City of Kent

The land has been shaped by water. Thousands of years ago, the Osceola Mudflow brought the top 2,000 feet of Mount Rainier down into the valley, diverting the White River down through the White River Valley in Auburn and Kent.

The regular flooding of the valley brought rich soil that made it excellent gathering and hunting grounds for Indigenous communities throughout the region. It also made the area valuable farmland.

Flooding in Downtown Kent, 1933. (Courtesy Greater Kent Historical Society, 1998.397.001)

In 1906, a logjam on the White River caused the river to be diverted into the Puyallup River running east toward Tacoma. Now, the Green River was left as the major river to flow through Kent, becoming the Duwamish River further downstream. Flooding continued to affect the residents of the Kent Valley until the Howard A.

Hanson Dam was built in the 1960s. This stopped the flooding and opened more land for development, which was quickly capitalized on by companies that put in warehouses, offices, and retail centers throughout the area

White settlers began to arrive in the 1850s. As Territorial Govern Isaac Stevens pushed treaties to remove Indigenous peoples from their lands, conflicts arose that led to the Seattle Indian Wars in 1855. A new treaty in 1857 established the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation in the upper White River area of King County.

Many of the early settlers in the area cleared the land and established farms. By the 1870s, hops became a major cash crop in the area, starting a hops boom. Kent became the top producer of hops in the world until an aphid outbreak destroyed crops in the 1890s. 

Hops Field in the White River Valley, 1890. Many of the hop pickers were Indigenous peoples, who came from all over Washington, Canada, and the Pacific Northwest to harvest. (Courtesy Greater Kent Historical Society, 2000.040.002)

The emerging town was originally referred to as Titusville after an early settler family. When the town was incorporated in 1890, it took the name Kent after Kent County in England, which was also known for growing hops. Kent was the second town to be incorporated in King County.

Kent’s industries grew with the town. In 1899, Elbridge A. Stuart started Pacific Coast Condensed Milk Company in downtown Kent, which went onto success under the nae Carnation Milk Company.

Many of the farms in the area produced dairy, which made Kent an attractive location for Smith Brothers Farm to establish their business in 1920. Kent also became known for growing lettuce. From 1934 – 1938, Kent held an annual Lettuce Festival celebrating Kent as the Lettuce Capital of the World.

Pacific Cost Condensed Milk Company building in downtown Kent, c. 1900. (Courtesy Greater Kent Historical Society, 1997.092)

In the early 1900s, Japanese issei began to settle in Kent, many establishing farms. By the 1920s, Japanese farmers supplied a remarkable 75 percent of Seattle and King County's vegetables and half the milk supply. By the 1940s, there were about 200 Japanese American families living in Kent.

White River Packing Company, 1927. Company Owned by Ernest Saito, a Japanese American Issei man who lived in the house that today is the Kent Historical Museum. (Courtesy Greater Kent Historical Society, 1996.150.013)

However, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the signing of Executive Order 9066, Japanese families were forcibly removed from their homes to concentrations camps around the West. After the end of World War II and the closing of the camps, only about 30 families came back.

After the damming of the Green River, industry began to grow. One of the first to come here was the Boeing Aerospace Center, constructed in 1965. The Apollo Lunar Rover was built here in 1970.

Today, there are 3 of these vehicles built in Kent still on the moon. Other major businesses that set up headquarters in Kent include REI in 1988 and Blue Origin in 2000. Kent now is home to several aerospace engineering companies, transportation and logistics companies, and warehouses such as the Amazon Fulfillment Center.

Along with the growth in industry has come a growth in population. There have been waves of immigration and migration to the city. Kent’s population has grown from just under 9,000 in 1960 to over 136,000 people in 2020. Kent has also become one of the most diverse cities in the country.

Today, over 30% of the city’s residents were born abroad; Kent schools report that their students speak nearly 130 different languages at home; and includes a population from nearly every corner of the world, with residents from Iraq, Somalia, Vietnam, Mexico, Ukraine, and beyond.