Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Tumwater, WA

Tumwater is a city in Thurston County, Washington, situated where the Deschutes River enters Budd Inlet, the southernmost point of Puget Sound, just south of the state capital, Olympia.

Tumwater is the oldest permanent Anglo-American settlement on Puget Sound, founded in 1845 when Michael T. Simmons led the first group of permanent American settlers to Tumwater Falls at the end of the Oregon Trail's northern extension.

The settlement was originally called New Market, and the present name comes from the Chinook Jargon word tumwata, meaning "waterfall."

Tumwater was incorporated as a town on November 25, 1869, and as a city in 1875.

The 2020 census counted 25,350 people in Tumwater, up sharply from 17,371 in 2010, reflecting rapid suburban growth in the Olympia area.

In 1896, German immigrant brewmaster Leopold Friedrich Schmidt founded the Capital Brewing Company at Tumwater Falls, choosing the site for its artesian water; renamed the Olympia Brewing Company in 1902, it made Olympia Beer famous under the slogan "It's the Water."

The Olympia Brewery was Tumwater's principal industry for more than a century before its Tumwater plant closed in 2003.

The 15-acre Tumwater Falls Park, created by the Olympia Brewing Company and the Schmidt family in 1962, offers trails along the Deschutes River's final 82-foot descent over three waterfalls, plus a fish ladder where returning Chinook salmon can be seen in the fall.

The Davis-Meeker Oak, a Garry oak more than 400 years old, served as a landmark on the Oregon Trail and Cowlitz Trail and is one of the city's most storied natural features.

The historic Crosby House, built around 1860 for Nathaniel Crosby III, is preserved in Tumwater Historical Park as part of the city's National Register-listed historic district.