succulent bivalves to the point where the entire available production was sold each year.

On December 25, 1917, Mr. Steele married Clara Ann Remdt in Findlay, Ohio, and their three children, now grown, with families of their own, are Margaret Ann, Richard N., and Bonny Jean. Richard N. and Margaret’s husband, Marshall Hinton, now operate the Rock Point Oyster Company’s plant.

In 1930, it was through his efforts the Pacific Coast Oyster Growers Association was formed. He was president and secretary until 1945, and a Trustee for several years afterwards, as well as a valued consultant to date.

Beginning with the scientific study of the propagation of the Native Olympia Oyster and since early in 1920 pioneering the importation of Japanese transplanted oysters, now known to the trade as the Pacific Oyster, and engaging in the culture of this species for these many years, it goes without Saying that Earl Newell Steele, known to all of us as the Daddy of the Pacific Oyster Industry, after fifty five years, should have a whole book full of interest, information, and observations on oysters for the permanent record.

In 1957, the Olympia Oyster Growers Association published Steele’s book “The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster”. A story of men’s lives, the life of the oyster which they cultivated, and the Olympia Oyster industry.

Personal and most agreeable contacts over the years since 1924 makes me welcome this opportunity to salute “E. N.” and I feel deeply honored to be asked to provide this foreword.

CHARLES R. POLLOCK
Seattle, May 1, 1962

The following article about E. N. Steele is reprinted from The Olympian newspaper’s Mainly About People series published in 1964.

A new chapter has been added to the long and varied career of E. N. Steele, pioneer lawyer, legislator and businessman from Thurston County.

Eighty-three year old Steele is the author of a book about Pacific Oysters – the oysters that grow from the Japanese seed he was first to import, cultivate and put on the market.

Titled The Immigrant Oyster (Ostrea Gigas), the book is published in cooperation with the Pacific Coast Oyster Growers Association Incorporated, and is being distributed now.

The Immigrant Oyster tells the story of the first planting of the Japanese seed in Bellingham’s Samish Bay 42 years ago, problems with importing the seed to the West Coast, troubles with pollution and the growth of the experiment into a profitable industry.

Steele, who also wrote The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster which was published in 1957, now lives in Des Moines, but spends his summers at Rock Point Oyster Company property on Oyster Bay, where his home is located.

Just beyond the rolltop desk in the study of his home is a window that opens on to a long line of dikes protecting the company’s oyster bed.

Steele remembers when there were no dikes, and oyster growing was mostly an Indian occupation.

That was in 1903, the year the young lawyer named Steele was fresh out of the University of Minnesota and ready to make his mark in Olympia.

Steele and oysters is much a story of friendship. He tasted them, liked them, and by 1904 he was growing them on the same Toten Inlet Tidelands his home overlooks.

Young Steele was to have a colorful career in the Olympia area. In 1925 he became the first City of Olympia commissioner of finance when the city switched from the mayor-council form of government to the commission form.

He served until 1931 in this capacity, and from 1932 to 1934 he was Olympia’s mayor and commissioner of public safety.

But he will likely to be remembered primarily in government circles as the senator from Thurston County who in 1933 wrote the Steele Act. The law provided for the state’s control of liquor sales after the end of prohibition and established the State Liquor Control Board.

But oysters are his first love, and from 1933 to 1945 Steele served as the first president of the Pacific Coast Oyster Gorwers Association, comprised of the leading men in the industry.

A long-time friend, Jay Bolster, of Olympia, says Steele is probably the most widely known oyster grower in the United States.

Caleb Reinhart

March 20, 2022

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Caleb S Reinhart

About

Caleb Reinhart was the son of Stephen and Sarah Reinhart, pioneers who crossed the plains in 1852 over the old Oregon Trail. He was born April 5, 1856 in Olympia, approximately ten years after the first western settlers had arrived. Mr. Reinhart died December 10, 1934 at his home in Olympia located at 1112 Olympia Avenue. He is buried in the Reinhart family plot at the Masonic Cemetary in Tumwater, WA.

Caleb Reinhart married Clara Downer, the daughter of Oregon pioneer Joseph Downer who had arrived there in 1847. Caleb and Clara Reinhart had six children, including Anna R. Stanford, a 1900 graduate of Olympia High School, long time art teacher at that school, and the paternal grandmother of Jim Stanford and Jeri Ramsey who provided this biographical information. As of 2009, five generations of Caleb and Clara’s descendents had graduated from Olympia High School.

Mr. Reinhart was a graduate of Williamette University and an attorney who worked as the chief clerk of the Washington State Supreme Court from 1891 until his death in 1934. He was Mayor of Olympia in 1899, 1900, and 1901.

He was a member of the Washington National Guard from its beginning, joining as a noncommissioned officer in Company B, then shortly thereafter promoted to lieutenant and later captain. After four years in that capacity, Company A of the National Guard was formed and Caleb Reinhart was transferred to be captain of that company. Throughout the rest of his life, he was often referred to as “Cap” Reinhart.

William Winlock Miller

March 20, 2022

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About

The following information is reprinted from a poster on display at Olympia High School (formally dedicated as William Winlock Miller High School).

Before the establishment of Washington Territory, William Winlock Miller arrived in Olympia in 1850, with the first commission as an American official in what was then known as Oregon Territory, north of the Columbia River, or Northern Oregon.

His first duties were as customs surveryor, measuring the trade through the Nisqually docks of the British Hudson’s Bay Company for American tariffs.

Miller served as Olympia’s first directly elected mayor, as a member in the Washington Territorial Legislature, as quartermaster general in Governor Stevens’ Territorial Army, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Washington Territory, and as United States tax collector for the territory.

Miller was an accomplished businessman, having interests in savings and lending before banks came to the Northwest. Settlers were generally cash poor, but land collateral was considerable. Miller untimately developed vast real estate holdings throughout Western Washington.

When Washington Territory’s population was under a couple thousand and travel was by overland trails or boat, Miller raised supplies, equipment and treasury among settlers to provision the Territorial Army for the Indian Wars. For purchasing, he could only offer scrip, un-negotiated promises to pay at a later date that were ultimately authorized years later by Congress, at a discounted value of 71 cents on the dollar.

Miller’s counsel and backing were widely sought by leaders in Washington Territory. He helped in the election of many territorial leaders, including his father-in-law, Judge Obediah McFadden, who served as territorial representative to Congress.

Miller married Mary Margaret McFadden in 1869. They had two children, Winlock and Pendleton. William, Mary and Pendleton are buried at the Masonic Cemetery (in Tumwater, Washington) just off Cleveland Boulevard.

More information:

The following information is reprinted from an Olympia High School alumni directory provided to the City by Winnifred Castle Olsen, January 2009.

William Winlock Miller arrived in Olympia from Illinois in 1851 and became one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the Washington Territory. He was successful in business as well as politics, serving in the legislature and as quartermaster general to territorial Governor Isaac Stevens during the 1855-1856 Indian uprising. He was later appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs by President Buchanan. Mr. Miller’s popularity in the local community was evident when the people of Olympia elected him Mayor for two terms.

William Winlock Miller was born in Greenbury, Kentucky, January 12, 1822. He died on January 14, 1876 at the age of 54 and is buried in the Masonic Cemetary, in Tumwater, Washington.

In 1853, Mary McFadden came from Pennsylvania to the Washington Territory with her family when her father O. B. McFadden was appointed justice of the Territorial Supreme Court. She married William Winlock Miller in 1869 and raised two sons, Winlock and Pendleton. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Miller carried on and expanded the family businesses and remained active in both philanthropic and social activities. In 1906 she donated land for the first high school building in Olympia with the stipulation that it be named in honor of her husband.

Francis Henry

March 20, 2022

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Francis Henry

Birth: January 27, 1827, Galena, Il
Death: September 27, 1893, Olympia, WA
Spouse: Eliza B. Henry (Married Yam Hill, Oregon, May 14, 1857)

About

Born in Galena, Illinois, January 27, 1827, Francis Henry was the first white child born in Galena. His parents, William and Rachel (McQuigg) Henry, were natives of New York and Connecticut respectively. His father took an active part in the War of 1812, being a Lieutenant of Artillery, and was one of the first settlers of Galena in 1825, where he engaged in the mercentile business. In 1836, William Henry moved with his family to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where he passed the remainder of his days.

Francis Henry secured his education in the old proverbial “log school house,” walking several miles to improve the simple facilities then offered by the short winter terms. His early manhood was spent in (?) 1847. He received his appointment from General Cass as a Lieutenant of the U.S. Dragoons for the Mexican War serving at the City of Mexico under General Scott. Henry was one of General Scott’s aides all through the war.

After his discharge he joined his family in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and engaged in the study of law under Judge Dunn. In 1851 started for the gold fields of California via Panama; mined at Hangtown, California, (?) and Plaserville. In 1855 he crossed the mountains to Jacksonville, Or. where he found mining profitable for a time. The discovery of gold in Eastern Washington again setting him going, but the Indian War in 1855 saved him from further disappointment. He was a member of several legislatures and two constitutional conventions 1878-1889.

More Information

The following excerpt is from Pioneer Association of the State of Washington posted on the website as part of historylink.org.

Also at the 1886 meeting (Pioneer Association meeting at Yesler’s Hall in Seattle in 1886), Francis Henry suggested that the new association gather material pertinent to the region’s history. Henry, called Olympia’s “town wit, cartoonist and writer of satirical verse” by historian Gordon Newell, authored a poem titled “The Old Settler,” which was later used by restaurateur and Pioneer Association member Ivar Haglund. It included the famous line: “I laugh at the world and its shams, as I think of my happy condition, surrounded by Acres of Clams.”

Elwood Evans

March 20, 2022

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About

On January 28, 1859 the Washington State Territorial Legislature adopted Articles of Incorporation for the Town of Olympia, and appointed Elwood Evans to serve on a 5-person interim Town Board until the first Olympia elections were held.

The interim Board convened for its first meeting on February 12, 1859. At that meeting, Evans and fellow Trustee George A. Barnes were appointed as a Committee to draft ByLaws for the Town Board. On February 24, 1859, the committee of Barnes and Evans presented recommended ByLaws to the Town Board, which were unanimously adopted.

On April 14, 1859, Mr. Evans was appointed by the newly elected Board to a vacant position created by the resignation of William Rutledge. At that meeting, Evans was also selected by his fellow Board Trustees to serve as President of the Town Board for 1859.

Elwood Evans Resources

Northwest Illustrations Collection , Washington State University Libraries, A collection of 53 selected illustrations taken from the rare book, History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington. Elwood Evans was the main contributor to this series of volumes published in 1889, the same year Washington was granted Statehood.

Thornton McElroy

March 20, 2022

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Thornton F. McElroy

Born: West Middletown, Pennsylvania, 1825
Died: February 4, 1885 (Buried Masonic Cemetary, Olympia)
Spouse: Sarah Elizabeth (Bates) McElroy (Married October 15, 1847, Pittsfield, Illinois)

About

T.F. McElroy Started from Pittsfield, Illinois by ox team, date 1849. Arrival on coast at Oregon City, Oregon Territory in 1849. Incidents on way: The ox team “gave out,” the party divided and Mr. McElroy and another man (name unknown) came on to Oregon City. The original desitnation was California, where Mr. McElroy went by sea in a sailing vessel (Barque Diamond, Capt. Reynard) in October and November 1849. Companions in party: Norton Bates (brother-in-law), others unknown.

Mr. McElroy located in Thurston County in the fall of 1852; and with J. W. Wiley founded the first newspaper, The Columbian, in what is now the State of Washington.

Mr. McElroy was the first master of the first masonic lodge in Washington Territory. He was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Town of Olympia (appointed by the Territorial Legislature, January 28, 1859), as well as its first treasurer (February to April 1859), and held the office of Mayor of Olympia (1875).

Information filed by Harry B. McElroy (only son of Thurston F. McElroy and Sarah E. McElroy), February, 1918.

More information:

McElroy Family Papers (1847-1927), held by the University of Washington Special Collections, Manuscript Collection # 0027.

Biographical Note from the UW Special Collections website for the McElroy Family Papers:

Pioneer family.

Thorton Fleming McElroy, 1825-1885
Sara Collins McElroy, 1827-1894
Harry Bates McElroy, 1861-1928

Thornton McElroy joined the gold rush to California, journeyed overland by wagon train to Oregon City, OR, to work on the Oregon Spectator, was sent by Thomas Dryer to Olympia, Washington to establish and publish “The Columbian” in 1852; was Territorial printer (1863-1872), and was foreman of the “Pioneer and Democrat.”

Scope and Content of the McElroy Family Papers:

Family papers, including correspondence of Thornton F. McElroy, Washington Territorial Official; his wife, Sara Collins McElroy; and their son, Harry Bates McElroy; papers relate to an overland journey to California in 1849, the newspaper publishing and printing business in Oregon and Washington Territories, politics in Washington Territory, and social conditions in the Northwest during pioneer period: 1847-1927.

George Barnes

March 20, 2022

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Born: Dundee (Yates County), New York
Died: November 18, 1912, Olympia, Washington.
Spouse: Mary Ann Kandle (Married July 1842)

About

George A Barnes

Started from Fort Wayne, Indiana by team, Spring of 1848. Arrival on coast: Oregon City, Oregon, Fall of 1848. Spent the winter there and then wagoned to the California mines where he stayed until November 1849 when he and his wife took ship for New Orleans via the isthmus and up the Mississippi river to Fort Wayne, Indinana. After passing the winter there, Barnes, his wife, his father, and family came across the plains to Portland, Oregon in 90 days. He arrived in Portland in August 1850 and opened a general merchandise store. In 1852, he sold out the store and came by schooner to Olympia where he continued in the merchandise store business. Later he organized the First State Bank of Olympia and erected Olympia’s first brick building. He continued in business 23 years in all, and then retired to a quiet life.

Mr. Barnes served on the first Portland Council and helped organize the Olympia (Town Board) on which he served several times as well as school boards. Mrs. Barnes was a Pioneer Hostess.

George A. Barnes was appointed to the first Town of Olympia Board of Trustees which convened for its initial meeting on February 12, 1859. At that meeting, he and fellow Trustee Elwood Evans were appointed as a Committee to draft ByLaws for the Town Board. On February 24, 1859, the committee of Barnes and Evans presented recommended ByLaws to the Town Board, which were unanimously adopted.

Mr. Barnes was elected to the Town Board in Olympia’s first general election of Trustees, April 4, 1859. By request of his fellow Trustees, he served as Chairman of the Board for one week, from April 7 – 14, 1859. On April 14, 1859, the Board conducted its first annual election of officers. Elwood Evans was appointed by the Board to serve as Town President for 1859 and George A. Barnes was appointed as Treasurer.

George A. Barnes was subsequently elected by his fellow Trustees as President, Town of Olympia Board of Trustees in 1862, 1866 to 1869, and Mayor in 1880.

Black Pioneers Walking Tour

March 8, 2022

Trifold brochure produced by the City of Olympia

Olympia Area Black Pioneers

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