Capitol Lake

Capitol Lake is a 3 kilometer long, 260-acre (1.1 km²) artificial lake at the mouth of Deschutes River in Tumwater/Olympia, Washington. The Olympia Brewery sits on Capitol Lake in Tumwater, just downstream from where the Tumwater Falls meet the lake. The Washington State Department of General Administration manages the lake, as part of The Washington State Capitol Campus.

History

Prior to American settlement, the tidal basin at the southern tip of Budd Inlet was a productive shellfish gathering area for native peoples. After settlement in the mid-19th century, the basin received much of the wastewater and other effluent outflow from "uptown" Olympia. In the 1890s the Northern Pacific Railroad located a station and switching yard on the eastern shore of the basin.

The first proposal for creating Capitol Lake came when Leopold Schmidt of the Olympia Brewing Company proposed in 1895 to " mak(e) a fresh water lake of it by building a dam and locks near the Westside (Olympia) bridge."