Just over two decades after following the same trail up from the Columbia River to Puget Sound, the body of "Big Mike" Simmons entered the county that almost bore his name. Simmons died on November 15, 1867 at the land claim farm he took after failing at being a timber man in Mason County.

Michael Troutman Simmons is certainly one of the giants of Thurston County history. Leader of the first group of Americans to settle in Puget Sound, delegate to the territorial convention, Indian agent and businessman. Yet, he died poor and almost anonymous in Lewis County.

We seem to know everything about Michael Troutman Simmons. But, for me, there are as many questions as facts about Simmons that I need answered before I get a true image of him.

First off, what is it about Clanrick Crosby?

Soon after this other founder of Thurston County and Tumwater arrived in 1851 (some would say the founder of Tumwater, since he did more to move New Market to Tumwater than Simmons) the two men filed suit against each other. Both men claimed ownership of the land around the Deschutes falls, which would prove to be the economic heart of Tumwater. According to at least one source, the first lawsuit spawned additional lawsuits that lasted beyond Simmons' death.

Why did he leave Olympia?

His first venture out of Olympia and Tumwater was a mill on Skookum Bay in Mason County he started in 1853 with Wes Gosnell. A newspaper article announcing to Simmons’ new mill, also noted that the valuable land near Tumwater was “no longer entangled in vexatious chancery.” The courts had apparently settled in Crosby’s favor by 1853 (for the moment), and Simmons had taken his enterprises north.

By 1857 he is listed as a property owner in Sawamish (before it was called Mason) County.

For a man whose legacy is tied so closely to Tumwater, he spent more of his time in Washington away from Tumwater then in it.

What about his race for congress?

Is there more to know about Simmons' failed campaign in 1854 for territorial delegate? He ran in the general election as an Independent and lost by a landslide.

The nomination of Columbia Lancaster as the Democratic candidate in 1854 was one of territorial unity over sectionalism, according to the papers. Lancaster was a resident of the Columbia portion of the new territory. The newspaper in 1854 writes about the state having two centers, one on Puget Sound, the other on the Columbia. Lancaster brings those two together. “The first blow of union and democracy of the territory has been struck”

Simmons wasn’t nominated (or possibly even present) at the Democratic convention that chose Lancaster. James Patton Anderson of Tennessee (who later served in the Confederacy) was the strong runner up in four ballots. Anderson would be elected delegate a year later and serve until Issac Stevens himself was elected in 1857.

Yet, a letter written arguing for Simmons’ independent candidacy pointed out that five of the six who had been nominated were new to the territory and all were lukewarm for the recent split from Oregon. On the other hand, Simmons had lived on Puget Sound for almost a decade by that point and was an early advocate for a split from Oregon.

There’s not a shred of irony from Simmons or his supporters when he mentioned that newcomers were taking over territorial politics.His ten years (compared to the centuries of the Indian tribes) were apparently to him, the most important ten years.

This feud with the Democrats in 1854 would eventually spill into other contests when Simmons apparently even supported the growing Republican party in the territory (as noted in "Confederacy of Ambition"). Political pressure was put to local civic leaders to force Simmons out as Indian agent because of his partisan disloyalty.

Was their economic pressure put together with political pressure to keep Simmons from finding success in the territorial capital? He apparently outlasted all that pressure though, and was only replaced when Lincoln’s administration replaced him with a loyal Republican.

By Waponigirl on Flickr.

Now, I'm sure you see it clearly now. But, what a lot of people call the upper waterfalls on the Deschutes in Tumwater is actually a derelict dam. It is also (according to my list) the oldest dam in Thurston County by nearly 40 years.

There are a surprising number of dams in Thurston County (35 total), now that I think of it. All but one were built in the last 100 years. The busiest decade for dam building was the 1960s (with eight built). I'm also surprised by the number built in the 1980s and 90s (five each).

The stormwater pond dam over at SPSCC has a surprisingly high risk rate, "From 7 to 30 lives at risk."

Most of the dams -- 15 out of 35 -- are both earth fill and were built to create recreational reservoirs. Three of these actually have "ski" in their names.

There are also dams in surprising places, Grass Lake for example. This is a small lake surrounded by a City of Olympia park. The dam was built in 1966 for the original purpose (I assume) of irrigation.


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Grass Lake dam illustrates what I take away from the list of Thurston County Dams. Most of us read the word dam and see the Elwha dams, the Grand Coulee or even our own La Grande Dam. Something big, blocking a big river. But, most of these dams are smallish, practically fading into the landscape. You don't even know a dam is there.

1. Just a little old (vintage 2008), but the insight is pretty interesting on downtown and how to make it better. Some people are happy the way downtown is now.



2. May Day report #1 (from Mr. Tom Hyde): "As the TV news crews and other journalists trailed in their wake or marched along the sidelines with phalanxes of police, I couldn’t help think it was all so … pointless, and more than a little pathetic - for the disorganized protesters with an incoherent message and seemingly absent worldview (“fuck everything” is neither a particularly brilliant nor achievable solution)..."

May Day report #2: Dumb Kid with a Skateboard.



May Day report #3: And, no Olympia event would be complete without Your Daily Hour With Me.

And, the fellow who had the run in with the anarchists at Evergreen posts his own May Day report.

3.  Ducks reclaim the west side streets a few days early.





4. Also, one of the most sad posts ever on one of the most common feelings in Olympia ever (over at r/olympia): Why People Leave Olympia.

Doan's Cafe, Olympia, WA 1906 (UW Digital Collections)From a longer piece I'm working on about E.N. Steele, Olympia lawyer, civic leader, oyster booster and treaty rights activist:

Earl Newell was born outside of Des Moines, Iowa in 1881. After graduating from State University of Iowa, he made a short tour of the west. Once in Olympia, he sat down for a dinner of oysters. That meal sealed Olympia for Newell.

Steele tells the story in his unpublished manuscript, "Letters to Grandpa" about a chance meeting with an old friend and an oyster lunch kept Steele in Olympia:
I again met people from Seattle who strongly advised me to locate in Seattle. Two of my classmates in college had located. But again some thing told me “No, see Olympia first.” So I listened, but I had to change at Centralia to get to Olympia. And that proved to be the most fortunate decision of all. We arrived there about noon. Not knowing where I was going I started toward what appeared to be the business district. I had not gone more than a couple of blocks till I met a young man. We took a good look at each other.

Then he stopped facing each other and he almost shouted at me “Pete Steele, where did you come from?” “Roy MacRenalds, where did you come from?” I then recognized him, for he said “Pete”, and I had not heard that since I left school in Perry, Iowa, We had been friends in school. We had both lost track of the other. After a little chatter he said he was on his way to lunch and asked me to go with him. We went to Doan's Oyster House. He ordered Doan’s oyster pan roast. As they served it he said, “Pete, after you eat this you will never want to leave Olympia.” He had spoken more than he knew. I had never eaten any thing I enjoyed so much.So Steele stayed. He started out as a teacher in Tenino, but eventually entered the law practice in Olympia in 1903.

Steele’s love for Olympia is obvious in his writing. He was either a great salesman for Olympia or the rest of his Iowa-based family (four brothers, sister and mom and dad) had tenuous ties to Iowa. Within months of Earl settling in Puget Sound, all seven of them made the trek west to Washington State.

A Swarner Communications arts and entertainment (and some news) publication folds back into the mothership, as noted by Mathias:
The Weekly Volcano, a alternative newspaper serving the Tacoma, WA and the greater South Sound, including my little city Olympia, folded this week....With the growth of the JBLM military base, it’ll be interesting to watch how our area will change over the next few years. 1. It isn't all that surprising that Swarner Communications (the owners of the Ranger and the Airlifter) folded the  Volcano back further into their main publications. They made the decision in 2009 to take what was the stand-alone Volcano and revert it back into an insert of their main publications. When the Volcano launched in 2001 as an insert, it was actually the re-branded Tacoma City Paper.

2. And, to say Joint Base Lewis McCord will grow is to be saying something true in 2000. JBLM has grown, and its influence has obviously grown (past tense) in Thurston County.

Just for reference, here's a map of the 33 minute driving distances from the JBLM main gate, which brings in much of north Thurston County.


Here's also some old stuff where I point out at least our congressional political world will probably have a lot to do with JBLM politics. Our congressman's tour of post sequester life focused unsurprisingly on the impacts of federal spending cuts on the military.

But, when it comes to actual numbers, I'm not actually sure if JBLM has made that much of an impact on Thurston County. Here's my working spreadsheet and charts.

Sure, Thurston County is in the top five of above average counties in terms of percent of military population:

Island 8.13
Kitsap 5.5
Pierce 3.48
Thurston 2.04
Spokane 1.04
Wash. 1.03

And, the Old Navy at the Capital Mall has a large sign announcing special 10 percent off for active duty military families. I'd use those facts and anecdote to say that we are already a military community, at least in part. And, the growth of the military population has been largely consistent, with no real drops since for over two decades.

But, in terms of real number, the military population in Thurston County is so small compared to that of Piece (28,000 to only 5,000). So, maybe I wouldn't be so brave as to say we're really a military county, but you'd have to recognize that JBLM's growth has been happening for a long time.

3. Extra bonus thought: yesterday I was driving through town (after I saw the Welcome Military Families sign at Old Navy) and was thinking of intersections between military folks and typical progressive Olympia folks. I could think of very few on the car ride. But here's one from Berd (who probably represents one extreme of the equation).

Berd (A story from the Peace Vigil):I went to look at the fire that had broken out in the area of West Bay Marina, and struck up a conversation with an Army Ranger veteran who had toured Iraq and Afghanistan. He was initially quite aggravated and offended by the sign I was carrying, but once I explained in my own words what I thought the sign meant, he was in complete agreement.

Thank you, Internet Archive. You Rock.

Olympia Today: May Day Marchers Head to Westside Streets 

I wrote this piece when I was running the above Olympia Time website. At the time, the site was actually owned by a small web design firm that I approached as part of an independent contact at Evergreen. Ah, the independent contract... boy, those were the days.

My idea was to add regular content to a site that was already sort of useful (with a perl weather script and a series of interesting maps) and watch what happened. I think I called the project an online community newspaper.

The run up to May Day 2000 in Olympia was stressful. It would come only five months after the WTO protests paralyzed Seattle and no one knew if these sort of things were rising to some crescendo. In the end, I think it would be remembered as a big and long, if otherwise uneventful and typical Olympia protest. Traffic was tied up, but no lasting impact.

May Day 2000 turned out to be (as I remember it) the high water mark for the site under my control. It was certainly the most interesting day for me and the highest web traffic day too.

My goal was to head over to the west side, watch May Day unfold, take notes and pictures, and then go home and put everything online. My ultimate goal was to beat the Olympian online with a final report, and I think I really did do that.

 
Obviously, I tried to strike a straight up newsy tone:Celebrants and protestors marched this afternoon from the Value Village at Division and Harrison to the corner of Black Lake and Cooper Point. The marchers took the intersection in what they call an act against global capitalism.   I was also more interested in the other people not taking part of the march (like me), but were there to watch in some official capacity:

No local politicians were recognized, but Olympia's Police Chief Gary Michel was present, standing with other senior officers north of the intersection on Black Lake. 

I love my third person reference, no politicians were recognized, instead of "I didn't see anyone I recognized."

I was also fascinated by the media response:
The march attracted much of the regional media, including Olympia bureau chief for the Seattle Times David Postman (who also brought a photographer), an AP photographer, KING 5, KOMO 4, KGY’s Doug Adamson, the Olympian, and helicopters from KIRO 7 and Fox’s Q13.

KGY was the most active among the media, interrupting their regular broadcast to bring updates. Adamson road shotgun on a specially outfitted truck in which he broadcasted updates and followed the march. The Olympian also did their first midday update on their website to cover the story. Doug Adamnson really did do a massive job that day, I mean check him out.

And, I suppose I really didn't "beat" the Olympian, they did do a midday update. But, it is worth noting that if I read myself right, it was their first midday website update ever. That's certainly something.

1. The most quintessential of Olympia discussions over at /r/Olympia: state office work versus regular office work. Discuss.

2. Wondering what's up with Make Olympia. Well, that's what's up.

3. HA! I feel the same way at Mathias: "...we just had about a dozen cupcake shops open up in the last 24 months."

4. Oh my God.



5. From Marcus Lane: Water.

6. Jinkies! College students (no Greeners) are all up to hijinks!

7. Makes sense that we're talking about, but gun ban at SPSCC is controversial.

Where else in Tumwater have copies of this tower spread?

Encouraged (at least in part) by actual City of Tumwater code:
To encourage design elements that convey the historical theme of Tumwater. Pitched or mansard metal roofs, decorative brick facades, and ornamental towers with pitched roofs and decorative cornices are examples of design elements that reflect the history of Tumwater. Several of these elements are incorporated into the designs of civic and commercial buildings along Israel Road, including Tumwater City Hall, Tumwater Headquarters Fire Station and the Tumwater Timberland Library.Right nearby the actual brewery, for one.

 
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A sort of not-obvious one, but one that got me thinking:



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Another one, down the street:



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The ordinance above actually lists a few examples of public buildings, so I'm just going to skip those ones and look for some other examples that might not be so obvious.

Do you think this qualifies? I'm almost sure I've seen this chain of hotels with a similar design.



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Kind of an easy one, really:



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The headquarters of the Olympia Brewing Company, literally on Santa Monica Boulevard.

 
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Just a bit different than the original headquarters.

Since the 1980s, the Olympia Beer brand has been passed around several national beer companies, landing with Pabst in 1999. By the time Pabst bought Olympia, it was already a virtual brewer. A maker of beer in name only, or simply a company that owned the intellectual property of branding and making beer, and not the means of brewing itself.

That year was the same year that Olympia the beer was separated from Olympia the brewery, as the building was passed to SABMiller. That outfit ended up closing up shop in Tumwater in 2004.

So, the idea of "Olympia Beer," "It's the Water" (which still weighs pretty heavy around here) is owned out of Los Angeles and is likely controlled by some sunny Southern California creative firm. So, what does that mean?

Actually, does anyone want to be the brand manager at Pabst? Looks like they're hiring.

Well, when they try something new, they kind of get it wrong.

Back in 2010, Pabst launched a sort of rebrand of Olympia Beer. The cans went retro (which only just satisfied the hipsters in Seattle) and the attitude of the brand itself seemed to move to some sort of grittier version of hipster PBR.

And, I'll be honest. I'm confused by this Sasquatch (Bigfoot) contest. It seems to have satisfied the minimum requirements of a beer brand game, it got attention with minimal effort by giving a large reward for something that will never happen. It also seems to tap into the sporting nature of drinkers, but I'm not really getting a good idea of how much participation they're getting. Really, most of the "sightings" on their map seem oddly fake.

This guy I think says it best, though.

Also, to me, Bigfoot is what people from outside the Northwest call Sasquatch. Which absolutely makes sense.

I recently submitted a rough outline of Olympia's minor league baseball history to the local historical society newsletter. It was based on a longer piece that I really hadn't put finishing touches on, so I took out some thoughts that strayed off the historically cite-able path. They were mostly thoughts on the communities that made up the well defunct Southwest Washington League.

Here's the piece in the Olympia Historical Society Newsletter: Olympia in Minor League Baseball.

Here are my extended editorial thoughts, in rough form:

(League organizer John P.) Fink first reached out to organizers of local teams in the timber towns early in 1903, asking them if their communities had it in them to step up to professional baseball. First on his list were Olympia, Chehalis, Centralia, Montesano, Aberdeen and Hoquiam. These six cities were at the time very similar. Today, they stand apart culturally and demographically, Olympia in particular. In more than a century, Olympia has gone from a timber town in the same classification as Aberdeen and Chehalis (with a state capitol) to a city on the southern edge of the Puget Sound metroplex. Olympia grew from just under 4,000 to more than 10 times that size. Today, you can put Olympia together with neighboring Lacey and Tumwater and get more than 100,000 people living in and around Olympia. This is more people in either of the individual county's that also made up the Southwest Washington League in 1903.The 1903 cities of the old league almost seems like ghosts now. Olympia has grown outside its 1903 version, practically leaving nothing behind of its former self. The other cities have grown, seeing high times after World War II. Through the 1930s and World War II Olympia lagged behind cities like Aberdeen and Hoquiam. It wasn’t until 1960 that Olympia was the largest in population. It was the 1980s that Olympia started putting real distance between itself and its former league-mates.While state government grew and Olympia took advantage of its connection to the urban centers of Washington, the other cities in the old Southwest League suffered from the decline of the timber and other resource industries.Olympia became even more distant as it got more liberal relative to its neighbors. Being the home of state government and the politically and culturally liberal Evergreen State College, the old Southwest League towns turn their ire at Olympia. The infamous "Uncle Sam" highway billboard in Chehalis has included many anti-Olympia messages over the years, including "Evergreen State College - Home of Environmental Terrorists and Homos?"But, as Fink sent out his inquiries in early 1903, these really were cities of the same league.

1. Not really from the blogosphere, but I'm not sure if anyone else has pointed to the really interesting videos the city posted from their shoreline discussions. These are two visualizations side by side of what certain regulations would look like in terms of actual buildings.



2. Speaking of views, both Stevenl (at Morty and Olyblog) and CIAguy have been sharing historic views of the Capitol from various vantages and vintages.

3. Mojourner Truth blogs about the impacts of the coal port in the future of the northwest in someone's community:
I've never lived by a coal port, and Olympia is too small to be in the race. But I do drive Route 14 up the Columbia from time to time, I have tried to sleep in Stevenson as the plains rumble through, horns blasting, and it's hard to imagine how a massive increase in traffic would be tolerable.
...
If a coal port happens--and the relentlessness of North American capital suggests it will--the lucky winner will likely learn some hard lessons. Many of the construction jobs will go to outsiders, and operations won't generate the employment or revenue expected. At Cherry Point, we've already learned that the proponents' initial statements about the volume were a fraction of what they really plan, that there will be twice as much traffic and pollution. Friendly promises will be reneged. Coal, being a global commodity, may become more profitable (leading to increased shipping), or the bottom may drop out (causing jobs to disappear from time to time). Even if you support coal power, does it make sense to sell our reserves to China, whose import policy is partly to protect their own for the future?

A new project, an evolution of sort, but still in the same space on 121 State Ave NE. Einmaleins continues to be an inspiration, now it’s just more virtual.

Buy a 2013 Exotic Hikes calendar of the Olympic Peninsula.
No, really. You have to.

Scott Roberts makes the obvious connection on Thurston Opinion:

The new Olympia City Hall is attracting the homeless, and apparently they are leaving needles and condoms on the front steps.
City Manager, Steve Hall is calling this an emergency, which is ironic because business owners have been asking the city for decades to clean up the vagrant population downtown—which deter customers and hurt small businesses.

Bruce has pressed for the continuation of Olympia Views under new leadership. Tom has sketched an interesting direction, to which I’ve added friendly amendments.

I’m opening up a new comment thread so there is more room to discuss. For longer missives I’ll create separate postings if that is helpful. If you’re serious, I’d invite you to strike while the iron is still warm. Otherwise, pay your respects and move on.

I’ve mentioned in “About this blog” that this is an experiment, not a “real” news media outlet. The primary goals have been to learn the basics about blogging while getting unstuck from a massive case of writer’s block. After almost 300 posts I feel like I’ve got my writing juices flowing again. Perhaps just as importantly, I’ve had a chance to engage topics and writing styles that my day job simply doesn’t allow.

Truth be told, it’s been years since I’ve had so much fun writing. That’s partly because of interactions with dozens of commentators. Sure, we’ve had some difficult moments, but overall I’d say that you’ve shown how open dialogue can significantly deepen our mutual understanding of a topic.

Nevertheless, all experiments must end. With the beginning of summer I really need to refocus on a series of big writing projects relating to my livelihood. Perhaps in time I can return to local writing, but for at least the next six months I’ll be pretty booked.

So this is the last piece I will post here at Olympia Views. The plan is to mothball the beast after leaving the comments open for a while to capture any final thoughts. My hope is to maintain the site so that stories of historical value can continue to be accessed.

Thank you for your participation

Even by blogospheric standards Olympia Views is fairly small. However, its readership — and visibility in the community — has grown well beyond what I had expected. Thank you to all who have taken the time to read this blog.

Just as it takes effort to write a thoughtful post, so too it takes time to produce a meaningful comment. So I want to thank all of you who have contributed to Olympia Views. I’d particularly like to express my appreciation to Tom Hyde, Rob Richards and Russ Lehman, who together contributed almost half of all comments.

I’d also like to express my gratitude to fellow local bloggers Thad Curtz, Mathias Eichler, Dan Jones, Emmett O’Connell and Rob Richards. You’ve graciously shared links, kudos and helpful criticism from early on. That’s exactly what’s needed to support a stronger network of local bloggers.

Some commentators have stated that you’d like to see this type of conversation continue. If you have the energy to make that happen I’d encourage you to work through an existing alternative media outlet such as OlyBlog. Or help Works In Progress or Green Pages build their web presence.

I’m saddened to leave these conversations. Local blogging is great good fun. But that will need to wait for another time and another platform.

In the meantime, I hope that you all will “vote with your wallet” by financially supporting independent local media. Quality journalism is like any other good or service — in the end, you get what you pay for.

“We build an identity for ourselves in our communities. And just as we don’t like to leave our community, we also don’t like to lose our identity. A food critic who builds her identity around nasty, negative reviews, and gets lots of attention because of them, is always going to need to find terrible restaurants to eat at so she can keep getting attention. She’ll probably even began (sic) to like disgusting food and poor service because that means she’s going to get to write a truly vicious review and everybody will tell her how witty she is. If something you dislike helps you get something you do like, you’re going to have trouble getting rid of the thing you don’t like.”

– Mark, Everybody Has A Brain*

* Via Everyday Olympia

I checked out George Barner’s Facebook page tonight to see if he had yet posted an explanation for why he filed at the 11th hour to run for county commission. So far nothing. That strikes me as strange for a serious candidate.

So what’s up with George? One theory is that he needs a gig. That doesn’t sound to me like a terribly compelling rationale. When you look at the enormous cost, effort and risk involved in a serious run for county commission I can think of a lot easier ways to find a decent job.

Another rationale is that his mission is to split the Democratic-leaning vote with Karen Rogers as a means of protecting incumbent Cathy Wolfe. Perhaps, but such a gambit could easily backfire. In addition, given all of the hassles of running even a half-hearted campaign, that’s an awfully big favor to do for a fellow politician who happens to hold your old job.

I don’t know George, but based on my general sense of career politicians I wonder if he wants to relive the glory days of being a county commissioner. Electoral politics can be mesmerizing — and even addictive. People who aren’t well grounded can disappear into the vortex of the political realm.

It happens all the time. Earnest people go into politics saying that they’ll only serve a term or two but end up sticking around until they are pushed out — or die in office.

Of course, one could argue that George is already an elected official. Yes, but being a port commissioner doesn’t have anywhere near the power of a county commissioner.

I hope George knows what he’s doing. I hope that his credo is “do no harm.” And I hope that he is grounded enough in his own sense of identity that he knows when to leave the public stage.

Since we’ve been talking about libraries I should mention that Friends of the Olympia Library is holding a meeting Thursday, June 7 to discuss ideas for a new library. To spur the discussion, links are provided to 2007 survey results and staff suggestions.

May I be honest? I’m concerned that library champions will push ahead with a new proposal that is too similar to previous ones. Without rethinking their assumptions — and engaging the community in a deeper way — I strongly suspect that a new proposal will fail.

One key area where the library could up its game is to champion community-wide library facilities planning. I wrote about this last October. For example, if we’re going to spend money on a new building then I think it should be in partnership with at least one other entity. An obvious potential partner could be the state library.

Another potential parter could be the Olympia Center. What I’m getting at is that if a major goal of a new library is to create more “public space,” why not build the library side by side the community center so you can create “one-stop shopping?”

These specific ideas are less important than the general principle of reaching outside of the silo.

It struck me when checking out one of Tom Hyde’s links that he may have a pretty different list of media-oriented sites than what I frequent. So I asked if he’d be willing to share more of his favorites. I suspect that other Olympia Views readers may have interesting reading sources that many of the rest of us may not be aware of.

So I’d like to offer the general invitation to send in a comment with a handful of your very favorites and perhaps a sentence as to why they are so valuable to you. To keep the exercise from becoming too unwieldy, how about sticking to topics revolving around the general theme of this blog: media, politics, sustainability and running government. Don’t confine yourself to the South Sound if your attentions stray beyond the hyperlocal bubble.

I suspect that there may be a lot of similarities but some fascinating variety.