Capitol Lake is a 3 kilometer (1.9 mile) long, artificial
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
at the mouth of
Deschutes River Deschutes River may refer to:
*Deschutes River (Oregon)
The Deschutes River in central Oregon is a major tributary of the Columbia River. The river provides much of the drainage on the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many ...
in
Tumwater
Tumwater is a town in Thurston County, Washington, United States. The population was 25,350 at the 2020 census. It is situated near where the Deschutes River enters Budd Inlet, the southernmost point of Puget Sound; it also borders the state ca ...
/
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region.
European ...
. The
Olympia Brewery
The 1906 Olympia Brewery brewhouse, known locally as "the Old Brewery", is located at the base of the Tumwater Falls in Tumwater, Washington. Once the manufacturing site for Olympia Beer, the classic Mission Revival structure, designed by promine ...
sits on Capitol Lake in
Tumwater
Tumwater is a town in Thurston County, Washington, United States. The population was 25,350 at the 2020 census. It is situated near where the Deschutes River enters Budd Inlet, the southernmost point of Puget Sound; it also borders the state ca ...
, just downstream from where the
Tumwater Falls
The Tumwater Falls are a series of cascades on the Deschutes River in Tumwater, Washington, United States. They are located near where the river empties into Budd Inlet, a southerly arm of Puget Sound in Olympia.
Geology
The Deschutes River car ...
meet the artificial lake. The
Washington State Department of Enterprise Services (DES) manages the lake, as part of The
Washington State Capitol
The Washington State Capitol or ''Legislative Building'' in Olympia is the home of the government of the state of Washington. It contains chambers for the Washington State Legislature and offices for the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary ...
Campus.
History
Prior to American settlement, the tidal basin at the southern tip of
Budd Inlet
Budd Inlet is an inlet located at the southern end of Puget Sound in Thurston County, Washington. It is the southernmost arm of Puget Sound.
Etymology
Budd Inlet was named by Charles Wilkes during the United States Exploring Expedition, to honor ...
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
The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by 38th United States Congress, Congress in 1864 and given ...
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."
In 1911, the State Capitol Commission held a nationwide competition for the design of the State Capitol Campus. The winning architects, Wilder and White, submitted a revolutionary
City Beautiful movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...
and
American Renaissance
The American Renaissance was a period of American architecture and the arts from 1876 to 1917, characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance hu ...
plan which included creating a body of water to reflect the Capitol Group of buildings on the bluff by installing a tidelock at the mouth of the Deschutes River.
A more limited lake was also part of the original landscape design by
John Olmsted to reflect the
Washington State Capitol building on
Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
. The lake as envisioned by Olmsted would have been created with a north to south running berm, as opposed to an east to west running dam.
In 1915, the State Capitol Commission rejected a plan by former Olympia Mayor and state legislator P.H. Carlyon to replace Olympia's bridge to the westside with a dam and locks.
[The myth of connection between Wilder and White and Capitol Lake](_blank)
Olympia Historical Society That plan would have created a lake very much like the present Capitol Lake. Because of opposition from upriver Tumwater businesses, such as the Olympia Brewing Company and the Olympia Power and Light Company, that plan was not approved.
The Capitol Group of buildings was constructed over several years from 1913 to 1940, and the State Capitol Committee then turned to the task of creating the Wilder and White reflecting Capitol Lake. In 1937, the state began purchasing the privately owned tidelands around the Capitol Campus. In 1941, opposition from Tumwater was finally overcome during a special town meeting.
In 1947, due in large part by intense lobbying by Thurston County legislators, the state legislature approved funding for the construction of the dam in order to create Capitol Lake.
A shantytown known as "Little Hollywood" developed along the shores of the Deschutes River, at the foot of the Capitol Campus.
The people living in the shanties dumped raw human waste and trash directly into the Deschutes River. This became an eyesore (July 7, 1948, The Daily Olympian) and probably a health hazard. Damming the Deschutes River destroyed the estuary, but also prevented the urban blight of the shantytown from recurring.
Capitol Lake was finally created in 1951 when the dam was completed consistent with the Wilder and White plan. This allowed for the retention of the outflow from the
Deschutes River Deschutes River may refer to:
*Deschutes River (Oregon)
The Deschutes River in central Oregon is a major tributary of the Columbia River. The river provides much of the drainage on the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many ...
to cover the tide flats.
![Capitol Lake Railroad Bridge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Capitol_Lake_Railroad_Bridge.JPG)
In the 1990s and 2000s, the North Capitol Campus
Heritage Park was created with the Arc of Statehood from the Western Washington Inlet to the Eastern Washington Butte along the eastern edge of Capitol Lake and the North Campus trail and Law Enforcement Memorial with views across Capitol Lake to the borrowed landscapes of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.
The February
2001 Nisqually earthquake
The 2001 Nisqually earthquake occurred at on February 28, 2001 and lasted nearly a minute. The intraslab earthquake had a moment magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (''Severe''). The epicenter was in the southern Puget So ...
did considerable damage to the 4th Avenue Bridge just north of the lake, as well as to the Deschutes Parkway on the west side of the lake. Capital
Lakefair
Capital Lakefair is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's mos ...
, centered on the lake, is held annually in July. The trail around the lake is 1.5 miles long.
Recommendation for Estuary Restoration
In 2009, after 12 years of intensive and independently verified scientific study, members of the Capitol Lake Aspect Insight Management reached a consensus regarding the Department of Natural Resource's efforts to remove the 5th Ave. dam and restore Deschutes Estuary. The DNR put out a report, and on page 6, issued this recommendation, stating:
"The Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Ecology, Department of Natural Resources,
Squaxin Island Tribe
The Squaxin Island Tribe are the descendants of several Lushootseed clans organized under the Squaxin Island Indian Reservation, a Native American tribal government in western Washington state.
Historically, the ancestors of the Squaxin Island T ...
, and a majority of the Thurston County Commissioners are forwarding their recommendation to return the Capitol Lake Basin to an estuary."
[https://www.des.wa.gov/SiteCollectionDocuments/About/CapitolLake/24-SteeringCommitteeRecommendation(September2009).pdf ]
In response, CLAIM argued that the invasive species New Zealand Mud Snail (''Potamopyrgus antipodarum'') found within the lake are at such high quantities, that their potential to cause "unpredictable environmental degradation" suggests that their release into the Southern region of the Puget Sound should be avoided at all costs.
Biologist Howard Durrael, employee at CLAIM had this to say:
"We are undergoing efforts to manage the invasive mud snail population, but until population levels decrease by at minimum 78%, there can be no activity within or around the Lake."
![Olympia, Washington - Capital Lake Boardwalk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Olympia%2C_Washington_-_Capital_Lake_Boardwalk.jpg)
Because of a high rate of
silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
ation, the lake has been dredged periodically in the past to keep it from filling in. After a 25-year hiatus, in 2011 the State Legislature appropriated $200,000 in order to seek permits to reimplement maintenance dredging in order to retain and improve Capitol Lake as part of the historic Wilder and White design of the State Capitol Campus during its centennial year.
Invasive Species
In 2009, the
New Zealand mud snail
The New Zealand mud snail (''Potamopyrgus antipodarum'') is a species of very small freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum. This aquatic gastropod mollusk is in the family Tateidae.
It is native to New Zealand, where it is found through ...
, an invasive species the size of a grain of rice, was discovered in Capitol Lake. The lake has been closed to all public use, including boating and other recreation, since 2009. A heavy cold snap in 2013, combined with a drawdown in water level in preparation, was roughly estimated to have killed 40–60% of the mudsnail population.
An infestation of
Eurasian milfoil
''Myriophyllum spicatum'' (Eurasian watermilfoil or spiked water-milfoil) is native to Europe, Asia, and north Africa, but has a wide geographic and climatic distribution among some 57 countries, extending from northern Canada to South Africa. It ...
was controlled using herbicide in 2004. Later efforts relied on scuba divers to remove this invasive plant.
Controversy
Controversy surrounds Capitol Lake because it replaced the Deschutes River estuary. Because of a high rate of
silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
ation, the lake was dredged periodically in the past to keep it from filling in, a classic case of
eutrophication
Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytopla ...
. Additionally, poor water quality has caused the lake to be closed to swimmers due to unsafe levels of
''E. coli''.
[https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/publications/1203008.pdf ]
In June 2012, the Washington State Department of Ecology released a report titled: Deschutes River, Capitol Lake, and Budd Inlet Temperature, Fecal Coliform Bacteria, Dissolved Oxygen, pH, and Fine Sediment Total Maximum Daily Load Technical Report - Water Quality Study Findings by scientists; Mindy Roberts, Anise Ahmed, Greg Pelletier, and David Osterberg.
This study provided information in a question and answer format.
References
{{reflist
External links
Information from Squaxin TribeCapitol Lake Improvement and Protection AssociationDeschutes Estuary Restoration Team
Artificial lakes of the United States
Geography of Olympia, Washington
Lakes of Thurston County, Washington