Throughout 2023 the Sunday Olympian’s Looking Back theme was origins of area place names. Simmons Street, in Olympia, is named for the Simmons family, early settlers in Thurston County. Michael and Elizabeth Kindred Simmons arrived in Thurston County in 1845, as part of the Simmons-Bush Party. Simmons and others had interests in mills on the Deschutes River in New Market, now Tumwater. Simmons Street is built on landfill that did not exist when Simmons lived here.
Unknown creator, Courtesy Washington State Historical Society, catalog 2005.0.132
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2023