sentences:  The site was the northern end of the "Cowlitz Portage," the overland trail between the Cowlitz River and Puget Sound.In a time when water travel was the easiest form of transportation, Olympia's location on the north end of the main route through the area made it a crossroads for regional trade.In 1846 Edmund Sylvester and Levi Lathrop Smith jointly claimed the land that now comprises downtown Olympia.