A CHANGING VALLEY

The Snohomish River Valley has for generations been a picturesque and peaceful setting. It has been comprised of a variety of small family farms having a small dairy herd along with fields of grass, corn, peas, berries, etc. Several creameries along with vegetable and berries processing and packing facilities were located in and around Snohomish. It has been a great place to raise a family or visit for the day. The community was small and the people could rely on each other when the need arose.

At the turn of the century, land was being cleared and cattle were being introduced to the valley. My grandparents, Fred and Agnes Bartelheimer, moved from Nebraska to Snohomish with their family in 1912 and started farming. Hay was cut around the stumps with a hand scythe. Equipment was nonexistent and almost everything was accomplished with the use of your hands and back. When my dad completed the eighth grade, Grandpa said "You have enough foolishness in your head, now it's time to go to work".

Diking and drainage districts were established within the state and ditches were dug throughout the various valleys to remove the surface water. Dikes were built to hold back the tidal seawater and floodwaters from the rivers. The elevation of the valley was close to sea level and pumps were installed to lower the water level within the various drainage districts. In the early sixties, the diking and drainage districts within Marshland (located between Everett and Snohomish) and French Slough (located between Snohomish and Monroe) were changed to Flood Control districts. At that time, the federal government under the Small Watershed Act, improved the dikes along the Snohomish River and built structures that contained a number of pumps and floodgates.

During the Great Depression, men from the Civil Conservation Corp (CCC) would clear the land by hand slashing the brush and putting it on small piles for burning. The larger trees and stumps were removed with dynamite. My grandfather was the local distributor for dynamite until the start of WW II, but the government didn't want a German immigrant dealing in explosives so the dynamite distributorship was taken from him.

After the land was cleared, the water table was lowered with either open ditches or buried drain tile to get the water to the district ditches. Draining the land with open ditches was easier but beavers would often build dams in them or cattle would get stuck in them. The buried drain tile had advantages but it required digging ditches by hand two to four feet deep. The ground was wet and the ditches had to be dug down six to twelve inches at a time. Some called it "back up ditching" because one had to stand on the higher ground while digging to keep from sinking up to your knees. The first tile were cedar pungent, followed with cedar boxes, cement or clay tile, and now plastic perforated ADS pipe. Many of the fields with crops have 500 to 700 feet of drain tile per acre.

Just like life itself, farming in the valley has been evolving and changing. Many of the changes have been driven by a political agenda at the federal, state, and local level. Food production was a high priority during and after WW II and continued through the sixties. A shift in governmental policy evolved in the eighties and nineties away from food production towards environmental concerns. Various governmental agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture, Washington Department of Ecology, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Snohomish County have placed a high emphasis on enhancing native habitat. As a result, thousands of acres of land within the Snohomish Valley have been removed from agriculture and have or will be replanted to native vegetation. The ultimate goal of the government may be to remove agriculture from the entire valley.

This country has a wide variety of soil types and climates and each has an advantage in producing specific crops. Certain crops are produced better in the Pacific NW than anywhere else in the world. Each region within our country adds to the stability of a consistent food supply. A few months ago over half of our nation was in a serious drought resulting in a significant yield reduction in many crops. Food security includes both a safe and a consistent supply of food.

The current policy of protecting the environment certainly has validity and should remain a high priority for all of us, but it should and can be accomplished without jeopardizing the food supply. The soils within the river valleys and tidal flats are the most fertile and productive. The environment and society may be better served by leaving agriculture in the valley and focusing on conservation practices in the foothills and mountains. I hope we are not looking at the 'final chapter' of agriculture in the Snohomish Valley.

THE FLOOD OF 1975: "THEY KEPT COMING"

Historically, the Snohomish River Valley has been through multiple floods over the centuries, some greater than others. It's the floods that would always leave a new layer of sediment that contributed to the fertility of the valley soils. The early settlers realized the potential productivity of the soil and began clearing the brush and farming the river valleys.

Since the valleys were subject to flooding, the farmers would build their houses and barns on stumps and posts located on the highest ground. Flooding from the river would frequently destroy their crops so they began building berms along the river to hold back the water. The larger floods would wash away the berms and the farmers rebuilt them with higher and stronger dikes

In the early 1960's, the federal government helped the farmers build dikes on both sides of the river about eight feet high. It included a structure with eight large pumps along with four floodgates to remove the water from the farm fields between Snohomish and Monroe. It was named the French Slough Flood Control (FSFC) District. The dikes were constructed to withstand overtopping if the river exceeded the height of the dike. The pumps would maintain the water table within the district at two feet below sea level.

In 1973, I purchased a dairy farm located near the FSFC pumping structure. The farm had been flooded frequently prior to 1962. The FSFC dikes had been very effective by keeping the floodwaters out of the valley and protecting the cattle and crops.

In November of 1975 there was an early snow pack in the Cascades that was followed by a warm pineapple express in early December. Water in the rivers rose fast and the Snohomish River dikes and flood control structures that were constructed during the last decade were put to the test.

Water started flowing over the top of the FSFC dike around 8pm on December 2nd. My father, Walt, and I took sand bags down to the dike at 10pm but the river had dropped. We thought the immediate threat was over but when leaving the site, we noticed the water in the slough was raging. Within a couple of minutes the water level in the slough rose over twenty feet and suddenly water was all around us. Before leaving, we stopped and woke a family up in a house along the slough and told them to get out immediately. Much of the county road was already covered with the fast moving water.

We knew something catastrophic happened but didn’t know until daybreak that the FSFC pumping structure had failed letting in a wall of water thirty feet high. The waters isolated five dairies within close proximity of the FSFC pumping structure but that had happened before. Historically the cattle always had a safe refuge in the barns that were built on high ground.

This flood was not like anything the farmers had ever experienced and they realized it. My father had the adjoining farm and tried to save his herd by driving them towards Snohomish on the dike. He had the herd on the dike and all was going well when they spooked, turned, and ran back towards the barns. They swam to the "safety of the barns" and drowned.

All of the high ground around the buildings that had been a safe haven for the cattle during previous floods was now covered with four to five feet of water. Before the dikes were built, the water would fill-in the low areas in the valley and then start flowing towards Everett and the sound. The Marshland Flood Control dike across the river was built to the same height at the same time as the FSFC dike. It held back the water and made the water within FSFC district five feet higher than previous floods.

It was devastating and 1500 head of cattle were lost in the five dairies near the FSFC pumping structure. The farmers, including Berglin, Tester, Ulrich, my father, and myself, did all we could to save our cattle, but the water kept coming and virtually all was lost by the third day.

It wasn’t so much the financial loss but it was watching the animals as they would succumb to the frigid waters and then just settle below the surface of the water. It was gut wrenching and we felt so helpless. We were bewildered, despondent, and in a state of shock.

The rains finally stopped and the sun shown bright with the temperatures dropping during the following days. By the morning of the 6th, the waters had receded enough to start the gruesome task of cleaning up. The houses had been flooded, the barns were full of dead animals, and none of the tractors or equipment was in operating order anymore. Then out of complete surprise and disbelief, they came and they kept coming, people, entire families. They came with tractors, loaders, chains, chain saws, forks and shovels, buckets and cleaning supplies. They removed the dead animals from the barns and the wet hay bales that now weighed over 200 pounds. They came day after day to continue the cleanup of the houses and barns. The National Guard loaded the animals on dump trucks and hauled them to the Bryant Landfill.

Once the farms were cleaned up, the farmers from eastern Washington sent loads of alfalfa hay and dairymen from California to Canada sent cows to fill the barns again. They wouldn’t let us dwell on the devastation. They not only put us back on our feet, but changed our lives.

Seeing the response, care, and concern that they had for us was overwhelming. It has been forty years, and I am still humbled. It is an amazing story when people come together and reach out to help others when disasters occur.

Thanks to all of you that had a part in the 1975 flood recovery or have reached out to help others in their time of need. May God bless you.