Olympia, the capital of the State of Washington,
is situated on Budd’s Inlet, at the head of Puget Sound,
on whose shores are found several cities which rival the larger emporiums of
the East in importance of commercial and industrial growth. It is practically located at the commercial,
if not the geographical, center of the State, and, as regards settlement, is
absolutely at the center of population.
Within a radius of 100 miles from the State capital there is a
population estimated at 300,000 people, which is rapidly increasing. The city is easy of access, there being two
railroads, running daily passenger and freight trains, and a number of fine
passenger steamers ply daily between Olympia and
Tacoma, Seattle, Shelton, Kamilchie and
other cities and towns.
The surroundings of Olympia are surprisingly fine, and the city is designated
by visitors very generally as “Olympia,
the Beautiful.” It is located on a
peninsula, gently rising from tide water until an elevation of nearly a hundred
feet is reached at Capitol hill, on which the people of the state declared, and
two legislatures directed that, a million dollar state edifice should be
erected. The basement story,
already complete for the superstructure, at a cost of $100,000, is a massive
foundation of stone and brick walls and arches.
But like all plans of man the old initial ideas have to be changed to
conform with the active present.
According to the original
plans a magnificent structure of which we present an illustration, was to have
been built. A land grant of 132,000
acres of land, most of which was located and the selections approved by the
general government, was available for funds necessary to prosecute the work to
completion, with a surplus left for beautifying the grounds and supplying all
the adjuncts of a modern state house.
The capitol grounds consisted of 20 acres donated [to] the state for
that purpose. They are situated on an
eminence in the rear of the peninsula, from which a sweep of 25 miles of the
majestic waters of Puget Sound may be
enjoyed. The capitol from the decks of
incoming steamers, when completed would have presented a majestic appearance
with the city in the foreground and verdant hills with snow-flecked mountains
in the distance.
The view from the original
site of the state house is grand beyond description. From where the rear portico, with its
majestic semi-circle of columns was to adorn the edifice when completed, one
may overlook the city at his feet, his glance resting upon Mount Rainier on the
right, with its peak lost perhaps in the clouds, and its sides sparkling in its
garb of perpetual snow; in front the graceful contour of the Sound affords a
splendid picture for the framework of the Olympic Range in the far distance and
the Black Hills on the left with their mighty forests of evergreen. The blue sky, with its fleecy clouds, and its
reflected splendor in the broad expanse of water, constitute the finishing
touches of the Master’s work. It is a
view once seen will never be forgotten.
Now, the state has
purchased the old Thurston
County court house, and
at a total expense of about $150,000 is constructing wings and adapting it to
the necessities and demands of a capitol building.
Two miles from the center
of the Capital City, is its suburb Tumwater, connected
by an elegant outfit of electric cars with the city proper. Here is where will in times be gathered the
manufactories of the Upper Sound, for here are the mighty cascades of the
Deschutes River, which make their leaps of 87 feet in all, before reaching tide
water, affording a manufacturing energy estimated at 10,000 horse power. Here, too, the landscape affords a
picturesque scene that lingers on the cherished leaves of memory.
The eligibility of Olympia
as a commercial point is shown by the fact that the eminent minds which
inaugurated and wrought out the great scheme of transcontinental traffic by
railroad, after thorough examination of the reports of the best civil
engineers, based upon a careful personal examination in detail of all rival
points on the Sound, unqualifiedly accepted Olympia as embracing more and
better facilities for managing the great current of trade that must pass
through the entrepot of the commerce of a great continent with the remainder of
the world. The location of the Western
terminus was made at Olympia, with a full understanding and ample consideration
of all the adjuncts and factors entering into the momentous proposition, but it
so happened that a large proportion of the stock of the Northern Pacific
Railroad Company was owned by the Puget Sound and Lake Superior Land Company,
and the selfishness of human nature became apparent in a schemed for relocation
simply to enlarge the scope of the land grant from the government and the
donations of a rival city which, after the location had been made was ready to
yield up everything to the rapacious cormorants. Although the terminus was changed to Tacoma, the young city of Olympia stands today, as she did in 1870,
when she was chosen under the dictates of reason and good judgment, the
possessor of the same magnificent natural advantages which she then held, and
the day for their full development is only postponed for a while.
Olympia possesses fine graded streets, a splendid system of
sewerage, an excellent water service, which affords likewise ample protection
from fire by a gravity system of ample pressure, an electric lighting plant and
a magnificent street car line extending the whole length of Main street to the city’s suburb,
Tumwater, and on Fourth street
to the eastern environs. She has two
splendid saw mills, which furnish frequent cargoes of lumber to sea-going
vessels; three shingle mills, a sash and door factory, two creameries, three
fish packing establishments, a wooden water pipe factory, and a brewery, at
Tumwater, which makes absolutely the best beer on the coast. Besides these, there are many other smaller
industrial enterprises in the city.
There was a time when the
trade of Olympia was somewhat embarrassed by the mudflats formed from the silt
deposited by the Deschutes River, at the extreme end of Budd’s Inlet, but that
time has passed. The general government,
realizing the importance of freeing commerce of the fetters thus imposed, made
ample appropriation for dredging a channel from deep water to City dock, and
this has each year been improved by additional work until it will in time
become adequate for all demands of deep-water traffic.
Olympia has lately become the transfer point of large logging
companies in the Black Hills and Chehalis
County [Grays Harbor
and Mason Counties] , the former corporation – the
Mason County Logging Co., alone, “dumping” a hundred thousand feet a day into
our bay, over the N.P. [Northern Pacific RR] and P.T.S. [Port
Townsend & Southern RR] tracks.
The Chehalis combine finds an outlet by the N.P. via the Jefferson street
terminal, on the east side of the peninsula.
The healthfulness of our
city is one of its attractions.
Statistics compiled by the government show that our state exhibits the
lowest mortuary record of any section of the United
States; and of all parts of the state Thurston County
is the healthiest. And this is not all: Olympia shows the
smallest per centage of deaths of any settlement in the county! It is a fact that the only infectious
diseases have prevailed here for many years past have been diphtheria and
scarlet fever (in a mild form) and these have both disappeared. The chief use we have for doctors as
surgeons, arising from injuries in logging camps, and lung complaints arising
from exposure to the damp weather of winter.
The very mildness of the temperature and salubrity of climate induce indiscretions
which result in colds that if neglected lead to serious lung diseases. We therefore except them, and rheumatic
complaints, and advise nobody to come here with the expectation of betterment,
if their affliction is in either the lungs or the bones. To sum up health conditions, we can do no
better than quote the words of a venerable octogenarian to a representative of
this paper. He said: “I have been here twenty-seven years, and in all that time
have never had an hour’s sickness.” Hale and hearty, his eyes twinkled with
mirth, as he struck his cane on the floor to emphasize his words. He looks good for twenty-seven more years of
health and happiness.
Of our climate it is not
possible to speak in terms of too high praise.
Our city stands pre-eminent for the mildness and equability of weather
in all seasons. To the Eastern mind this
will seem an exaggeration. To the
average citizen of the Eastern and Middle
States, who have heard
the absurd tales of the wild Northwest, this country seems almost Arctic in its
severity. It is only recently that they
have come to realize the truth, and every man who writes a true account of the
climate to friends in the East is a public educator.
What one of the denizens of
New York, for
instance, will believe that roses and chrysanthemums are blooming in our
gardens in December? That our lawns are still green and beautiful? That no snow
has been seen save that which covers the white peaks of our magnificent
mountains? That only at rare seasons the
thermometer touches zero in the winter and that only
for a few hours? That our splendid flower gardens are still blooming in
December? That we plant our vegetable
gardens in February? How shall they know
that when they are seething in the burning sun of a July day, the gentle breeze
from the Olympic Range, cool and delicious, pours down upon this picturesque
land? How shall they picture to
themselves the coolness and eternal calmness that seems always to be wafted to
us on a summer’s day from the eternal snows that lie like a crown of glory
about the brow of Mt.
Rainier? How shall they who sit beneath the deafening
peals of thunder and the blinding flash of the forked lightning, while the rain
comes down in floods, ever dream of the gentle shower that falls in dreamy
cadence upon this thirsty soil, as the blessing of the Omnipresent on the promised land? How
shall we picture these things to them?
The cold facts are too tame.
The average temperature of
the spring months is 48 degrees Fahrenheit, for summer 60 degrees, for autumn
53 degrees, and for winter 38 degrees.
In the month of January, which comprises the winter season, snow
sometimes falls, but seldom remains more than a few hours. The days, as a rule are clear and calm with
falling temperature and frost at night, followed by a fogging morning, which
draws the teeth of Jack Frost, as it were and vegetation and fruit trees suffer
no injury from his bite. As a fact the
fruit trees are budding even in December.
This fact and the further one that fruit grows in great abundance is
complete proof that the winters are almost tropical in their mildness.
And for the summers! What
can be said of them that will be simple justice? They are simply the ideal summer. From April to November one long, glorious,
splendid succession of sunny days, when life seems just to flow like a
peaceful, quiet, rippling stream; the beautiful summer-land of the poet’s
dream. The realization of it is found in
Thurston County.
The long delicious twilight extending to 9 or 10 o’clock in the evening,
succeeded by a cool night, through which we sleep in perfect comfort with
absolutely never the shadow of discomfort, makes a summer night the perfection
of human bliss.
The records of the U.S. signal station maintained in Olympia from 1878 to 1887
inclusive, afford the following summary, based wholly upon official figures:
Highest barometer, 30.63; lowest 29.16; range of barometer, 1.47. Mean annual temperature, 49.5; highest in ten
years, 97 degrees, in 1886; lowest in ten years, 2 above zero, in 1884; mean
temperature for spring, 48.8; for summer, 60.7; for winter, 38. The
precipitation in the shape of rain and melted snow, has been on an annual
average of 54.45; rainfall for spring, 12.01; for summer, 2.66; winter, 27.64. Mean direction of wind was south; the highest
recorded velocity, 32 miles; average velocity, 3.65 miles per hour. The annual average clear days were 73, fair
days 133, cloudy 159, and the number of days on which more than 0.01 inch of
rain or snow fell was 151. Mr. O’Connor,
who has kept the record since 1887, says that the figures since that time will
not materially change above the record.
New
Haven, Conn.
Has about the same annual rainfall as Olympia;
so has Charleston, S.C.,
and Chattanooga, Tenn.,
as well as Wilmington, N.C. Mobile has a far greater
rainfall. Jacksonville,
Fla., has about the same; Vicksburg, Va.,
has more. Portions of California
more, and parts of New York as much.
This brief and necessarily
imperfect sketch of some of the perfections of our beautiful little city cannot
better close than with the following stanzas written by a prominent citizen, in
reply to queries from his Eastern friends as to how he liked Olympia.
He writes:
Olympia,
Wash., October Seven
The prettiest place this side of heaven,
Where Eden
fruits, upon the ground,
Lie in abundance all around.
Apple and cranberry, plum and pear,
Each one of them beyond compare;
And these may be eaten both one and all,
Without any danger of incurring a fall.
Unless one eats too much, then the grief,
A common remedy can give relief,
Zero, unknown in this favored spot;
Summer-time never exceedingly hot.
Healthiest place on all the earth;
Richest land in intrinsic worth;
For there is no better kind of wealth
Than the undying riches of perfect
health.
Water the purist, in rippling rills,
Coming down from the pine-clad hills;
Fir trees standing like the columns tall,
Hills round about, a verdant wall.
Land and sea together meet,
For the praise of man they both compete.
Better than others, by all odds,
This Olympia
City— “
Home of the Gods.”
