The River Blockade
A standoff between the County Auditor and a local mill company reaches a breaking point over the Duwamish River.
County Auditor Twichell was engaged yesterday in blasting out the row of piling placed across the Duwamish River, opposite the county poor farm, by the Duwamish Mill Company. The drift wood and debris which came down the river during the last flood collected above this row of piles and diverted the current of the stream against the poor farm, threatening to wash away the barns belonging to the farm. The county commissioners ordered the mill company to remove the obstruction and, the order not being obeyed, Mr. Twichell was instructed to do the work at the mill company's expense.
“The drift wood and debris which came down the river during the last flood collected above this row of piles and diverted the current of the stream against the poor farm.”
Conflicts over the Duwamish River have been a constant thread in Seattle’s history, moving from 19th-century log jams and industrial obstacles to the long-standing efforts of environmental remediation and Indigenous land reclamation today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.