South Puget Sound

[4] The same agency counts Mason, Jefferson, Kitsap, Pierce and Thurston Counties for wildlife management.

[5] The state's Department of Ecology defines a similar area south of Colvos Passage.

Archaeology indicates that continuous human occupation began approximately ten thousand years ago by the Salish peoples who still live there.

[12] Both preceded by decades Fort Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord), which was created for World War I.

The Medicine Creek Treaty between the tribes and the United States was signed in 1854 at the Nisqually River delta in the South Sound area, when settlers from other parts of America began to arrive.

[13] Tumwater pioneers Michael Simmons, born in Kentucky, and George Washington Bush, a multiracial War of 1812 veteran from Pennsylvania, were among the first Puget Sound settlers from the United States in 1844.

[16][17] The church spread throughout the Northwest United States and Southern British Columbia in the 19th century, and still exists as of 2017[update].

The passages and inlets west of Hartstene Island, due to extensive Pleistocene glaciation, contain the shallowest water of the entire Sound.

Olympia is wetter than Seattle due to the absence of protection from the Olympic Mountains, and has been reckoned the rainiest city in America with 64 days of rain a year.

Without dredging, the Deschutes would recreate its historical estuary with annual 35,000 cubic yards (27,000 m3) of sediment deposit.