Farming Challenges

Many people who moved west had little practical farming experience. Often all they had was seed they had brought from home, and a basic understanding of agriculture and farming.
One of the major difficulties they faced was the fact that the Puget Sound region is not particularly suited to farming. The land in this area tends to be rugged, and the soil rocky. The best soil rested in bottomlands. Since most pioneers arrived in mid- to late summer, these areas looked attractive, the streams or rivers associated with them peaceful and promising. Folks who settled in these bottomlands would soon find out the reality of the seasons. Fall rains and Spring melts bring huge amounts of water through these quiet streambeds, turning them into raging torrents that swell over their banks and flood the surrounding countryside. These torrents, ironically, bring the fertile soil down into the bottomland.
Settlers who built cabins and planted crops in lowlands often lost them to vast floods, and frequently abandoned their chosen spots to find something on higher ground.

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