Throughout 2023 we’ll be exploring the origins of area place names. In 1970, a park was created on Capitol Lake’s western shore by placing fill material next to an existing railroad berm in the north basin of the lake. The park earned its current name, Marathon Park, when the City of Olympia won the right to host the U.S. time trials for the first Women’s Olympic Marathon, in 1984. The marathon route for the trials began and ended near the park. Photograph selected and captioned by Deborah Ross, Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum, olympiahistory.org.
1984 photo, Olympian archives