page_title: Olympia, Washington
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Olympia, Washington / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The old courthouse and Sylvester Park, Olympia, WA. Both the building and the park are on the National Register of Historic Places.
context_page_description: Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. European settlers claimed the area in 1846, with the Treaty of Medicine Creek initiated in 1854, and the Treaty of Olympia initiated in January 1856.
  Olympia was incorporated as a town on January 28, 1859, and as a city in 1882. The population was 46,479 as of the 2010 census, making it the 24th largest city in the state. The city borders Lacey to the east and Tumwater to the south. Olympia is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Olympia is located 60 miles southwest of Seattle, the largest city in the state of Washington.
context_section_description: The site of Olympia had been home to Lushootseed-speaking peoples known as the Steh-Chass (or Stehchass, later part of the post-treaty Squaxin Island Tribe) for thousands of years. Other Native Americans regularly visited the head of Budd Inlet and the Steh-Chass including the other ancestor tribes of the Squaxin, as well as the Nisqually, Puyallup, Chehalis, Suquamish, and Duwamish. The first recorded Europeans came to Olympia in 1792. Peter Puget and a crew from the British Vancouver Expedition are said to have explored the site, but neither recorded any encounters with the resident Indigenous population here. In 1846, Edmund Sylvester and Levi Lathrop Smith jointly claimed the land that is now downtown Olympia. In 1851, the U.S. Congress established the Customs District of Puget Sound for Washington Territory and Olympia became the home of the customs house. Its population steadily expanded from Oregon Trail immigrants. In 1850, the town settled on the name Olympia, at the suggestion of local resident Colonel Isaac N. Ebey, because of its view of the Olympic Mountains to the Northwest. The area began to be served by a small fleet of steamboats known as the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.
  Over the course of two days, December 24–26, 1854, Governor Isaac I. Stevens negotiated the Treaty of Medicine Creek with the representatives of the Nisqually, Puyallup, Squawksin, Steh'Chass, Noo-Seh-Chatl, Squi-Aitl, T'Peeksin, Sah-Heh-Wa-Mish, and S'Hotl-Ma-Mish tribes. Stevens' treaty included the preservation of Indigenous fishing, hunting, gathering and other rights. It also included a section which, at least as interpreted by United States officials, required the Native American signatories to move to one of three reservations. Doing so would effectively force the Nisqually people to cede their prime farming and living space. One of the leaders of the Nisqually, Chief Leschi, outraged, refused to give up ownership of this land and instead fought for his peoples' right to their territory, sparking the beginning of the Puget Sound War. The war ended in the controversial execution of Leschi.
  In 1896, Olympia became the home of the Olympia Brewing Company, which brewed Olympia Beer until 2003.
  The 1949 Olympia earthquake damaged many historic buildings beyond repair, and they were demolished. Parts of the city also suffered damage from earthquakes in 1965 and 2001.
caption: Old State Capitol Building and Sylvester Park
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