Drive guide
I-5 — Olympia to Portland
34 things worth knowing along this corridor, in the order you meet them driving. Every one is sourced.
Sal reads these as you pass them, and answers when you ask.
Start a withby driveAlong the way
historyPhoebe Judson at Grand Mound
The Judsons arrived at their new home in Grand Mound (Thurston County) in October 1853.
Source: historylink.org
historyGrand Mound nurseries
In 1856, a pair of nurseries were established at Grand Mound. One was opened by Durgin, and the other by Gangloff & Moxlie. Both nurseries had many varieties of apple trees and various kinds of pear, peach, plum, cherry, currant, gooseberry, along with many types of flowers and berries.
Source: pacific-hwy.net
historyGrand Mound women vote 1870
On June 6, 1870, Charlotte Emily Olney French (1828-1897), after a debate with the election judges, casts her vote in a Washington territorial election, the first woman to do so. Six more women at her Grand Mound precinct in south Thurston County also vote that day.
Source: historylink.org
historyGoodell stage line
During December of 1854, William. B. Goodell established stage line, which ran between Olympia and the Cowlitz Landing. The rates were; from Olympia to Grand Mound, $3.50, and $10 from Olympia to the Cowlitz Landing.
Source: pacific-hwy.net
historyGrand Mound post office
On January 21, 1854, the Grand Mound post office and general store was established by Durgin. Afterwards the mail was then brought in by auto until the post office was shut down forever on June 30, 1955.
Source: pacific-hwy.net
historySamuel James claim
Arriving at Grand Mound in 1852, Mr. James took up a donation claim of 320 acres on the Chehalis River, built a cabin home and started to improve what afterwards became one of the finest farms in Thurston County.
Source: jtenlen.drizzlehosting.com
developmentGreat Wolf Lodge Grand Mound
In March 2008, a 398-room Great Wolf Lodge opened in Grand Mound, which was majority owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
sightScatter Creek Wildlife Area
The Scatter Creek Unit of the Scatter Creek Wildlife Area holds one of the few remaining sections of south Puget Sound prairie. Garry oaks grow in its riparian areas along with Oregon ash.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyGrand Mound prairie
The Grand Mound prairie is Upper Chehalis territory, where a large settlement called Aqaygt, meaning long open space, once stood. The prairie's name, nsq'wanxtn, means place to dry hides on a frame.
Source: pacific-hwy.net
historyFords Prairie
Their 640-acre (260 ha) Donation Land Claim abutting the Chehalis River became the center of what became known as Fords Prairie, for a time an important travelling stop between the Columbia River and Puget Sound.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyScatter Creek
During the Ice Age the Puget Sound Glacier advanced only as far as Scatter creek. The creek took its name from the sand and gravel scattered across the prairie as the glacier receded.
Source: pacific-hwy.net
developmentScatter Creek Rest Area
The Scatter Creek Rest Area on northbound Interstate 5 opened in 1969 and was rebuilt in 1988. About 2,284 vehicles a day use it.
Source: wsdot.wa.gov
quirkMaytown Rest Area
The next rest area along southbound Interstate 5 beyond the Maytown Rest Area is 40 miles away.
Source: aaroads.com
historyCase Road
In 1913 the original Pacific Highway route between Olympia and Centralia followed the "middle road," today called Case Road. The road was completed in 1858 and bypassed Tenino on its way to Grand Mound.
Source: pacific-hwy.net
developmentState Route 121
In 1991 the Rochester–Maytown highway was removed from the state highway system, and SR 121 was realigned as a loop through Millersylvania State Park.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionTumwater School District
Tumwater School District No. 33 was formed on July 1, 1964, when East Olympia School District No. 327 and Tumwater School District No. 333 consolidated. Schools in the Tumwater area had been established by 1845.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionA.G. West Black Hills High School
A.G. West Black Hills High School opened in the fall of 1997. It was named after Arthur Garret West (1886-1979) for his commitment to good schools, roads, and community improvement, and after the Black Hills.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
sightTumwater West Preserve
The Tumwater West Preserve is a 67.5-acre preserve in southwest Tumwater, protected with a conservation easement acquired on June 22, 2021 to safeguard the Olympia subspecies of Mazama pocket gopher and dry prairie and grassland habitat. It is not open to the public.
Source: cnlm.org
institutionBush Middle School
Bush Middle School in Tumwater is named for the family of George and Isabella Bush, who arrived in Thurston County in 1844 among the first non-Indigenous American settlers. Bush Prairie, five miles south of Olympia, is named for the same family.
Source: olympiahistory.org
historyWashington State Capitol
The Washington State Capitol's dome, completed in 1928 after a construction saga that stalled for decades following a false start in 1893, stands 287 feet tall — the tallest self-supporting masonry dome in North America and the fifth-tallest of its kind in the world.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
sightHawks Prairie Ponds & Recharge Basins
At this 40-acre site in northeast Lacey, Class A reclaimed water from the Martin Way Reclaimed Water Plant flows through a series of five constructed wetland ponds. It then flows to shallow gravel basins, where it soaks into the soil and mixes with groundwater.
Source: lottcleanwater.org
developmentHawks Prairie
In April 1982 the real-estate branch of the Weyerhaeuser Company, with Burlington Northern, revealed plans for an industrial and residential complex called Hawks Prairie on the west side of the Nisqually Delta, for 6,000 residents and up to 20,000 jobs. Despite objections from the Nisqually Delta Association, the development was approved and the area was soon after incorporated into the City of Lacey.
Source: historylink.org
institutionRiver Ridge High School
River Ridge High School was established in 1993 to handle overflow from Timberline and North Thurston High Schools, and was named for its proximity to the ridge of the Nisqually River valley. It earned its Hawks nickname from its location in the Hawk's Prairie area off Exit 111 of Interstate 5.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyTreaty Tree
The Treaty of Medicine Creek was signed on December 26, 1854, in a grove of Douglas fir trees near the Nisqually River delta. The grove's last tree, the Treaty Tree, was dead by 1979, and its snag stood visible from the Interstate until it fell during severe windstorms in 2007.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionBilly Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Proposals for a deep-water port facility, an aluminum mill and a landfill on the Nisqually Delta were denied, largely as a result of citizen efforts led by teacher Margaret McKenny and the Nisqually Delta Association. The refuge was established in 1974 and was renamed on December 18, 2015, to honor Nisqually Tribal leader Billy Frank, Jr.
Source: fws.gov
historyBrown farm
Seattle lawyer Alson Brown bought 2,350 acres on the western bank of the Nisqually River in 1904, built a four-mile-long dike and farmed the drained marsh until he went bankrupt in 1918. In 2009 a roughly $13 million project removed his dike, turning 762 acres of fields back into tidelands.
Source: historylink.org
historyNisqually River
The northbound bridge that carries Interstate 5 near the Nisqually River's mouth opened in 1938 for U.S. Route 99, and a southbound span followed in 1968. The bridges cross the delta on a filled causeway that altered the river's course and increased flood risk.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionWa He Lut Indian School
T. Maiselle Bridges and members of the Frank’s Landing Indian Community founded Wa He Lut Indian School in 1974. They wanted Native American children to get the education promised in the Medicine Creek Treaty.
Source: whlis.org
sightChloe Clark Statue
The Chloe Clark Statue was dedicated on July 10, 2010, the 170th anniversary of Chloe Clark's arrival at Fort Nisqually in 1840 as the first American school teacher in the Puget Sound region. The Steilacoom Historical Education Foundation's Chloe Clark Memorial Committee raised the funds and managed its construction.
Source: hmdb.org
developmentNorthwest Landing
Weyerhaeuser bought the 3,200-acre former explosives plant site from the DuPont Company in 1976, intending a wood products export facility, then turned to land development when the lumber market declined in the early 1980s. Plans for Weyerhaeuser's Northwest Landing, a residential, commercial and industrial development, were approved in 1989.
Source: dupontwa.gov
historyIafrati Park
By the mid-1860s there were 34 children in DuPont, and the first school was built in 1866, from donations by local families, on the site of Iafrati Park in the Historic Village.
Source: dupontmuseum.com
developmentSteilacoom-DuPont Road interchange
In July 2015 the Legislature funded the $495 million I-5 Mounts Road to Thorne Lane project, which widens seven miles of I-5 from DuPont to Lakewood with an HOV lane each way and rebuilds interchanges with roundabouts, grade-separated from the rail line. The rebuild of the Steilacoom-DuPont Road interchange was scheduled to be complete in late 2026.
Source: wsdot.wa.gov
historyLaughbon High School
Laughbon High School, built onto the existing DuPont School and named for longtime superintendent Wendell B. Laughbon, opened in 1961 for 10th grade, adding 11th and 12th graders in 1963 and 1964. It held its last graduation in 1973, and the building was demolished in January 1989.
Source: dupontmuseum.com
historyPoint Defiance Bypass
The Northern Pacific Railway built the Lakewood–DuPont section of the line in 1891, and passenger service on it ended entirely in 1956. The route was identified as a passenger rail bypass in 1992, rebuilt from 2015, and passenger service resumed on November 18, 2021.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Landscape you can see from the road
| Feature | Type |
|---|---|
| Agren Creek | Stream |
| Airport Lake | Lake |
| Allen Creek | Stream |
| Arkansas Creek | Stream |
| Atkins Hill | Summit |
| Bare Hill | Summit |
| Barnes Lake | Lake |
| Bartlett Hill | Summit |
| Beal Hill | Summit |
| Berwick Creek | Stream |
| Black Hill | Summit |
| Boyd Hill | Summit |
Stops along this corridor
| Kind | Count |
|---|---|
| restaurant | 1323 |
| fast food | 492 |
| park | 481 |
| grocery | 457 |
| coffee | 445 |
| bar | 326 |
| museum | 37 |
| peak | 36 |
| memorial | 29 |
| attraction | 15 |
| viewpoint | 12 |
| monument | 10 |
Exits along this corridor
Each one lists what is actually within a short detour, ordered by how far off the highway it is.
- Exit 308 — 169 places worth stopping for
- Exit 1 — 329 places worth stopping for
- Exit 2 — 130 places worth stopping for
- Exit 3 — 64 places worth stopping for
- Exit 4 — 197 places worth stopping for
- Exit 5 — 142 places worth stopping for
- Exit 7 — 94 places worth stopping for
- Exit 9 — 8 places worth stopping for
- Exit 11 — 8 places worth stopping for
- Exit 14 — 44 places worth stopping for
- Exit 16 — 22 places worth stopping for
- Exit 21 — 102 places worth stopping for
- Exit 22 — 22 places worth stopping for
- Exit 30 — 51 places worth stopping for
- Exit 32 — 7 places worth stopping for
- Exit 39 — 99 places worth stopping for
- Exit 40 — 51 places worth stopping for
- Exit 42 — 13 places worth stopping for
- Exit 48 — 6 places worth stopping for
- Exit 49 — 46 places worth stopping for
- Exit 52 — 9 places worth stopping for
- Exit 59 — 12 places worth stopping for
- Exit 68 — 12 places worth stopping for
- Exit 72 — 17 places worth stopping for
- Exit 76 — 35 places worth stopping for
- Exit 77 — 75 places worth stopping for
- Exit 79 — 85 places worth stopping for
- Exit 81 — 38 places worth stopping for
- Exit 82 — 124 places worth stopping for
- Exit 88 — 35 places worth stopping for
Where to eat along this corridor
Town by town, what is actually within a short detour of the highway.
- Arlington — 23 places to eat
- Bellingham — 119 places to eat
- Blaine — 16 places to eat
- Burlington — 25 places to eat
- Castle Rock — 7 places to eat
- Des Moines — 11 places to eat
- DuPont — 11 places to eat
- Everett — 55 places to eat
- Federal Way — 19 places to eat
- Ferndale — 11 places to eat
- Fife — 36 places to eat
- Kalama — 9 places to eat
- Kelso — 19 places to eat
- Kent — 21 places to eat
- Lacey — 33 places to eat
- Lakewood — 76 places to eat
- Lynnwood — 46 places to eat
- Marysville — 36 places to eat
- Mount Vernon — 58 places to eat
- Mountlake Terrace — 6 places to eat
- Olympia — 35 places to eat
- Quil Ceda Village / qʷəl'sidəʔ ʔalʔaltəd — 21 places to eat
- Ridgefield — 6 places to eat
- Seattle — 809 places to eat
- Tacoma — 103 places to eat
- Tukwila — 83 places to eat
- Tumwater — 33 places to eat
- Vancouver — 57 places to eat
- Woodland — 32 places to eat
Coverage
withby narrates 12 map cells on this corridor today.
Sal reads these as you pass them, and answers when you ask.
Start a withby drive