Throughout 2023 the Sunday Olympian’s Looking Back theme was origins of area place names. Governor Stevens Avenue and Stevens field, both in southeast Olympia, are named for Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens. Governor Stevens was appointed to be the first governor of the newly-created Washington Territory in 1853. He later was killed at the Civil War’s Battle of Chantilly in 1862.
Portrait engraving, about 1855, Courtesy Washington State Historical Society, catalog 1918.114.14
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2023