The Great Ebey Island Reclamation Project
In 1892, Snohomish County embarked on an ambitious $42,000 engineering project to turn thousands of acres of tide flats into prime farmland.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
H. P. Sites, assistant county surveyor of Snohomish, is at the Arlington hotel on his way to Olympia. Last night he said: 'Snohomish county is much interested over the question of building roads, for at present we have none that are worthy of the name. Next month the question of issuing bonds for $150,000 for their construction will be submitted to a popular vote. There seems to be a general opinion that the decision will be for the roads, for their need is acknowledged, and the benefit which they would do the community is generally understood. The county is carrying on a work that is attracting some attention, namely, the dyking of Ebey island. This tract of some 4,000 acres is wholly covered at every high tide, but when a dyke is constructed the land, which is very fertile, will be of great value for many agricultural purposes. The work of dyking, which is being done by the county commissioners, will cost about $42,000, or something over $10 an acre, and the land, now practically useless, will be worth $200 an acre when the undertaking is completed. The cost of the dyke will be paid for by assessments on the land benefited, just as street grading is paid for by assessments on abutting property.'
“This tract of some 4,000 acres is wholly covered at every high tide, but when a dyke is constructed the land, which is very fertile, will be of great value.”
The Ebey Island project of 1892 reflects a long history of human intervention in the Snohomish River delta. Today, while the land remains agricultural, these same historic dikes are central to modern, complex debates regarding salmon habitat restoration, flood mitigation, and the changing climate of the Pacific Northwest.
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