From Mosquito Swamp to Golden Grain: The Taming of the Swinomish Flats

One of the richest, most productive sections of the Puget Sound country, if not of the known world, is that portion of Skagit County known as the Swinomish Flats. This remarkable body of land, which for unknown centuries has been fertilized by sea and river, has proven a mine of agricultural wealth to the enterprising and persistent farmers who have reclaimed it from the ocean tide and river floods. The part of this alluvial land known as the Swinomish Flats lies along Swinomish Slough, which separates it from Fidalgo Island, extending from Padilla Bay on the north to Saratoga Passage on the south. It is about 10 miles long by three miles wide and contains 19,000 acres of as rich and productive land as can be found anywhere. Less than 20 years ago, instead of smiling fields of comfort and plenty, it was as desolate, forbidding, and unpromising a wilderness as could be found. In summer, the Skagit river overflowed its banks and inundated the whole valley, and in winter the high tides covered it with salt water. Clouds of bloodthirsty mosquitoes held sway in summer, and in the sloughs, the Indians found a favorite hunting ground for ducks and geese. The settler's life required immense labor; both fresh and salt water had to be dyked off, many large dams built across the sloughs, and ditches dug for drainage. As time wore on and the country became more settled, the hardships disappeared, mortgages were lifted, and today, instead of a forbidding marsh, we see a land of thrift and plenty.