About
Kamiakin's Gardens was the first place to be irrigated in the Yakima River valley in central Washington state. Chief Kamiakin (1800–1877) was a leader of the Yakama Nation who sought to avoid conflict with European settlers and missionaries who started arriving in the region in the 1840s. Kamiakin directed that a ditch be excavated to nourish a plot near Ahtanum Creek, hoping to provide a sedentary existence for his people that would keep them out of conflict with the settlers. Crops included squash, corn and potatoes, fed by what became known to settlers as Kamiakin's Ditch. The irrigated area was about 1,300 feet (400 m) long, remnants of which remain visible and are still irrigated. In 1851 a Catholic mission was established near the creek.
