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Native Americans made this area home for thousands of years, including Squaxin, Nisqually, Puyallup, Chehalis, Suquamish, and Duwamish tribes or the Lushootseed-speaking peoples. Europeans explored area in 1792, when Peter Puget and a crew from the British Vancouver Expedition charted the site. In the 1840s, Edmund Sylvester and Levi Smith jointly claimed the land that now comprises downtown Olympia.
In 1853 Olympia was offically named, by Colonel Isaac N. Ebey, due to its view of the Olympic Mountains and the farthest point on The Oregon Trail. The U.S. Congress established the Customs District of Puget Sound for Washington Territory in 1851, and Olympia became customs house. Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet Steamboats once served area. Today Olympia is State Capital and has become a hub for artists and musicians.