- The community that would become Tenino, located in Thurston County, was founded in 1851 when Stephen Hodgden (1807-1882) filed a claim under the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850. In 1872 the Northern Pacific Railroad arrived, giving the local economy a major boost by enabling local timber and especially sandstone to be transported to market. By the time the city of Tenino was incorporated in 1906, sandstone quarries were anchoring the economy. But almost as soon as the city was incorporated, a series of major economic challenges arose. Most significantly, new building materials resulted in collapsing markets for sandstone. The Great Depression of the 1930s also took a toll on the already struggling local economy. In recent decades the city has found new life as a bedroom community for those working in nearby Olympia and Tacoma.
- Olympic Range (WA) (summitpost.org)
The salt air wafts through the forest, rising higher and higher until at last it touches the sky itself on the spiny crest of Mount Olympus. The Olympic Peninsula of Northwest Washington State is one of the most unique mountain zones on earth. What other ecosystem can boast coastal wilderness, temperate rainforest, glaciated mountain peaks and a rain shadow effect that creates massive diversity?