Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and second-largest city of Thurston County. It is 60 miles southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region.
European settlers claimed the area in 1846, with the Treaty of Medicine Creek initiated in 1854, followed by the Treaty of Olympia in 1856. Olympia was incorporated as a town on January 28, 1859, and as a city in 1882. It had a population of 46,479 at the 2010 census, making it the state's 24th-largest city. Olympia borders Lacey to the east and Tumwater to the south.