Exit 13 — A Strawberry Town

Sal on I-405 Southbound: Lynnwood to Tukwila · Oct 29, 2026 · 1m

Sal: Between exits twelve and thirteen. Sal: By the 1920s Bellevue was known for its strawberries, a chief crop of many families, mostly Japanese. In mid-June 1925 the town held its first Strawberry Festival behind the Main Street school. A committee raised forty dollars to pay for it, and three thousand visitors came. Peggy: Forty dollars, three thousand guests. Nobody has thrown a cheaper party since. Sal: The festival ran every year until 1942, when the Japanese strawberry farmers were sent to internment camps. It was revived in 1987. Sal: The Bellevue Botanical Garden began in 1981, when…