This extremely successful venture (billed as 'The Largest Hop Ranch in the World') would fall prey to a combination of market and pest factors, and fell into relative obscurity by the end of the 1890s.īy the late 19th century, the Puget Sound region was growing, but bypassed by the major railways. In 1882, the Hop Growers Association was founded by three Puget Sound partners, who used land purchased on Snoqualmie Prairie from Jeremiah Borst to create a farm that would eventually cover 1,500 acres (6.1 km 2), 900 acres (3.6 km 2) of which was devoted solely to hops. Within 15 years, logging and mill work was employing 140 men and sending millions of board feet of logs down the river. Within five years, there were 12 logging operations on the Snoqualmie River, providing lumber to the entire Seattle region. The very first lumber mill in the Snoqualmie Valley was established at the mouth of Tokul Creek around 1872 by Watson Allen. He settled in the area that formerly held Fort Alden, and used his sales of pigs and apples in Seattle to buy out much of the surrounding land from other settlers.Īs successful as farming was, other settlers had different methods of working the land. The most successful early pioneer in the Valley was Jeremiah Borst, who arrived in the spring of 1858 over the Cedar River trail from the eastern side of the mountains. After the Treaty War ended, Fort Alden was abandoned (along with other forts built around this time). In 1856, in response to these tensions, Fort Alden was built near a Snoqualmie village, in the area that would become Snoqualmie. The area that is now Snoqualmie had been continuously occupied by members of the Snoqualmie Tribe and their ancestors for at least 13,000 years.ĭuring the 1850s, tensions were very high between the native populations and the new settlers claiming the land as their own. Hancock took this useful information back with him to the area now known as Tacoma. Near the current location of Meadowbrook Bridge, Hancock was told by his guides that the land was known as Hyas Kloshe Illahee, or 'good/productive land'. The second written record of the exploration of the Snoqualmie Valley comes from the notes of Samuel Hancock, who ventured up-river with the Snoqualmie tribe in 1851 in search of coal.

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