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236 shortly after wrecked while going into Victoria harbor, and she was succeeded for the two years following by the steamer Traveler, Captain J. G. Parker. The first newspaper—The Columbian—printed north of the Columbia River, was issued on the 11th of September, 1852, at Olympia, by Messrs. Wiley & McElroy. The Methodist denomination had a resident preacher at that time, but the French Catholics built the first church, in 1852. The first school-house was built in 1853, the same being constructed at the expense of, and through the enterprise of, the ladies. The first wharf was built in 1854, by Mr. Edward Giddings. The present site remains the landing of the ocean and Sound steamers. In the fall of 1853, General I. I. Stevens—then recently appointed Governor of Washington Territory and Superintendent of Indian Affairs—arrived overland with his party of surveyors and engineers, then in the interest of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. In 1853, Olympia was made the capital of Washington Territory."

Olympia, besides being the capital of the Territory, and county-seat of Thurston County, has a most favorable location with respect to the rest of the Territory, being at the head of the Sound, at a point nearest the Columbia River and Gray's Harbor, and about equidistant from all the principal valleys in Western Washington. It has also great advantages in the way of water-power that is contiguous to tide-water. The falls of the Des Chutes furnish, alone, a 1,600-horse power, at the lowest stage of water, and may be made to furnish much more at a slight expense in conducting water from the Nisqually River. Another stream, Percival's Creek, is capable of being made a waterpower almost equal to the Des Chutes, by cutting half