Olympia Washington History
By Ken Balsley Photos From: Washington State Archives · Digital Archives In its early days, the City of Olympia had many names. The local native ...
By Ken Balsley Photos From: Washington State Archives · Digital Archives In its early days, the City of Olympia had many names. The local native tribes referred to it as Cheetwoot which meant the 'place of the bear.' The first white settlers in the area Edmund Sylvester and Levi Smith filed a land claim and named the area Smither, or maybe Smithfield or maybe even Marshville. In 1850, the name that stuck was Olympia, suggested by Colonel I.N. Ebey, for the Olympic Mountains, which were prominent in the city's backyard.