The Rise And Decline Of The Olympia Oyster 



Territorial days the Chinamen took over possession of the 

 oysters south of the bridge. North of the bridge and on 

 both sides of the bay, the oyster beds were claimed by the 

 Indians who had a village on the west side, just north 

 of the bridge. The natural oyster beds south of the bridge 

 are now covered by water due to the dam recently con- 

 structed to create a lake for capital beautification. 



Eld Inlet (Mud Bay), Totten Inlet (Oyster Bay), Skoo- 

 kum Inlet, Hammersley Inlet, Oakland Bay near 

 Shelton, Washington) and South Bay were all well stock- 

 ed with oysters. Willapa Bay and Willapa Harbor had 

 hundreds of acres of natural oyster beds. 



In Oregon, Yaquina Bay had rather extensive beds, 

 and there were several less important beds along the 

 Oregon and California coasts. In fact, it has since been 

 established that this (Ostrea lurida) has abounded 

 on the Pacific Coast from Alaska to Mexico, for millions 

 of years. 



The writer has seen petrified shell of this species in 

 the Museum in Juneau, Alaska, which had been found 

 along the cove near there. Also, along the highway be- 

 tween El Centro and San Diego in Southern California 

 at a point called "Coyote Wells" a considerable number 

 of petrified shells of this species have been exhumed 

 from points covered by the ocean in prehistoric times. 



MOST ABUNDANT IN VICINITY OF OLYMPIA. 



In the Puget Sound area, nativity, for at least cen- 

 turies of time has been established by finding of great 

 quantities of shell covered by the debris, rotted leaves 

 and vegetation of the past. These deposits of shell were 



(9) 



