USA - Olympia (US-347302)

This card shows Olympia, the capital of Washington state. By the way, I find it quite interesting, that the state capitals in USA usually aren't very big or well-known cities. In Europe, the region's largest city is usually it's capital. Of course, there are some exceptions, but it seems to me that in America it's completely different. For example, the population of Olympia is just less than 45,000 people. I wonder, what's the reason?

US-347302

Olympia is the capital of Washington and is the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 44,460 at the 2007 census. Olympia is a major cultural center of the Puget Sound region.

The site of Olympia was home to Lushootseed-speaking peoples for thousands of years, including Squaxin, Nisqually, Puyallup, Chehalis, Suquamish, and Duwamish.

The first recorded visit by Europeans was in 1792 when Peter Puget and a crew from the British Vancouver Expedition charted the site. In the 1840s, Edmund Sylvester and Levi Smith jointly claimed the land that now comprises downtown Olympia.

In 1853 the town settled on the name Olympia due to its view of the Olympic Mountains to the northwest. It is also claimed to be the farthest point on The Oregon Trail.