Began as a farming region a mile from the community of Stanwood on the “diked and drained valley….” of the Stillaguamish River. East Stanwood was the industrial center for its neighboring city, Stanwood. Today it still serves as a commercial center, although the pea cannery is no longer extant.

By the 1940s, the city had a pea cannery supplied by the commercial pea farms, which spread for miles over the diked and drained valley of the Stillaguamish. Bush peas are mowed when sufficiently matured for canning, and the pods are then stripped from the vines by machine; pole peas, frequently yielding as much as seven tons an acre, are picked several times by hand during the season that extends over a period of weeks. The salt air and the long, cool growing season give the peas an unusually fine flavor and succulence.