Flood Waters Ravage Duwamish Valley Farms
Farmers report $25,000 in damages and plan to petition county commissioners over neglected drainage locks.
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.
The flood in the Duwamish river is abating, the water having fallen six inches yesterday and, unless the heavy rain continues, all danger is past. Already, however, the loss to the farmers between Black River Junction and South Park amounts to $25,000 at the lowest estimate, the heaviest being those north of the junction, as the water will lie on their land longer. Their present troubles have caused the farmers to complain about the failure to open the locks of the outlet from Lake Washington to Lake Union in order to let the overflow escape in that direction. H.H. Western, a farmer eight miles south of the city, noted that farmers helped build the ditch, but it is now used primarily by loggers to run logs between the lakes, keeping the locks down. Western himself estimates his own losses at $3,000, with his entire farm under one to three feet of water.
“We farmers helped dig that ditch, and now we think that we should reap some benefit from it.”
The seasonal struggle to manage drainage and flooding in the Duwamish valley—long a point of contention between agriculture, industry, and the natural flow of the river—persists today, though the crops have largely been replaced by industrial sprawl. The tension between public flood control and private commercial interests like the loggers of 1893 remains a common theme in King County infrastructure debates.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.