Brewery Park at Tumwater Falls

Long before it was a park, this river canyon held the first permanent American settlement on Puget Sound, and pioneers later ran eight water-powered industries along the Deschutes [1]. The Olympia Brewing Company and its founding family, the Schmidts, gave the land as a community gift in 1962, and the Olympia Tumwater Foundation has kept it private since the gates opened that same year [1]. The fifteen acres take in the last stretch of the river, which falls eighty-two feet over three waterfalls cut into basalt millions of years old before reaching Budd Inlet [1]. A half-mile trail follows the gorge past falling water, still pools and massive rocks, with footbridges spanning the river at both ends, built to suit the surroundings and the historic record [1]. The wooden bridge above the Lower Falls replicates a span that crossed at that same spot over a century earlier, one that showed up on the Olympia Brewing Company's lucky horseshoe logo [1]. Near the Upper Falls a native plant garden dedicated in 2012, made with the Chehalis, Nisqually and Squaxin Island tribes, holds over fifty-six indigenous species [1].