The Farmers' Plan to Drain Lake Washington
Valley farmers eye an inexpensive ditch as the only solution to the catastrophic flooding threatening their livelihood.
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 farmers of the White and Duwamish river valleys have perfected an organization with the object in view of draining Lake Washington sufficiently to prevent the flooding of the valleys which in recent years has wrought so great damage. These annual floods have become so disastrous that they threaten entire destruction to the farming property of the valleys unless something is promptly done to remedy the evil. The obvious remedy is to lower Lake Washington sufficiently to drain the valleys more perfectly, and this, the farmers think, can be done by the construction of an inexpensive ditch between Lake Washington and Lake Union. It was the original intention to secure control of the present portage ditch if possible, and to alter it sufficiently for the accomplishment of the purpose desired. The owners of the present ditch have, however, refused to part with it for what the movers of the enterprise deem a reasonable sum. It has accordingly been decided to dig a new ditch several hundred yards north of the present one, and a right-of-way for this purpose through the university land has been asked of the board of regents. This request for a right-of-way should be, and doubtless will be, granted. The residents of the valleys are entitled to relief, and unless they obtain it, their farms will be rendered almost worthless.
“These annual floods have become so disastrous that they threaten entire destruction to the farming property of the valleys.”
Long before the Montlake Cut and the lowering of Lake Washington significantly altered Seattle's geography, valley farmers were fighting the same seasonal flooding that still plagues parts of the Duwamish corridor today. Their quest for a man-made drainage channel highlights how the city's modern waterfront and infrastructure were built not just for commerce, but as a desperate civic struggle against the region's intense winter rains.
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