Thu., Sept. 9, 2021
Q: According to the Washington State Department of Employment Security (ESD), how many people worked in a "covered employment job" in Thurston County in 2019?
A: c) 118,304
That's just about 40% of the population. Another 21% or so are children under age 18.
Want more facts? Here they are, courtesy of ESD.
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Wed., Sept. 8, 2021
TRUE or FALSE
Q: President Theodore Roosevelt visited Olympia while in office.
A: TRUE
In May 1903 the man after whom Teddy Bears were named visited Olympia on his way back from a trip to Canada. He made a speech in front of the Old Capitol Building at Sylvester Park.
There's even a photograph, courtesy of the Olympia Historical Society.
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Tue., Sept. 7, 2021
TRUE or FALSE
Q: The Ampersand House is a model of tiny house designed & built in Olympia.
A: TRUE.
The Ampersand House is one of 13 quirky and functional (and towable) tiny houses designed and built by Olympia-based Zyl Vardos. Of these, 12 are absolutely stunning, and one is fugly, at least according to our editorial board here at The JOLT.
Despite what houses cost around here these days, Zyl Vardos' tiny houses are priced from about $60,000 to about $120,000. There's a waiting list until 2023.
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Wed., Sept. 1, 2021
Last Friday The JOLT reported that Nisqually Corrections officers discovered they were holding someone on Q13's Washington's Most Wanted list.
The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list is, perhaps the most famous such list.
TRUE or FALSE?
The Thurston County Sheriff's Office maintains its own Thurston County's Most Wanted list.
A: It's true! (Just click the link above.)
Of the 10 individuals currently listed, six are men.
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Mon., Aug. 30, 2021
According to various sources, there are some 20,000 businesses of all sizes registered in Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and Thurston County.
Q: As of Aug. 30, 2021, How many of these businesses are members of the recently formed South Sound BIPOC - Black, Indigenous, & People of Color (BIPOC) Businesses in the South Sound?
A: c) 41 BIPOC members and 3 resource members.
Clearly this doesn't reflect the actual number of businesses owned by Asian-, Black-, Hispanic-, Native-, South Pacific- and other BIPOC-Americans -- and non-BIPOC businesses that would support them.
Membership? FREE. Registration: Here.
NOTE: Tomorrow, Aug. 31 at 11 a.m. is the August BIPOC Business Roundtable! All BIPOC business owners from Seattle to Chehalis are welcome to attend. Email lmackwilson@thurstonchamber.com to receive an invitation.
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Wed., Aug. 25, 2021
Q: There are 105 candidates running for various public offices in Thurston County's 2021 General Election. How many are women?
A: The answer is: c) 44.
On the other hand, national data suggests that a slightly higher percentage of women consistently exercise their right to vote compared with men. In the 2020 election 68.4 percent of women say they voted vs. 65 percent of men.
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Tue., Aug. 24, 2021
Q: Puget Sound Energy provides electricity to substantially every home and business in Olympia, Lacey & Tumwater. But (using 2019 data, the most recent available) how much of PSE's electric power comes from hydro?
A: It's c) 23 percent.
Don't believe it? This report from PSE provides more details.
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Mon., Aug. 16, 2021
Q: How many nonprofit organizations are based in Thurston County, and how many of them pay wages to employees?
A: a) 879 organizations, 211 with employees
According to data from Washington Nonprofits, our state’s association for all nonprofits, these 211 organizations paid $447.2 million in wages to 6,925 employees, ranging from part-time office assistants to physicians. Data as of December 31, 2020.
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Fri., Aug. 13, 2021
Nisqually and Squaxin Island Indian Tribes are part of a linguistic group called the Coast Salish.
Q: What names are used for the language that was spoken by people in these local tribes?
A: Okay, this was kind of a trick question. All three answers:
a) Whulshootseed
b) Southern Lushootseed
c) Twulshootseed
can be considered correct. But the most correct answer is likely to be b) Southern Lushootseed, because that's the name being used by several schools and programs that are making efforts to revive the language. Southern Lushootseed, formerly spoken by 11 local tribes whose ancestral lands were located from approximately Thurston and Mason Counties north to approximately King County is differentiated from Northern Lushootseed, spoken in areas that are current-day Snohomish, Skagit and Island Counties.
Want to learn a few words of Southern Lushootseed? Check this 46-second video for a few friendly phrases. It's a pitch for the University of Washington's courses in the language, introduced in 2019.
híšəbaʔ and hísUu? -- thank you.
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Thu., Aug. 12, 2021
The official population count for Thurston County is predicted to be north of 295,000 when it comes out this fall.
Q: Based on that number, approximately how many left-handed people live in the county?
A: It's somewhere in b) 29,500 to 38,645. Why the range? Estimates for the United States' lefty population range from 10 to 13.1 percent. Given that American teachers generally no longer whack kids on the back of a hand with a ruler (or worse) when they see them writing with their left hands, the numbers are more reasonable than, say, in India, Japan. China or Korea, countries that claim that only 5.2%, 4.7%, 3.5% or 2.0% of their kids are born this way. That's according to Lefty Fretz, a site serving left-handed guitar players, and other sources.
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Tue., Aug. 10, 2021
Q: According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, how many hate groups are operating now in Washington State? And how many are shown as "STATEWIDE" organizations, likely easily accessible to people in Thurston County?
A: c) 22 in Washington, 8 statewide
Don't believe it? Click here.
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Fri., Aug. 6, 2021
Q: How many regulation disc golf courses are operational now in Thurston County?
A: According to the South Puget Sound Disc Golf Association, the answer is c) 3.
Where are they? Scott Lake, Delphi and Woodland Creek. And there are other, less formal disc golf baskets in parks around the county.
There was a fourth course, at The Evergreen State College, that is now closed. If you think The JOLT should investigate this, please contact us.
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Thu., Aug. 5, 2021
Q: Which breweries are on the official Thurston County Beer Crawl?
A: a) Three Magnets, Top Rung, Well 80
Why not Triceratops, Matchless, Hoh River, Fish, Headless Mumby and Singing Hops? We can't say. But if you visit Experience Olympia & Beyond, also known as Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater Visitor & Convention Bureau, you can ask!
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Wed., Aug 4, 2021
Q: What's the difference between west-coast and east-coast oysters?
A: According to Martha Stewart, it's all three.
a) sweet vs savory
b) ruffled shell vs smooth
c) how far they have to fly to get here
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Tue., Aug. 3, 2021
Q: What's the name of the U.S. Coast Guard's civilian volunteer organization, and where is its closest outpost?
A: c) U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Olympia.
Olympia's Flotilla 3-8 meets monthly. They conduct safety patrols on local waterways, assist the Coast Guard with homeland security duties, teach boating safety classes, conduct free vessel safety checks for the public and more.
Photos suggest they welcome volunteers without age limits.
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Mon., Aug. 2, 2021
Q: According to the US Dept. of Agriculture, which of the following had in 2017 the most acres devoted to being cultivated in Thurston County?
A: It's b) Hazelnuts, also known as Filberts. They reported that 26 acres on 16 farms are used to produce these acorn-appearing nuts. (Acorns come from oaks. Filberts come from Hazels.)
English Walnuts came in a distant second place, with five acres on 10 farms involved. Chestnuts? Two acres on nine farms.
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Fri., July 20, 2021
Which of the following names are among street names found at least once in Thurston County?
A: Both b) Mason and c) Lewis appear on local maps.
Sorry, Pierce!
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Thu., July 29, 2021
Q: How many elevator inspectors are employed by Thurston County?
A: The answer is c) 0. Zero? How can that be?
Turns out, unlike almost every other category of construction inspection, which are conducted by city or county staff, elevators are inspected by Washington State, the Department of Labor & Industries.
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Wed., July 28, 2021
Q: Who were Olympia's pioneering blueberry innovators?
A: They were c) Joseph and Mildred Eberhardt.
Eberhardt emigrated to the US from Germany in 1907, landing in Baltimore. He developed a taste for blueberries, then unknown in his native country, while working in orchards throughout the mid-Atlantic and New England states.
He met Mildred somewhere along the way to moving to Olympia in the 1920s, bringing a few Alaskan Blueberry bushes with him. These produced smaller berries than those he grew to love in the east. A self-trained botanist, he experimented with cross polination and other techniques and developed several species adapted to our local conditions. If you want to know more, click his name, above, for an excellent article about the Eberhardts starting on page 9 in the Dec. 2017 issue of the Thurston County Historical Journal.
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Tue., July 27, 2021
Q: Which of the following are true?
A: Not a trick question, but all three are TRUE. (And don't write to complain that these places are technically not in Thurston County.)
a) In 1904, some 4,000 members of the 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment of Buffalo Soldiers trained at American Lake, near what would later become part of Fort Lewis.
b) Buffalo Soldiers were the first park rangers in Mount Rainier National Park.
c) There is a Buffalo Soldiers Museum in Tacoma. The 9th & 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers Museum is located at 1940 S Wilkeson St, Tacoma, WA 98405. It's operated by volunteers and they're open limited hours now, just afternoons on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They recommend calling first. Telephone 253-272-4257.
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Mon., July 26, 2021
TRUE or FALSE
SafePlace, based in Olympia, "offers safety and support to survivors of both sexual assault and domestic violence" and was formed on National Love is Kind Day in 1980.
A: False! National Love is Kind Day was started only in 2018. SafePlace is marking its 40th anniversary this year -- it was formed " in 1981 by the merger of Rape Relief and the Women’s Shelter Services, two programs operated by the YWCA since 1973 and 1976, respectively," according to the nationally recognized organization.
Speaking of anniversaries, SafePlace is planning a major shindig on October 8, 2021 -- its actual and exact 40th. Theme: 80s Throwback. Blow out your hair and save the date!
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Thu., July 22, 2021
True or False?
Before apples became a dominant crop, Washington was known as the Horseradish Capitol of America.
A: False! Not even close. But we can grow horseradish here, and if we couldn't grow apples and cherries and corn and wheat and red raspberries and spearmint, maybe our farmers would have turned to horseradish.
Nope. Collinsville, IL, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, MO, is the Horseradish Capitol.
Yep.
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Wed., July 21, 2021
Q: How many local companies are in the business of brewing kombucha?
A: It's only c) 2. Or maybe 3.
They include:
Magic Kombucha, brewed in Olympia, and Rainbow Cloud Kombucha, brewed in Tumwater, are legitimately in Thurston County.
Honorable mention goes to: KombuchaLuv, now based in Lakewood, but started in Tumwater. All three offer several flavors and promise probiotic benefits, too.
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Tue., July 20, 2021
Q: What is the admission fee to see the animals at Lattin's Country Cider Mill & Farm's petting zoo?
A: It's c) Free.
But the little paper bags of feed are still only b) $ .60.
While you'll likely find Lattin's award-winning apple cider at grocery stores all over the Puget Sound, the farm is the only place where it's also available as a frozen slush drink.
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Mon., July 19, 2021
TRUE or FALSE
Peacocks once roamed freely in Olympia's own zoo, located in Priest Point Park.
A: True!
Winnifred Olsen (1916-2011) wrote about these animals and that park, in a brief document titled "The History and Memories of Priest Point Park," published by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum.
She also wrote, about the zoo: " A row of wooden pens housed a variety of animals – changing from year to year. There were wolves, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, deer and several bigger animals. I believe one summer there was a live bear on exhibit."
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Fri., July 16, 2021
Q: Which of the following Thurston County wineries produces a strawberry rhubarb wine?
A: Technically, none of them, but c) Mill Lane Winery, Tenino, produces not one but three wines using the vegetable-acting-as-fruit, rhubarb. These include Rhubarb, Rhubarb Blackberry and Rhubarb Cranberry.
They also make a Strawberry wine, so we suppose you could pour half a glass of Rhubarb over half a glass of Strawberry and you might have something like the elusive Strawberry Rhubarb Wine. (But don't tell them we told you to do it.)
On the other hand, Fish Brewing used to make a Strawberry Rhubarb Cider. But World Cider Day was in June.
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Thu., July 15, 2021
Q: How many species of snakes are found in Thurston County?
A: Depends on whom you ask.
A semi-official answer comes from the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and would be: b) Three.
A local snake enthusiast runs a website, OlympiaSnakes.com, that lists: c) 16 -- 16 different snakes! Most are not native to western Washington -- but they might be quite happy in the desert or tundra in eastern Washington.
For this question, we'll go with three. None that are venomous, none that are constrictors.
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Wed., July 14, 2021
The Nisqually Indian Tribe is also known as "People of the river, people of the grass."
Q: Does this have anything to do with horses?
A: Yes! What do horses eat? Grass! Grass enabled the Nisqually to have transportation. They were a form of wealth.
Members of the tribe owned "hundreds of horses" prior to the Treaty War of 1855, according to the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and other sources. They lost more in 1918 when Pierce County ceded some 300 acres of Nisqually land to the US government to create Camp Lewis (later Fort Lewis and Joint Base Lewis-McChord).
In June 2020 the tribe reacquired a 68-acre horse ranch it renamed Medicine River Ranch and is developing a hippotherapy (horse therapy) program there.
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Tue., July 13, 2021
Q: Blueberry Court SE is located where?
A: b) Between Stikes Dr. and Blackberry Ct. in south Lacey.
If you answered, c) By Blueberry Hill Lane in Yelm, good guess, but sorry.
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Mon., July 12, 2021
Q: Which anti-boredom programs are available, FREE, at Timberland Regional Libraries?
A: Sorry, folks, this was sort of a trick question. (First time in 250 issues.) Answer is ALL three - a, b and c.
a) Craft activity kits, set up in to-go packages. See the Take & Make Activity Bags.
b) Feature-length movies that can be streamed to your living room or tablet -- from the Kanopy Kids service.
c) Nature walks that are narrated by story books. -- There's a StoryTrail program every day through Aug. 31 at multiple libraries in the five-county region. If you've got time your library card entitles you to go to any of these, even those in such exotic locations as Salkum or Belfair.
Not to mention TRL's Summer Library Program. For more information, check all of these out at trl.org.
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Fri., July 9, 2021
Q: Can we grow Rainier Cherries in Thurston County? And how many come in a pound?
A: c) In theory, yes. 42.
Officially Thurston County is mostly in USDA Hardiness Zone 8a and multiple sources report that Rainier trees grow in Zones 5 through 8. But none of us here at The JOLT have ever seen a Rainier grown locally or sold commercially as local.
At $6.99 a pound, each cherry sells for 16.6 cents apiece. But they're on sale this weekend for only $4.99 a pound, dropping the per-piece price to 11.9 cents.
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Thu., July 8, 2021
TRUE or FALSE
Q: 120 years ago there was a special kind of logger known as a cutover operator.
A: Sort of true, but they didn't call themselves that. These loggers were both farmers and loggers. They would clear the land of trees, including burning and digging out the stumps, to make room for farmland. A significant number of the 665 farms operating in Thurston County at the start of 1900 were cutover farms.
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Wed., July 7, 2021
Q: Which modern-day road borders the land that was the Woodland Park horse-racing track from 1891-1976?
A: The track was located immediately to the west of Homann Road in what is today smack dab pretty close to the center of the city of Lacey. The racing business was pretty much done by 1900, but the track and stables continued in operation until 1976, according to HistoryLink.org.
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Tue., July 6, 2021
Q: How many "curated" walking trails are shown and described for the Tumwater, Olympia and Lacey area according to AllTrails.com*?
* If you're looking at it on a desktop computer, zoomed out so New Kamilche is in your upper left corner, Bordeaux in lower left corner, and DuPont in the lower right corner.
A: There are c) 74 curated walking trails for this area in the AllTrails.com system.
Each FREE listing comes complete with a trail map, directions, text description, difficulty rating (easy, moderate or hard) and more. Even whether a trail is wheelchair-friendly and a link to Google Maps so you can figure out how to get there by car, bus or even walking (!).
So, Dads, there's no excuse for not taking your daughter out for a walk.
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Mon., July 5, 2021
Q: What grade did South Puget Sound Community College's Culinary Arts Program receive during its most recent accreditation visit in 2018?
A: a) Perfect
"Zero points of non-compliance" with the standards of the American Culinary Federation -- and a five-year certification, the longest they offer.
Students in SPSCC's Culinary Arts Program have the opportunity to learn a wide variety of skills that can carry them to employment at bakeries, restaurants, hospitals, food manufacturers or anywhere food is prepared or served. Even self-employment in their own restaurants.
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Fri., July 1, 2021
TRUE or FALSE
Q: The closest clothing optional resort to most readers of The JOLT is just 33 minutes from the Washington State Capitol.
A: It's true! But it's not in Thurston County.
Arcadia Romantic Getaway is in Shelton, a private nudist club resort on a six-acre, country estate with old-growth cedars, ponds, gardens and fountains, pickleball court, outdoor solar-heated pool and indoor hot tub plus community lounge.
Pickleball?
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Thu., July 1, 2021
Q: Which of the following are NOT flavors that have been made available at Sofie's Scoops?
A: a) Black sesame, white peppercorn, marinara -- never been made.
But: Forbidden rice, pepper chocolate, fennel fronds, Mintalope, George Michael Blues, Salty B all rotate on and off the menu depending on the season and Chris' mood.
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Wed., June 30, 2021
Q: Which of the following places in rural Thurston County never had post offices?
A: b) Dempsey Creek, Dodge Prairie, Duterrow -- all real places that never had post offices.
The following places did have post offices, even if only for a year or two:
a) Blumauer, Bordeaux, Boston Harbor
c) Hurn, Ilkumeen, Independence
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Tue., June 29, 2021
Q: What percent of the Thurston County population as of April 1, 2020 has had confirmed or probable cases of the COVID-19 virus?
A: b) 3.79%
As of June 28, 2020, numbers published by the Washington State Dept. of Health show that Thurston County has seen:
- 9,656 confirmed cases
- 1,370 probable cases
- 11,026 combined confirmed and probable cases
The statewide total population estimate was 291,000. Dividing the total county population into the combined cases yields the 3.79% number. Compared with the statewide percentage of 5.89% we had reduced infections.
For the people who cared about the 112 individuals here who died, these numbers are likely to be abstract.
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Mon., June 28, 2021
Q: After what HAZARD is Hazard Lake named?
A: The answer is c) Son of a governor.
Hazard Stevens was the son of Isaac I. Stevens, first governor of the Washington Territory. Born in 1842 Newport, Rhode Island, Hazard moved to Olympia as a boy when his father was appointed governor. They both served in the Civil War: the elder Stevens was killed in the 1862 Battle of Chantilly; Hazard received the Medal of Honor for his service and was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General. After the war, Hazard Stevens climbed Mt. Rainier (twice), became an attorney, Massachusetts legislator and his father's biographer.
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Fri., June 25, 2021
Q: A deep-water super port was planned for the Pierce County side of the Nisqually River delta, one that would have connected the ocean with rail and freeway transportation.
A: Absolutely true.
Started in the 1960s, it was battled by various nonprofit organizations until it was finally settled on Christmas Day, December 25, 1994. The settlement did allow for a small industrial facility to allow transfer of rock and building materials.
The rest of the land has become the Billy Frank, Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge and other lands protected by the Nisqually Land Trust and other parties.
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Thu., June 24, 2021
TRUE or FALSE
Q: Before it disappeared from the map, the logging town of Vail, which sat about five miles south of Rainier, in Thurston County, was known for its annual Christmas Eve Bagpipe Serenade procession.
A: It's true -- at least according to local historian Don Trosper, who wrote about "Bagpipe Bill" McDonald in Thurston County - Water, Woods & Prairies, published in 2019 by the Thurston County Historic Commission.
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Wed., June 23, 2021
Q: Across the United States, how many estuariums are open to the public?
A: As far as we know, there are only c) 3! They are:
- The Estuarium at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, in Alabama
- North Carolina Estuarium, in, well, you know.
- Puget Sound Estuarium, in Olympia, Washington
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Tue., June 22, 2021
Q: Olympia Lightning is ...
A: c) Usain Bolt's baby daughter.
Olympia Lightning Bolt was born in May 2020 as the third child of Usain Bolt, the Jamaican runner, and his girlfriend Kasi Bennett.
Maybe Sandstone should consider distilling a special batch for her second birthday next May?
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Mon., June 21, 2021
Q: Who was Abigail Stuart?
A: B and C
b) One of the founders of the Olympia Woman's Club
c) Hosted of the OWC for 10 years without charge
In appreciation for bing the "main force that kept the club together" from 1883 to 1903, according to OWC materials, the organization named its meeting hall after her.
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