Farmers Petition to Reshape the Duwamish Basin
Facing constant flooding and ruin, regional farmers unite to demand a massive engineering project to redirect the Cedar River and deepen the waterways of Seattle.
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 movement started among the farmers of the Lake Washington and Duwamish basin to secure relief from the flood water has at last taken shape in the form of a petition to the county commissioners and to the mayor and city council for the making of the desired improvement. The petition argues that by reason of the present condition of the various outlets, the farms and lands of petitioners are constantly subjected to overflow and floods, and if waters are permitted to continue in their present condition, the most fertile and productive land in King county will become useless. The petitioners propose that the course of the Cedar river be changed to find an outlet directly into Lake Washington, and then the outlet between Lakes Washington and Union, known as the 'portage,' be dredged and widened to permit a freer passage into Salmon bay and Puget sound.
“The most fertile and productive land in King county, tributary to Seattle, will become useless and the trade and prosperity of Seattle will be thereby permanently injured.”
This petition captures a formative moment in Seattle’s geography, foreshadowing the 1916 construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. It demonstrates how early settlers viewed the landscape not as an ecosystem, but as infrastructure to be engineered for agricultural and urban prosperity.
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