The Skagit Valley Underwater
Farmers on the Skagit flats face ruin as dikes break and floodwaters wash away years of work.
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.
A Post-Intelligencer correspondent has just returned from a trip through the flooded districts of Skagit County, and the outlook is very discouraging for the farmers. The western end of the Olympia marsh is covered to the depth of three feet. Since the flood first came, the water has not ceased flowing over the Seattle & Northern railroad track at North Avon. It is thought that the farmers on this portion of the Olympia marsh will lose their entire crop, and many of these will have their farms to clear again on account of the logs and driftwood that have floated upon the lands. On the Swinomish flats north of La Conner, the damage is even greater because the freshet has taken out dikes and large dams that offered protection from salt water.
“The water will not only destroy the crops this year, but will make the land unsuitable for raising grain for years.”
Agricultural flooding in the Skagit Valley remains a central tension between environmental conservation, farming, and flood protection. This 1894 report reflects a permanent struggle in the region's history to keep the fertile delta lands dry.
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