Flooding in the Valley Photo circa 1906. The White and Green rivers once merged north of downtown Auburn and flooded constantly. In 1914, construction began on a diversion dam and drift barrier a few miles southwest of Auburn. Later, levees were built, and the channel was dredged. This was still not enough, and in 1933 another major flood inundated the Puyallup Valley. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were called in, and by 1948 they had built Mud Mountain Dam, seven miles southeast of Enumclaw.

Boeing 757 Plane Model. The Auburn Boeing plant opened in 1966 and it would quickly become one of Auburn's largest employers. Workers at the Auburn plant build 265,000 different parts that go into commercial aircraft, and the plant supports many subsidiary manufacturing jobs in and around the Auburn valley.

Pioneer Cemetery Plat. Plat map showing the cemetery at Slaughter in February, 1889. The cemetery was originally intended for use by the first settler families in the area. Constant flooding rendered the site undesirable for casket burials, and a new cemetery was constructed on the hill. The Pioneer Cemetery became a resting place for Auburn’s Japanese American community who cared for the grounds and headstones for decades.

Maekawa Suitcase. The suitcase was used by Sen (Iwasaki) when she immigrated to the US from Japan as a picture bride, c. 1910. The case was used by Kiyono Maekawa, one of Sen's three daughters, when the family was incarcerated during World War II. This number was assigned to the family when they evacuated their home in Auburn in 1942 to the Pinedale detention camp in California.

Stump Puller. Early farmers in the Valley were called "stump farmers" in the late 1800s because of the many massive cedar stumps they had to contend with after the old growth forest was cut down - even Auburn's first wooden sidewalks had to be built around stumps. New contraptions like this stump puller were invented to help farmers use horsepower to rid their land of pesky stumps, with mixed results.

Muckleshoot Watertight Coiled Basket. Indigenous peoples have lived in the valley since time immemorial. This early 20th century basket is coiled tight enough to hold water. It displays the ingenuity, harmony and reciprocity found in Muckleshoot traditional knowledge.

Tom’s Cane. This cane was given to Tom Wil-Etch-Tid by Dr. John I. King. Tom is credited with rescuing three white children after their parents, Eliza (Smail) King Jones and Harvey Horace Jones, were killed in the Treaty Wars on October 28, 1855.

Riverside High School Yearbook. When Auburn Riverside High School opened in 1995 it marked a culture shift in Auburn's identity - Auburn was no longer a small, independent town, but a large and growing city. Critics worried that having children attend multiple high schools would lead to less social cohesion among residents.

Pillar from Auburn’s Passenger Station. The 1970 merger of Northern Pacific Railway into the company we now call BNSF caused a slow-motion disaster for our local train industry, once Auburn's largest employer. The demolition of buildings like the Auburn passenger depot, where this pillar came from, changed the face of Auburn by taking away mass transit infrastructure and a loss of landmarks that had been part of the lives of Auburn residents since the 1910s.

Marshallese Handicraft Flower. Immigrants to the area have long brought their handicrafts with them. Marshallese immigrants brought ornamental and household goods made from natural fibers, shells and wood of the islands. South King County, and Auburn in specific, is home to one of the largest populations of Marshallese and Marshallese-Americans in the world outside of the Marshall Islands, along with Spokane, WA, Springdale, AR, Costa Mesa, CA, and Hawai'i