The Snoqualmie Hop Field Massacre
A contract labor dispute turns deadly as vigilantes attack Chinese workers in the Snoqualmie Valley.
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.
Due to the extremely low price of hops, many growers were unable to harvest their crops. Understanding that the Indigenous workers who had been promised one dollar per box would refuse to accept a reduction, Wold Brothers, large growers in the Snoqualmie Valley, contracted with a Chinese labor agent to pick their crop. On Saturday evening, a band of white men led a group of Indigenous men to the camp, where they harassed the workers and ordered them to leave the valley or suffer the consequences. Mr. Wold sought the authorities' help to prevent a collision, but reports reached Seattle the next day that the attackers had returned on Monday evening, killing two and wounding four others. A coroner and local officials left on the 1:00 train to investigate and apprehend the murderers.
“After harassing and frightening the Mongolians half to death, [the mob] gave them notice to leave the valley or suffer death.”
This event was part of the widespread 1885-86 anti-Chinese expulsion movement in Washington Territory, fueled by racial resentment and economic instability. It serves as a stark reminder of the violent history underlying the regional agricultural economy, often sanitized in later narratives of the state's development.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.