Two huge, white barns stand side by side on Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, a wildlife preserve with wetlands all around might seem a curious thing, but before Nisqually Wildlife Refuge came into existence, the land used to be a dairy farm. The barns that were built in 1934, stand as reminders of the history of the land.

The Brown Farm, became farmland in 1904 when Alson Lennon Brown purchased and drained 1,500 acres of the salt marsh between the Nisqually River and McAllister Creek. He built four miles of dikes to keep the water out.

The Brown Farm sold in the 1960s, then in 1974 the land was purchased for $1.5 million, and became the wildlife refuge which was created to provide habitat and nesting areas for waterfowl and other migratory birds.
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