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In 1892, the hop louse invades the enormous and profitable hop fields of the Snoqualmie Valley in eastern King County. The female hop louse can produce a trillion descendants in one summer, and a photo of the period shows one hop leaf with a thousand lice on it. The hop industry is devastated and by the turn of the century has disappeared in King County.

The hop pickers, predominately members of the Snoqualmie tribe (along with other Native Americans and a few whites), gathered by the hundreds every September to pick the crop. The Snoqualmies, the area's original inhabitants, lived nearby and also tied and cultivated the hops at other times of the year.

During the 1890s, they turned to other pursuits as hop farms such as the 1,200-acre Snoqualmie Hop Ranch reverted to food crops.

Sources:

A Hidden Past: An Exploration of Eastside History ed. by Arlene Bryant (Seattle: The Seattle Times, 2000), 21-23.

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