Budd Inlet is an

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine ...

located at the southern end of

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected m ...

in Thurston County,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. It is the southernmost arm of Puget Sound.

Etymology

Budd Inlet was named by

Charles Wilkes Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842). During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he commanded ' during the ...

during the

United States Exploring Expedition The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby ...

, to honor Thomas A. Budd, who served as acting master of the ''Peacock'' and ''Vincennes''. A portion of the coast of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

, Budd Coast, is also named for Thomas Budd.

History

Bird's-eye view of Olympia, capitol of the State of Washigton, overlooking the head of Puget Sound, 1893 (WASTATE 2194)

Historically, the shores surrounding Budd Inlet were occupied by village sites of the Steh-Chass (or Stehchass),

Lushootseed Lushootseed (txʷəlšucid, dxʷləšúcid), also Puget Salish, Puget Sound Salish or Skagit-Nisqually, is a language made up of a dialect continuum of several Salish tribes of modern-day Washington state. Lushootseed is one of the Coast Salis ...

-speaking peoples who became part of the post-treaty Squaxin Island Tribe. Around 1850,

American settlers American settlers is a broad-concept term which may refer to: * Settlement of the Americas, which began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers entered North America via the Beringia land bridge from Siberia * European colonization of the Americas, which ...

founded the city of Olympia at the southern end of Budd Inlet.

Geography

Budd Inlet is long and has a maximum breadth of . The southern end of Budd Inlet is divided into two channels – West Bay and East Bay – by a peninsula that was artificially broadened throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. The

Deschutes River Deschutes River may refer to: *Deschutes River (Oregon) **Little Deschutes River (Oregon), a tributary of the Deschutes River in Oregon *Deschutes River (Washington) The Deschutes River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. Its headwater ...

empties into West Bay just north of Tumwater Falls. The

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...

s that existed here were dammed and submerged beneath

Capitol Lake Capitol Lake is a 3 kilometer (1.9 mile) long, artificial lake at the mouth of Deschutes River in Tumwater/Olympia, Washington. The Olympia Brewery sits on Capitol Lake in Tumwater, just downstream from where the Tumwater Falls meet the art ...

in 1949. A deepwater shipping channel was dredged in East Bay to provide deep water access to the Port of Olympia.

References

External links

Bodies of water of Thurston County, Washington History of Olympia, Washington Geography of Olympia, Washington Inlets of Washington (state) {{ThurstonCountyWA-geo-stub

Etymology

History

Geography

See also

References

External links