Talcotts Jewelry, which has been in business in Olympia for more than a century, is seen here around 1882.

Economic potential was realized early

ALEX GOFF, FOR THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Saturday, January 12, 2002

The history of Thurston County's economy is written with the broad stroke of great endeavors: western expansion, lumber, mining, land, government, and warfare.

Such things still wield a strong influence over the region's economic future, but there continues to be a gradual -- and sometimes sudden -- movement to smaller businesses, more diverse business choices and residential development.

Coveted by the ever-growing Hudson's Bay Company in the mid-1800s, Thurston County's economic potential was at once apparent to settlers. The muddy bay at the southern tip of Puget Sound certainly showed potential for a port, and shellfish, enormous trees, and coal and sandstone were abundant as well.

Hudson's Bay Company followed native people's trails as they looked to trap and trade. It was this trail that led settlers to a place called Coal Bank, now Tenino. By the 1870s, Tenino had a train station and later a hotel and general store. Strangely, the Northern Pacific Railroad bypassed Olympia -- something that rankled the residents of the capital.

"From 1890 to World War I, there were references to Olympia as being a real out-of-the-way place," said the Rev. John Scott, a professor of American history who teaches a course on local history at Saint Martin's College in Lacey. "You get the impression that legislators endured a hardship to come here and thought of going to Olympia as putting in their time."

As a port and a seat of government, Olympia was important. But the real work of the late 1800s and early 1900s was happening outside the city. The lumber industry gave rise to whole communities, such as Bordeaux in what is now the Capitol State Forest, as did mining, giving rise to Tono for coal and Tenino for sandstone. The trees would always be there, it seemed, but the largest ones became harder and harder to find, and some of those towns and communities disappeared.

Farms and government

"We had the mining and the lumber, but perhaps not to as great an extent as Grays Harbor and Mason counties," said Wayne E. Staley, chief executive officer of Olympia Federal Savings, a local bank that has been in Thurston County for 95 years. "But being the seat of government, that had a huge impact on the economy. And when other industries would go up or down, the government economy sort of evened that out."

In the northern and eastern parts of the county, farms dominated the landscape almost up to city borders. Just as today you only need to drive a few minutes to see a farm, so the valleys and prairies held farmland -- only a lot more of it.

"It has all changed so much since I first started working here," said Dorothy Carlson, whose father, Emmett Stewart, opened Stewart's Meats in McKenna in the 1930s.

Carlson, then a teen-ager, was forced to leave college when the Great Depression put a strain on the family finances. She started work at the butcher shop her father had just opened, and she never left.

"In the beginning, almost all of our customers were dairy farmers and lumbermen," Carlson said. "Farmers would bring in their own meat to be cut, prepared and wrapped. There were a lot of farms even 50 years ago. It's gradually changed as the people have sold off their property, and it's been developed in other ways."

The Great Depression did much to change how people lived. Farmers either had to support and sustain their families, or they had to get out and moved to urban areas.

"The Depression was real hard on people," Carlson said. "There were lots and lots of poor farmers milking cows, trying to make a living. It was a tough time for the business, too. It took us 10 years to really get going. Yelm and that area was a very friendly area with a lot of people knowing each other and helping each other. We helped people when we could."

Surrounding what used to be called the Capital Tri-Cities were miles and miles of farmland, a lot of it dairy. But slowly, the houses came in, and the economy changed.

"We had such growth," Staley said. "As the government grew, more and more people started coming in to work there. You saw more and more development."

World War II did much to bring the entire country out of the Depression -- Thurston County was no different. Buoyed by the presence of Fort Lewis and later McChord Air Force Base, the county made its first strong movements into becoming a partial bedroom community.

"For a long time around where Saint Martin's is was mostly farmland or open land," Scott said. "Then they started building homes here. Early on, Lacey Boulevard especially was a high-end residential area -- a place where military officers came to live. It was relatively exclusive."

Urbanization

So began the urbanization of Thurston County.

Olympia continued to be a vibrant city, with businesses such as Talcott Jewelers that are now well into their second century. But Tumwater, Lacey and Yelm began to grow significantly in this period.

State government became a larger employer, while lumber and mining scaled back.

"Yelm is more of a city now," Carlson said. "I think it takes a half-hour to drive through Yelm. Over the years they improved the road by our business and made it wider. Years ago we knew most everyone by their first name. Now sometimes I wonder if I know anyone. We have people come from all over -- Seattle, Tacoma, Portland. They come in all the time. They're not loggers and farmers now. They're business people who commute to Seattle. And, of course, in Yelm the economy's been influenced by the Ramthas," she said of the followers of JZ Knight, who channels a 35,000-year-old warrior named Ramtha and created the Ramtha School of Enlightenment.

From a farming community to the home of a New Age guru, Yelm's focus has changed somewhat.

While the farmers are still there, and the Olympia Farmers Market is considered one of the best in the region, Thurston County continues to build houses, and that has fueled the arrival of more and more banks, and the growth of longtime institutions like Olympia Federal Savings, which opened four more branches in the 1970s and 1980s.

"We're certainly seeing a movement to being a bedroom community for Tacoma and Seattle," Staley said. "We're seeing bedroom communities for Olympia, too, as people build houses further into the county."

And more and more are coming in.

"What's been fascinating to me is the ethnic influx in recent years," Scott said. "We have such a strong presence of people from Asia, along with European Americans and African Americans. There's strong Latino and Filipino growth as well."

Ethnic economic strength has come to the native tribes as well. Casinos are huge business and bring to places like Rochester and the Yelm area a new and different consumer.

"The support services provided for state agencies and programs, and the services you need for a suburbanized urban area --malls and fast foods, and some amenities like museums -- have fueled a diversification of the population."

Strengthened by its status as the state capital, and helped by a more diversified economy, Thurston County is not a one-economy town. And while growth rankles some, it also stimulates the economy.

"This area will continue to grow," Scott said. "Because, above all, it's an attractive place. You have access to everything, and you can get away from it all in just a few minutes."

The Olympian Copyright 2002

back to Thurston County Sesquicentennial index