Skagit River Journal

Howard Royal and his family's Birdsview Stump Ranch

of History & Folklore This page originated in our Free Pages Covering from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Washington counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness The home pages remain free of any charge. We need donations or subscriptions to continue. Please pass on this website link to your family, relatives, friends and clients.

Site founded Sept. 1, 2000. Passed 5 million page views, 2011; passed 800 stories in 2012 — Mailing: Noel V. Bourasaw, editor 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284 where Mortimer Cook started a town & named it Bug

Click on the photo to read about the suicide of Garfield A. Minkler. This photo, which we had never seen before, was sent to us by Eileen Beck, the great-great-grandchild of one of Birdsey Minkler's daughters. This fine photo shows that this was Garfield Minkler's first store, woodframe as opposed to the brick finish of the later building.	Happy New Year to all of you; this one is especially important as it is the third in our journey of survival. This marks the beginning of our 12th year for our Subscribers-paid Journal magazine. The Journal test launch appeared on AOL on Aug. 26, 2000. On D-Day, June 6, 2011, we passed 5 million page views, more than we ever dreamed. Please note: we are in the midst of transferring the last few hundred files to this domain from the old stumpranchonline domain. During this period, you may encounter dead links. In that case, please email us and we will correct the link and send the new link to you.     We need donations or subscriptions to continue and to complete our grand research trip by next spring all over the West Coast, especially to Santa Barbara and the '49er gold fields to complete research for our planned book Humbug! — Mortimer Cook. Please pass along this website link to your family, relatives, friends and clients. Express to portal/category buttons and newest features.
And happy 20th anniversary. 20 years ago this month I returned to Sedro-Woolley, 30 years after graduation, and met the most important person in my writing life and a dear friend for two decades, Cookson Beecher, the best editor ever of the Courier-Times and presently the botanical expert of the Skiyou Gothic movement.
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This is the year that Sedro-Woolley celebrates two major anniversaries: the centennial of the opening of Northern State Hospital and the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Rotary Club and its legendary philanthropy. And this is the beginning of the second century of selling Fords in Sedro-Woolley. Two requests from our Wish List section, which details all the gaps we face in research. And one special need, which would not cost you a cent, access to Ancestry.com.     1) Recently, both our desktop and laptop computers failed within days of each other, causing considerable panic. We have rebuilt the desktop, with the help of Sedro-Woolley's computer guru, John Hanks. But we still need a laptop. If you or your company is trading up to a newer system, would you consider donating your old model?     2) We have nearly exhausted our attempts to research the old town of Wilburton, which was just a crossroads between Hamilton and Lyman on Cockreham island in the 1870s and 1880s, with a very small village clustered around John Wilbur's store. We have only a handful of references to it. Do you maybe have something in your family collection that could help?     Thinking about gifts for your history-loving friends, family and clients? Once you subscribe, you can order a gift subscription for $10 and as many gifts as you want, after that, for $5 apiece. See details of how to subscribe. See our New Year's version of our Puget Sound Mail column, all about the last weekend of the upriver Eagle Festival, on Jan. 28-29, and beautiful photos of the Northern Pacific Sedro-Woolley depot from 50 years ago and before. We have re-posted a popular photo feature from 2001 in our original domain. See the new photos and the rare looks at Bug/Old Sedro, by the river, where Riverfront Park stands today. Includes a preview of our upcoming profile of photographer Frank LaRoche. Lavina Gates Chapman's 19th-century memoir of bloody Kansas, including the bravery there of future-Sedro pioneer Lewis Kirkby during the civil war. Special section shared from our Subscribers Magazine. We are sad to tell you that Florence passed away at age 99 in California in May 2011. She co-wrote with her brother the book, Equality Colony and grew up in Blanchard along with Edward R. Murrow and his family. She was a special friend. Read her memories of Blanchard and Murrow. Another Catherine Savage Pulsipher story: The indentured Irish servant girl who came to Skagit County and married into the Savage family. If you have any photos, articles or documents about Northern State's long history, please email Judy Torfin, who has begun a museum on the NSH premises to honor the history of the institution and its employees. Think about becoming a subscriber today so that you can see the 91 photos of old Sedro-Woolley businesses and their owners in the 1960s. See this photo feature with nearly two dozen photos of Gilbert Landre's cabin/hotel, built in the 1892 era, which still stands near Cascade Pass. Read the story behind the Plumeria Bay bedding company in Birdsview, our latest sponsor B.R. Lewis and his family and the Clear Lake Lumber Co., which at one time was the biggest mill in the Northwest. The two most humorous stories of our 700. Otto Klement's tale of his Lyman trading post, in 1881, and the mixture of liquor and the good ole boys and the pig. And Frank Wilkeson's 1890 New York Times column about the two rapscallion hobos of old Sedro, who took the Swedes for a ride. Were you aware that it's possible to view your home's Surveillance Cameras from a PC located anywhere in the world via an internet connection? Well you can! Check out this sites Wireless Surveillance Cameras. And see our special new portal section of links about Mortimer Cook's original towns of Bug and Sedro and the very early days of the little village that was located where Riverfront Park stands today.       Important: This is our Free Home Page. If you are looking for the full Contents Links for our Subscribers Magazine, check the current-issue link in your email or email us for it. Also note: some stories still have a Stumpranchonline prefix because we originally partnered with Dan Royal's fine website and we have not finished moving them. How to Navigate the Journal. Or use one or all of these routes below:

Follow these links below to portal sections of the areas and subjects that interest you:

Here is the first page that started it all for the Journal in 2000, page one of 800, which we passed on Jan. 2, 2012, updated, an introduction to the upper valley history, from Sterling to the Cascades.. Click on the underscored Sedro-Woolley link above for an interactive map showing the location of Skagit County at the far northwest corner of Washington and the United States.
Sedro-Woolley Check out Sedro-Woolley First Bug through Sedro-Woolley Reader questions answered Early timeline Founders Mortimer Cook — P.A. Woolley — 4 British bachelors.	Areas surrounding Sedro-Woolley in all 4 directions includes: Prairies, Duke's Hill, Northern State Hospital, Sterling, Skiyou, South of Skagit; Clearlake, Biglake, McMurray
Our monthly and occasional column: the Puget Sound Mail
Upper Skagit River: Utopia to Cascades includes: north of Skagit from Utopia to the dams and Cascades, Sauk River-Illabot Creek area, and the creeks of Skagit's south shore	West Skagit County: Hwy 99 to Sound includes: Mount Vernon to Belfast, west to Fidalgo, south to LaConner/Fir Island/Conway, north to Burlington, Blanchard, Edison, Alger & Samish

Logging Section includes: mills, donkey engines, equipment and logging railroads Maps … Mining Washington & other counties Whatcom, the mother county 'til 1883 Snohomish County, home of early Skagit pioneers

The trains of the Northwest includes: Fairhaven & Southern; Seattle & Northern; Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Puget Sound & Baker River, and more . . . Interurban

Skagit County stories that are countywide, that involve more than one town or more than one family and town or that do not fit in any other county portal . . . Transcribed County Histories . . . Stories about the Skagit River     Floods history

Bios and obits, men and women, pioneers and descendants . . . 36 Ray Jordan Yarns stories . . . Memoirs by pioneers & descendants

Frontier Women includes: Territorial Daughters, and biographies of and by pioneer women Food & Wine . . . Prohibition, liquor . . . Very short stories in Odds and Ends Portal

Suggested reading and museums Library: Recommended reading, bibliography Transcriptions old newspapers Regional Museums

this photo of Safeway and Lentz Farm Supply is just one of 91 that are shared in the Tella-Pix section of the Courier-Times, in Issue 59.       Optional Subscribers Journal online — Click here for a peek at these new issues: Issue 59, December 2011 Courier-Times Tella-Pix photo features from 1950s-'70s *Part 1, Clothing Stores and others *Part 2, Autos, service stations and others *Part 3, Grocers, Furniture stores, TV, Appliances, Jewelers and others *Part 4, Restaurants, Food, Dug Stores and others *Part 5, Professionals, Hardware, Barbers, Beauty Salons Journal History of early Sedro, Woolley and Sedro-Woolley schools, completely revised: *Part 1: Pre-Sedro (1883-1890) *Part 2: Sedro, Woolley & Barefoot Schoolboy Law History of the late, great and truly grand Fairhaven Hotel (1890-1955) *The Rise and Fall of the once-majestic Fairhaven Hotel, circa 1890s, a 1965 memory. With other history items about Fairhaven. *The 1953 Washington Territorial Centennial Museum, set up in the aging, amputated Fairhaven Hotel, just weeks before the wrecking ball came swinging in. More Issue 59 features *Norm Lisherness, Sedro-Woolley's beloved chief of police. *New information discovered about one of Woolley's most influential early leaders, George Green, who attracted at least 75 more emigrants from Lincoln Center, Kansas, the town he founded. His son-in-law Emerson Hammer became state senator from Skagit county. *John Savage, Birdsview painter, son of George Savage, whose autobiography he shared Issue 58, November 2011: Joseph F. Dwelley, Whidbey and Skagit pioneer, 1870 *Our new portal section to the Dwelley and Maloy families, three generations of pioneers. *Introduction to Joseph F. Dwelley and our Discovery of the Decade, the original 1933 manuscript of his autobiography *Kate Dwelley Maloy, interviewed by Lucile McDonald in 1959, re: her family Portal to all Lucinda and Glee Davis family links *Dolly Connelly's 1955 Seattle Times article about the Davises and their life in the mountains as well as later years in Sedro-Woolley. *The North Cascades and future Hwy 20 *Glee Davis' manuscript from his days at Cedar Bar in the North Cascades: "A Dugout *Canoe Over Sour Dough Mountain" *1948, 1959 and 1967 predictions of the "North Cross-State Highway," now Hwy 20, by Glee Davis and the Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times. More Issue 58 features *Joseph H. Sartwell, first permanent, Skagit settler, 1863, South fork *New portal section to all our stories and research about the earliest settlers in what is now Skagit county *Photo tour of Gilbert Landre's famous 1892 cabin/hotel near Cascade Pass. *1940: Skagit soil rated the best in the nation *The Bingham family of old Sedro attracted more relatives and emigrants from Marengo, Iowa *"See Mud on Tree — Build Higher" — how that phrase came about, between Upper Skagit Indians and 1878 Sedro pioneer Joseph Hart

You can read the history websites about our prime sponsors Would you like information about how to join them in advertising? We cannot emphasize how we need such support for our accelerated research journeys of 2012-13 for books and many more stories. Our newest sponsor, Plumeria Bay, is based in Birdsview, just a short walk away from the Royal family's famous Stumpranch, and is your source for the finest down comforters, pillows, featherbeds & duvet covers and bed linens. Order directly from their website and learn more about this intriguing local business. Oliver-Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 88 years. Peace and quiet at the Alpine RV Park, just north of Marblemount on Hwy 20, day, week or month, perfect for hunting or fishing Park your RV or pitch a tent by the Skagit River, just a short drive from Winthrop or Sedro-Woolley Check out Sedro-Woolley First section for links to all stories and reasons to shop here first or make this your destination on your visit or vacation. Are you looking to buy or sell a historic property, business or residence? We may be able to assist. Email us for details.

Looking for something special on our site? Enter name, town or subject, then press "Find" Search this site powered by FreeFind     Did you find what you were seeking? We have helped many people find individual names or places, so email if you have any difficulty.

Tip: Put quotation marks around a specific name or item of two words or more, and then experiment with different combinations of the words without quote marks. We are currently researching some of the names most recently searched for — check the list here. Maybe you have searched for one of them?

See this Journal Timeline website of local, state, national, international events for years of the pioneer period. Did you enjoy this story? Remember, as with all our features, this story is a draft and will evolve as we discover more information and photos. This process continues as we compile and collaborate on books about Northwest history. Can you help? And also remember; we welcome correction, criticism and additions to the record. Please report any broken links or files that do not open and we will send you the correct link. With more than 700 features, we depend on your report. Thank you. Read about how you can order CDs that include our photo features from the first ten years of our Subscribers Edition. Perfect for gifts. Will be completed in 2012. View My Guestbook Sign My Guestbook

You can click the donation button to contribute to the rising costs of this site. See many examples of how you can aid our project and help us continue for another ten years. You can also subscribe to our optional Subscribers-Paid Journal magazine online, which has entered its 12th year with exclusive stories, in-depth research and photos that are shared with our subscribers first. You can go here to read the preview edition to see examples of our in-depth research or read how and why to subscribe. Our research trips in 2012-13 depend on this income.