When the City of Kent incorporated in 1890, the population was 763. Kent was the second city in King County to incorporate.
Kent began as an agricultural area. Hops were the first major crop (first planted in 1878), leading to the rapid growth of Kent in its early years. Almost a million pounds of hops were harvested in 1888. Truck farming began in 1917, and during the 1920s, Kent became known as the "lettuce capital of the world."
Annual floods of the Green and White rivers contributed to the agricultural fertility of the Kent valley. During the Great Flood of 1906, the valley turned into a giant lake, as flood waters rose up to two feet in some houses. The White River found a new channel into the Puyallup River, thus alleviating some of the flooding in Kent.
In 1963, the Howard Hanson Dam was completed at Eagle Gorge on the upper Green River, taming most of the flooding. This enabled industrial development to take place on the valley floor, leading to Kent's rapid rise as a major distribution center.
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