Capitol Campus

A meadow of Lupine and Arrowleaf Balsamroot flowers is seen at the foot of a Ponderosa Pine forest.

Plans take shape for eastern Washington tribute on state Capitol grounds

BY: - October 16, 2023

A ponderosa pine and a western larch, snowberry and camas, basalt rock columns and a bench made out of aspen wood.  These elements are all part of a soon-to-be-installed landscape feature on the state Capitol Campus commemorating eastern Washington.  The State Capitol Committee on Monday received an update on the new site, which came out […]

Washington agency under fire for chopping down a memorial tree next to the Capitol

BY: - August 22, 2023

All that’s left of a Kwanzan cherry tree planted near the state Capitol in honor of the late Cal Anderson, Washington’s first openly gay lawmaker, is a stump. The plaque honoring the trailblazing social activist from Seattle is stored away. And legislative leaders are very angry that no one from the Department of Enterprise Services […]

At the state Capitol, a longstanding tribute to lives lost in WWI

BY: - May 29, 2023

Eighty-five years ago, on Memorial Day in 1938, a crowd gathered on the state Capitol grounds in Olympia to dedicate a war memorial that had been nearly two decades in the making. The idea for a statue honoring those from Washington state who died in the war was first put forward by Gov. Ernest Lister […]

A meadow of Lupine and Arrowleaf Balsamroot flowers is seen at the foot of a Ponderosa Pine forest.

An ode to eastern Washington’s trees on the state Capitol campus

BY: - May 9, 2023

There are many things that differentiate eastern Washington from the western part of the state: political leanings, geography, weather. But a new law promises to bring a dash of life from east of the Cascades here to Olympia.  Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law last week that outlines plans for a “cultural landscape feature” on […]