Olympia, capital of Washington State, seat of Thurston county, lies on Budd Inlet and Capitol Lake (at the south end of Puget Sound, at the mouth of the Deschutes River. Its harbor serves as the base for a large merchant fleet and contains a large mixed industrial port capable of receiving seaborne container freight. Located at the base of the Olympic Peninsula, the city is the gateway to Olympic National Park and is the headquarters for Olympic National Forest. It is the home of the Evergreen State College, and nearby Lacey is the site of St. Martin’s College. The Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, a wetlands area sheltering a variety of birds and marine mammals, lies to the east of the city.
