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Kent, Washington was home to some of the earliest white pioneers in King County, and is located 15 miles southeast of Seattle. It was also the first community outside of Seattle and King County to incorporate. It has developed into an industrial hub after originally being an agricultural community.
What is currently known as Kent was oceanfront property, thousands of years ago. Elliott Bay stretched far down the Duwamish Valley, at a depth of 100's of feet. The top 2,000 feet of .. Rainer slid off around 3600 B.C. E., which sent .7 cubic feet of rock and mud all throughout the White River Valley. After leaving a very large pile of debris, this mudflow stopped close to Auburn.
The course of the White River was changed northward as the result of the Osceola Mudflow. The river ran through the mud bump, over the centuries, and filled the valley with alluvium. The valley was filled with arable, fertile land by the time the first white pioneers arrived in the middle 1800's, which was ideal for farming.
For numerous years, the Native Indian tribes had been gathering berries, hunting, and fishing in the valley and the surrounding plateaus. Many Indians welcomed these settlers, because the new settlers increased their trading potential. However, as increased number of pioneers arrived in the valley, the access by the Indians to the river and surrounding land decreased and tensions increased.
While the White River Indians were more reluctant to be relocated than the Snohomish and Snoqualmie Indian tribes in the north, and treaties had been agreed to by all of the Indian tribes in Puget Sound and the land rights determined by 1855. However, beginning during the fall of 1855, some of the local Indians elected to fight back.
An Indian ambush resulted in the death of nine people, which included women and children also in 1855. Some children managed to escape and were helped towards Seattle by local natives who felt sympathy towards them. This started what came to known as the Seattle Indian Wars.
However, once the troops had been brought into the region, the Indians had retreated within a few months, and the war was rapidly over. Another treaty was signed, which provided for the establishment of the Muckleshoot reservation, which is the only Indian reservation that is currently within the boundaries of King County. The White River tribes collectively came to be known as the Muckleshoot tribe.
After the war, the pioneers returned to the valley rather slowly. A man named Thomas Alvord and his wife purchased some land next to the river and set up a successful trading business and ranch in 1859. In 1862, a man named John Langston arrived and established a general store. Also in 1862, a man named James Crow and his bride, named Emma, eloped to the valley and sometime later raised some 13 children.
Once again, the farmers in the area, took to the land, and raised crops of many different vegetables including onions and potatoes. Livestock was put to pasture on land that was untilled. The majority of the valley had been cleared, by the late 1870's, and a new cash crop was cultivated, which was hops, which is a bitter plant in the hemp family that is used to flavor beer.
The valley was taken by storm by the hops craze. Inexpensive to produce, hops brought a high price on the market as the result of a blight in Europe. Hop kilns and hop farms were blossoming throughout the valley, which made many farmers rich men. Hops reigned for ten years, until, 1891, when aphids destroyed the majority of the crop. However, hops were the catalyst that converted the transportation routes in the valley.
Farmers needed a method to get their hops to the marketplace, in the early 1880's, as soon as the first hop crop was harvested. The most reliable transportation to and from Seattle was travel by river. Becoming very popular were flat-bottomed steamboats, and many of them moored at Alvord's Landing. It wasn't long before bridges spanned the river and roads were constructed.
Work started began on a railroad line through the valley that connected up with the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883, which was owned at the time by a man named Henry Villard. However, Mr. Villard had business problems, and resigned prior to the railroad line being completed. Anti-Seattle, and Pro-Tacoma forces purchased the Northern Pacific Railroad, and it wasn't long before the branch railroad line came to be known as the Orphan Road, as the result of neglect.
Although poorly, the railroad line was brought back into services, after much legal wrangling. into service, albeit poorly. However, Northern Pacific again Shut the railroad down after riders from King County complained. After again re-opening, the railroad line was threatened with the revocation of their land grant. In 1887, the Northern Pacific Railroad relocated its terminus to Seattle from Tacoma and Orphan Road came to be a reliable means of transportation in the valley.
Kent got its name from the railroad. Most people called the small community Titusville, after an earlier pioneer. A general construction engineer for the Northern Pacific Railroad named the station Kent, in 1885, after his native Kenty County, England.
Two men named Ida Guiberson and John Alexander filed the first plat in 1888. During the next couple of years, other members of the community members made additions, and the residents expresses their desire to incorporate in 1890. That same year brought incorporation to Kent as a city, and other than Seattle, was the first city in King County outside to do so.
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Kent Tidbits
Kent, Washington was home to some of the earliest white pioneers in King County, and is located 15 miles southeast of Seattle. It was also the first community outside of Seattle and King County to incorporate. It has developed into an industrial hub after originally being an agricultural community.
What is currently known as Kent was oceanfront property, thousands of years ago. Elliott Bay stretched far down the Duwamish Valley, at a depth of 100's of feet. The top 2,000 feet of .. Rainer slid off around 3600 B.C. E., which sent .7 cubic feet of rock and mud all throughout the White River Valley. After leaving a very large pile of debris, this mudflow stopped close to Auburn.
The course of the White River was changed northward as the result of the Osceola Mudflow. The river ran through the mud bump, over the centuries, and filled the valley with alluvium. The valley was filled with arable, fertile land by the time the first white pioneers arrived in the middle 1800's, which was ideal for farming.
For numerous years, the Native Indian tribes had been gathering berries, hunting, and fishing in the valley and the surrounding plateaus. Many Indians welcomed these settlers, because the new settlers increased their trading potential. However, as increased number of pioneers arrived in the valley, the access by the Indians to the river and surrounding land decreased and tensions increased.
While the White River Indians were more reluctant to be relocated than the Snohomish and Snoqualmie Indian tribes in the north, and treaties had been agreed to by all of the Indian tribes in Puget Sound and the land rights determined by 1855. However, beginning during the fall of 1855, some of the local Indians elected to fight back.
An Indian ambush resulted in the death of nine people, which included women and children also in 1855. Some children managed to escape and were helped towards Seattle by local natives who felt sympathy towards them. This started what came to known as the Seattle Indian Wars.
However, once the troops had been brought into the region, the Indians had retreated within a few months, and the war was rapidly over. Another treaty was signed, which provided for the establishment of the Muckleshoot reservation, which is the only Indian reservation that is currently within the boundaries of King County. The White River tribes collectively came to be known as the Muckleshoot tribe.
After the war, the pioneers returned to the valley rather slowly. A man named Thomas Alvord and his wife purchased some land next to the river and set up a successful trading business and ranch in 1859. In 1862, a man named John Langston arrived and established a general store. Also in 1862, a man named James Crow and his bride, named Emma, eloped to the valley and sometime later raised some 13 children.
Once again, the farmers in the area, took to the land, and raised crops of many different vegetables including onions and potatoes. Livestock was put to pasture on land that was untilled. The majority of the valley had been cleared, by the late 1870's, and a new cash crop was cultivated, which was hops, which is a bitter plant in the hemp family that is used to flavor beer.
The valley was taken by storm by the hops craze. Inexpensive to produce, hops brought a high price on the market as the result of a blight in Europe. Hop kilns and hop farms were blossoming throughout the valley, which made many farmers rich men. Hops reigned for ten years, until, 1891, when aphids destroyed the majority of the crop. However, hops were the catalyst that converted the transportation routes in the valley.
Farmers needed a method to get their hops to the marketplace, in the early 1880's, as soon as the first hop crop was harvested. The most reliable transportation to and from Seattle was travel by river. Becoming very popular were flat-bottomed steamboats, and many of them moored at Alvord's Landing. It wasn't long before bridges spanned the river and roads were constructed.
Work started began on a railroad line through the valley that connected up with the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883, which was owned at the time by a man named Henry Villard. However, Mr. Villard had business problems, and resigned prior to the railroad line being completed. Anti-Seattle, and Pro-Tacoma forces purchased the Northern Pacific Railroad, and it wasn't long before the branch railroad line came to be known as the Orphan Road, as the result of neglect.
Although poorly, the railroad line was brought back into services, after much legal wrangling. into service, albeit poorly. However, Northern Pacific again Shut the railroad down after riders from King County complained. After again re-opening, the railroad line was threatened with the revocation of their land grant. In 1887, the Northern Pacific Railroad relocated its terminus to Seattle from Tacoma and Orphan Road came to be a reliable means of transportation in the valley.
Kent got its name from the railroad. Most people called the small community Titusville, after an earlier pioneer. A general construction engineer for the Northern Pacific Railroad named the station Kent, in 1885, after his native Kenty County, England.
Two men named Ida Guiberson and John Alexander filed the first plat in 1888. During the next couple of years, other members of the community members made additions, and the residents expresses their desire to incorporate in 1890. That same year brought incorporation to Kent as a city, and other than Seattle, was the first city in King County outside to do so.