Kelsey Creek Farm

Kelsey Creek Farm sits inside a community park a short way from downtown Bellevue, and the City of Bellevue owns and operates it [1]. The land began as timber on Wilburton Hill, worked from the early 1900s into the early 1920s by the Hewitt and Lea Logging Company, run by partners Wade Hewitt and Charles Lea [1]. Mr. and Mrs. Duey bought the property in 1921 and cleared stumps from all but five of its 190 acres, built a barn for dairy cows, and sold milk, cream and home-churned butter under the name Twin Valley Farm [1]. Horses did a good share of the heavy work there until 1942 [1]. The Dueys' first barn burned in August of 1933 along with 90 tons of hay, and Mr. Duey, a skilled carpenter, put it back up in two weeks with hired hands, and that building serves as the smaller white barn known as the Animal Barn [1]. The City later bought the farmstead of 80 acres, with its farmhouse, barns and outbuildings [1].