The Oregon Trail-
What did the Simmons-Bush party do when they finally got to Tumwater?

In late October of 1845, the Simmons-Bush party finally arrived at the mouth of the Deschutes River.  This was the spot Michael T. Simmons had selected for their new settlement.  They called it New Market, although the name was later changed to Tumwater, from a Native American word meaning “noisy water.”  The settlers were exhausted, sickly, and nearly out of supplies.  Luckily, they had the letter from Dr. McLoughlin, and the first thing Michael Simmons did was to go to Fort Nisqually to ask Dr. Tolmie to lend them some food. 

Dr. Tolmie let the Americans have food and other supplies.  Since they didn't have any money, he allowed them to work off their debt by splitting cedar shingles.  There was no real use for the shingles at Fort Nisqually, but Dr. Tolmie felt sorry for the pioneers and collected thousands of shingles as payment.

Dr. Tolmie

The Simmons-Bush party had finally arrived at their new home, but there was no time to relax.  Winter was coming and they needed shelter.  The settlers needed to build crude wooden cabins to protect them from the harsh weather. They probably wouldn’t have made it through the long, cold winter without help from the traders at Fort Nisqually and the Native Americans, who taught them to cook shellfish and gather plants.

Gradually New Market began to feel like home.  The settlers staked their land claims and began work on their farms.  George Bush claimed land near today’s Olympia Airport where he established a farm that became very important to the new settlers.  Michael T. Simmons claimed the land around the mouth of the Deschutes River at Tumwater Falls, where he used the power of the river to build the first gristmill (a mill for grinding flour) on Puget Sound.  James McAllister claimed land near the present-day Nisqually River watershed.  Soon settlers began to hear about the little community at the falls of the Deschutes River.  More and more people came to New Market, which soon became a thriving town.  Finally in May of 1846, Britain gave up their claim to the land south of the present-day U.S./Canadian border.  The land West of the Rocky Mountains was now in the United States.  You can read about early life in Tumwater in the Early Tumwater section of the web site.

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