James T. Spirlock arrived in Thurston County in 1858, and settled in the Mima Mounds area. His property, now the Nelson Ranch, has been in the family ever since and is being farmed by the fourth and fifth generations of his descendants.
Photograph around 1870, courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1943.1008.6
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2018