Olympia, Washington

As my current state capital Olympia, Washington is the topic of my second post.  I find Olympia to be an example of what I think of as a classic state capital.  It has a gold domed capital building, a great capital campus, and the state government dominates the city.  Like many states Olympia is far from the largest city in the state.  It is dwarfed by Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, and other cities in WA.

Olympia had a population of 46,478 in the 2010 U.S. census, and was incorporated in 1859.  It is in Thurston county, and is also the county seat.

At the current time in Olympia legislators are struggling with trying to balance the state budget in this economic slowdown, and reducing health care costs is a large part of the equations being considered.

Olympia is located about 40 miles south of Seattle on Interstate 5, and is the gateway to the Olympic peninsula for many Washington residents.  It was known to many as the place where Olympic beer was brewed until the brewery closed in 2003.

 

Augusta, Maine

Let’s start with my home state of Maine.  Maine is a small state with a population in the 2010 census of only 1.328 million people in the 2010 census,  but the state is steadily growing, albeit slowly.  The increase from the 2000 census is only 4.2% in 10 years, but the population has grown in every census since the 1870 census when the population was down 0.2%.

Augusta, Maine is the state capital is the 8th most populous city in Maine, with 18,560 persons in the 2000 census.  Portland is largest, with 64,249, followed in order by Lewiston, Bangor, South Portland, Auburn, Beddeford, Brunswick, Sanford, Augusta, Scarbourough, and Saco.   There is one resort town in Maine, Frye Island, with a year round population of zero.  Want to be the first year round resident?  I suspect you’ll need you own boat and a hardy makeup.

Map of Maine

Maine is a lily white state, in that it has the largest percentage of any state of “non-hispanic whites” and has the second highest percentage of French Americans, undoubtedly due to its proximity to Quebec, Canada.

Augusta, ME is the third smallest state capital by population, following Montpelier, VT and St. Pierre, South Dakota.  It is in Kennebec County, and is located at the headwaters of the largest river in Maine, the Kennebec River.  The Kennebec River has recently had several hydroelectric dams removed and is open water well north of Augusta now, allowing free boat traffic over much of the lower river.  Atlantic salmon runs have increased, and the water quality is excellent after years of cleanup.

The opening of the Kennebec River is a beautiful story, and the removal of the dams has reduced the insensible water loss from floods and winter runoff.

U. S. State Capitals

This blog has two purposes.  First to help me learn about each of the state capitals in our country, and second to serve as a simple reference to anyone searching for simple information about each of the capital cities.

US States and Capital Cities

To use the site you can use the search bar and type in the name of the state you are looking for, and that should bring up that state.

In each state capitals post you should find information like the population, the major industries, and several interesting facts.  If you don’t find what you want, feel free to make this a wiki like site by posting a comment with additional information that will help the next reader.

This is a work in progress, so it will take some time for me to get all the state capitals up with a post of their own.  I’m also working on a site about Sex Education, and one on Hamster cages, as well as my medical blog so it may be a slow process.

If you have a state you are anxious for me to add while the site in under construction, leave a post here and I’ll move that state to the top of the list.