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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Free Home Page Stories & Photos
The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit
Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness

Noel V. Bourasaw, editor

810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp

Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

Books we love to read
reviews, mini-reviews and links

These books are sometimes available at Easton's and Tattered Page bookstores in Mount Vernon, and the latter has that necessity for all fine bookstores, kitty-cats. If the books are out of print, both stores will attempt to find you a copy or you can look on the Internet. The Roost bookstore in Sedro-Woolley also carries a general collection of thousands of used books. Michael's Used Books in Bellingham and Village Books in Fairhaven are also excellent sources. We especially encourage readers to email and share information about history books that they especially enjoy.

Categories: Skagit and Whatcom counties . . . Cascades . . . Pacific Northwest
Washington state . . . United States . . . Historical Fiction and Novels
Under construction May 2; the other categories are being added; many more books

Skagit and Whatcom counties

Illustrated History of Skagit & Snohomish Counties, 1906. Half subscription history, but the other half is good solid research of the newspaper morgues (bound volumes) of that day, and extensive interviews of pioneers who were still alive and their descendants. This is the bible for all of us here in the Northwest corner.
Yarns of the Skagit country (Ray's Writin's), Jordan, Ray; Sedro-Woolley: Self-published, 1974. Ray Jordan came to Sedro-Woolley as a child in 1902 with his family. His first years were spent sleeping on a bed laid over boxes of dynamite for clearing stumps on the old Mortimer Cook ranch on the Olympia Marsh. Over 70 years time he talked with almost every pioneer here and their descendants. This is an absolute nugget and very rare. Journal website with links to 30 chapters from his book.
Logging Railroads in Skagit County, Dennis B. Thompson; Seattle: Northwest Short Line, 1989. The first comprehensive History of the Logging Railroads in Skagit County, Washington. Thompson started exploring the woods with his father Blake and his Uncle Dale when he was a kid and he was always fascinated by the remnants of rails and roadbeds that honeycombed the woods of Skagit County. This magnificent book is the result of more than 20 years of collecting photos and stories, and is luckily now in its second printing. The photographs of old logging trains are breathtaking, and are supplemented by illustrations by E.L. Hauff and wonderful maps of the county by R. Dale Jost, M.D., along with diagrams of each logging railroad system and inventories of equipment that are amazing. A second printing is now available.
The Fourth Corner (Highlights from the early Northwest), Edson, Lelah Jackson, Bellingham: Craftsman Press, 1968. Miss Edson carefully explains how settlers built Bellingham from a chain of four villages along Bellingham Bay. Along the way she explains who was behind the train system of the Northwest. Her biographies of early movers and shakers are priceless. The book includes many of the early Skagit county leaders, since Skagit was part of Whatcom county until November 1983.
Living High, Burn, June, 1941. This book is available used in both hardbound and softbound editions. If you have never read June Burn, she is a special treat. She and her husband homesteaded the last available island in the San Juans in the early '20s. She later wrote a marvelous Bellingham Herald column in the early 1930s called Puget Soundings, which we quote often and which she later turned into her own magazine. She interviewed many of the living pioneers in Washington and Alaska, both Caucasian and Indian, and combined both her own autobiography with the sense of place she developed in her new found land.
So They Called the Town "Concrete," By Charles Dwelley, 1980. One of the finest weekly newspaper editors profiles his town that grew out of two cement manufacturing companies, drawing from his half century at the helm of the local paper.
Last Frontier in the North Cascades, Will D. "Bob" Jenkins, , LaConner: Skagit County Historical Society, 1984. Mr. Jenkins tells first-hand stories of his experience growing up in the mountains. His stories range from humorous tales about the mountain men to amazing descriptions of how people there transported goods and essential materials. He tells about miners, trappers, loggers and even a wonderful story about George Holmes, the black ex-slave who cut a new swath as Cascades mountain man. This, along with Skagit Settlers, is the best of the series by the society. It is also available at the museum gift shop in LaConner. Also look for Jenkins's book about British Columbia, Chilcotin Diary.
Looking Back. Galen Biery and Dorothy Koert, 1981. This work, originally in two volumes, has recently been reprinted in one volume. It is a tremendous overall history of early Bellingham and Whatcom County, along with profiles of the pioneers.
Skagit Memories (Stories of the settlement years as written by the Pioneers themselves, Charles M. Dwelley & Helen May Dwelley, Mount Vernon: Skagit County Historical Society, 1979. This sixth book in a historical series by the Skagit County Historical Society is the best in many ways. Charles Dwelley was the son of one of the most important pioneer families of LaConner and Mount Vernon and his experience as publisher of the Concrete Herald lends an upriver perspective that is unique in the series. It is a collection of memoirs, letters, documents and photos, straight from the horse's mouth. Each of these books in this series is for sale at the Skagit County Historical Museum in LaConner.
Three books by the ace Northwest author, Percival R. Jeffcott, who recorded regional and Whatcom County history in the middle of the 20th Century. Blanket Bill Jarman, about the earliest permanent White settler in the Northwest (and links there to a whole section about Jarman). Chechaco and Sourdough about the pioneers of eastern Whatcom County who were drawn here by the prospect of gold and minerals. Nooksack Tales & Trails about the earliest Whatcom County pioneers.
Boulevard Park, Brian Griffin, Bellingham: Knox Cellars Publishing, 2007. The first book-length history in the 21st Century of Southside Bellingham and the park that resulted from the efforts of the Rotary Club. Inside, you will learn about the early railroads of the Northwest and profiles of the 19th Century pioneers. A full Journal review will be posted soon.
Samish Island, Fred and Sue Miller. The definitive history of the delta of the Samish River, this book is the result of original research by the Millers, who make Samish Island their home.
Kinsey Photographer (A half century of negatives by Darius and Tabitha May Kinsey), Bohn, Dave & Rodolfo Petschek, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1982. Kinsey was the finest artist that Sedro-Woolley produced and his photography has become a symbol for the days that brawny men felled the forests of the Northwest counties and locomotives carried them to market. The authors record Darius and his partner/wife Tabitha and their family in Volume I, with the help of their daughter Dorothea. In Volume II they work with Darius Jr. to present some of the finest of the 4,500 negatives that miraculously survived the decades from 1905 to 1975. After seeing the results of the authors' work, it is difficult to understand the indifference of publishers who could not see the value of the Kinsey collection until these two fine men showed them. Volume III: The Locomotive Portraits (sometimes in a separate edition), contains the photos of trains that Darius chased into the wilderness and forest, with an assistant lugging hundreds of pounds of equipment behind him, while Tabitha was back home in the darkroom on Talcott street. Journal website
My Best-Loved Stories, by Mollie Dowdle. The most-read voice of the Tarheels who emigrated to Skagit County, by one of them who was born back in North Carolina. Journal portal to all our transcribed Mollie stories.
Hamilton 100 Years, Bates, Carol, ed. . Hamilton: Hamilton Pioneer Museum, 1991. Written for the centennial of this upriver town, this book is a fine example of what townsfolk can do when they put their minds to it. Ms. Bates and her family and many other residents collected photos, documents and newspaper stories that tell the development of the town and profile most of the families who formed it. Hamilton and Sedro were officially born the same day, but Hamilton dates back to the arrival upriver of William Hamilton in 1877-78 and his hotel he built to accommodate the travelers and miners who chugged upriver on sternwheelers after the logjams were cleared in Mount Vernon. Read how Hamilton was once touted as the "Pittsburgh" of the West. William Hamilton, like Mortimer Cook of Sedro, kind of fell through the cracks of history, but his descendants have found us over the Internet and are supplying information that will illustrate the life of this fascinating pioneer and his family. This book is getting very rare. You can phone Ms. Bates for one of the handful of new copies left: (360) 826-6709.
The Nooksacht's Trail and Crossing by James Berg. The story of the settlement of Whatcom County outside of Bellingham, by a descendant of one of the earliest pioneers.
Skagit Schoolma'am, Elizabeth Duncan, 1990. Miss Duncan writes the best description of how a young girl became a teacher at the turn of the 20th Century, on assignments in Skagit County towns. A full Journal review will be posted soon.
The Northwest Coast, James G. Swan, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1857. Swan was one of the first to settle on Washington Territory's wild Pacific Coast. Leaving family in the East, he became a government official, an author and a historical recorder when not occupied drinking toasts to his new home. A full Journal review will be posted soon.
Frank Wilkeson and his New York Times columns about his Washington state and Skagit experiences at the end of the 19th century.
Memories of Clear Lake, 1914-32, Charles "Chuck," Hyatt. Chuck was a tremendous source for memories and details about Clear Lake, Sedro-Woolley and Skagit county until his death five years ago. He told stories that came from his heart and life experience. His friend, Clear Lake historian Deanna Ammons, arranged to have Chuck's memoirs assembled in a book, which is available in some retail stores or you can order it directly from Deanna and the Clear Lake Museum, PO Box 182, Clear Lake, WA 98235-0182 . . . Email: pda98235@earthlink.net . . . Phone: (360)-856-6798
Chechacos All, the pioneering of Skagit, Willis, Margaret, ed., Mount Vernon: Skagit County Historical Society, 1973. This third book in a historical series by the Skagit County Historical Society tells how pioneers discovered and settled Skagit county. Its explanation of how the river was formed since the last ice age is especially important. Chechaco was a Chinook Jargon word for newcomer. The book helps explain that a pioneer's wealth could provide for a nicer home, but each family had to prove up their claim and prove that they were capable of conquering the isolation and natural challenges of this "last frontier" of the U.S. Chechacos meant newcomer in the Chinook Jargon trading language used by Indians and white traders in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Skagit Settlers (Trials and Triumphs, 1890-1920), Margaret Willis, ed., Mount Vernon: Skagit County Historical Society, 1975. This fourth book in a historical series by the Skagit County Historical Society gives a concise overview of each town and village of the county, including those that are no more. It concentrates on the town building period and the era when logging dominated the upper river and when settlers diked the delta to produce record crops.
Sedro-Woolley, a photograph collection edited by the Sedro-Woolley Museum is available in the museum gift store. Journal website about this book
Sterling>, a memoir by William Holtcamp, a descendant of one of the area's earliest pioneers, is available in the Sedro-Woolley Museum's gift store.
A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home, Phoebe Goodell Judson. This daughter of a key Washington Territory pioneer family, tells the history of the territory settlement from 1853 onwards and profiles her final home, Lynden, in Whatcom County.
Dan Harris Meets the Press, Ralph Thacker. Original research about the pioneer who began as an obscure settler in what would become his own town of Fairhaven. Journal website.
Wildcat, a River and its Family, Clarice Tingley. Part one is about Samuel S. Tingley, Maine native and one of Washington's and Skagit Valley's earliest pioneers and his unique shipbuilding and timber-cruising talent. Part Two is a modern account of how the author joined her husband at the wheel of a 20th Century tugboat. Journal Tingley website.
Two books from the Skagit Valley Herald book publishing department. First Views mainly about the earliest records of western Skagit County. Skagit Collection, assorted photographs from Skagit County's history.
My Ruthinda and Bessie, two self-published books about four generations of the amazing Mounts/Cornelius/Wallace/Rudene family by a family descendant. Includes the story of the 1840s wagon-train trek across the U.S., settling in Washington Territory, homesteading on Whidbey Island and finally their grand home on Pleasant Ridge, east of LaConner.
William Lighfoot Visscher, 1890s editor in Fairhaven and Tacoma and nationwide author and entertainer in the 19th and 20th centuries. One of Washington's pioneers who was equally famous on the national stage.
Orphans, Kirby, Ollie. Author Kirby visited Sedro-Woolley in 2000 when she published her book, which tells the story of six children who were born in Sedro-Woolley around the turn of the century. After their mother died, their father became fatally ill and arranged for them to be sent by train to Canada to live with relatives. The book has many twists and turns, including conniving relatives, abandonment and the story of how one of the orphans became a "Rosie the Riveter" during World War II. It also tells the story of the Gillis brothers, who built many houses here and published the early Skagit County Times, and one of them became a famous radio preacher. Update: the book may now be out of print, but we will search for copies for you if you cannot find it. Website
Booming and Panicking on Puget Sound, George Bacon, 1929 and 1970. Bacon described how the settlement and boom of northwestern Washington was financed in the late 19th century.
Samishgold Memories, Lawrence Hansen. Two memoirs by a man who grew up by and in the Skagit River, fishing it almost from the time of birth, and history of the Skagit County area.
Let the Chimes Ring Out History of Mount Vernon First Baptist Church (and Rev. B.N.L. Davis, 1873 pioneer), by Ed Pierce Jr. and Leigh Wilson. An excellent regional book that explains in detail how a frontier church began and gained strength as well as a congregation, all organized by Davis, who was legendary both as an itinerant minster and a businessman, wildly successful both in growing hops and as the first serious importer of pedigreed cattle.

Cascades

The North Cascadians, Roe, JoAnn, Seattle: Madrona Publishers, 1980. This wonderful book has long been one of my most trusted sources for information on our pioneers. It weaves a tremendous history of the North Cascades region in the counties of Whatcom, Skagit, Okanogan and Chelan. You'll read about the early pioneers, rapskallions who tried their best to rape the environment and its inhabitants — at least figuratively, the seldom-noted forest rangers, burly loggers and many other people who made such a mark on our area. Roe's more recent book, North Cascades Highway, is probably the best one that she has written. Once again, she trekked out into the mountains and sought out capsule descriptions of people and mines and towns on both sides of the Cascade range and in the mountains themselves. Check out her other books, including Ghost Towns and Boom Towns (Clear Lake, Cokedale and many others, all around Skagit County and the state) and Stevens Pass and Blakely Island, all excellent historical profiles and jam-packed with the results of her research and photos from the sites.
Impressions of the North Cascades, John C. Miles, ed. and Dale Hamilton, illustrations, 1996. "Essays about a Northwest landscape," written by people who hike and appreciate the North Cascades and the land around the mountains.Lake Chelan in the 1890s, by Robert Byrd.
Building the Skagit, Paul Pitzer, 1978. Long out of print, this slim book is a goldmine of information that resulted from Pitzer's research for his graduate thesis. You will find a terrific overview of the pioneers and their struggle to homestead and seek minerals in the North Cascades, with details about families like Lucinda Davis and her children, especially her son Glee.
Discovering Washington's Historic Mines: Volume 3, The Northern Cascades Mountains, by Woodhouse, Jacobson and Pisoni. A genuine treasure all about the attempts for the last century and a half to find treasure in the North Cascades. Excellent research led to profiles of every known mine and diggings, along with the principle miners. And the other books in the series cover other areas of the Cascades and Eastern Washington.
Poets on the Peaks, John Suiter, 2002. The story of lookouts on the Cascades fire towers in 1952-56, three of whom just happened to be the Beat poets Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen. One of the most important Beat/Kerouac books, it profiles them but most importantly it profiles the mountains like Hozomeen and Suiter shares his considerable research into the history of the Cascades.

Pacific Northwest

Two great relatively new Snohomish County history books, including Blake Warner's new book, Early Snohomish, a historical photo review like the book from the same publisher about Sedro-Woolley. And Snohomish County: An Illustrated History, by Cameron, LeWarne, O'Donnell, O'Donnell and May, 2005, the first comprehensive county history since the Illustrated History of Skagit & Snohomish Counties, 1906 and History of Snohomish County, 1926, two volumes, by William Whitfield. Packed with details and important research.
Utopians on Puget Sound, 1885-1915, Charles Pierce LeWarne, 1975. This is my main source for researching the many communes and colonies of Washington, including Equality Colony at Bow. A must-read for those seeking social and political history.
That Ribbon of Hishway III, Highway 99 through the Pacific Northwest, Jill Livingston, 2003. The best book-length history of that grand early highway that was originally called Sunset and stretched from Mexico to Vancouver, B.C.
John Muir, America's most famous environmentalist and quite a writer in his own right.
The Pig War, Michael Vouri, and an entire Journal section about this quaint, brief war on San Juan Island in 1859.
Valley of the Spirits, June McCormick Collins, Seattle: UW Press, 1974. My basic source on Indian tribes of the Northwest. My dear high school friend, Jon Jech, who also gave me the Tusko-headed cane that was vital during my cancer experience, gave me this book and I am eternally grateful, a holdover from his former West Seattle bookstore. Mrs. Collins was one of the earliest ethnographers of the modern era to live with Indian families in Skagit County for extended periods during the World War II. Trained professionally at the University of Chicago, she brought the academic discipline from that school when it was on the first rank of the nation, and she felt deeply as well as observing closely and recording carefully. You will likely enjoy her maps of historic Indian villages, her Lushootseed spelling and her social history.
Monte Cristo, Philip R. Woodhouse, 1979. Woodhouse, one of the authors of the Discovering mines series above, wrote the first book-length history of the Monte Cristo mining area as his first published work and it is still everyone's basic text on North Cascades mines. He found terrific photos and packs the books with details about the whole area of the Sauk and Suiattle rivers, and the region from Darrington south to Monte Cristo.
Lookouts, Firewatchers of the Cascades and Olympics, Ira Spring and Byron Fish, 1981. My basic resource on the fire lookout towers, this book includes extensive lists of the towers and the details and timeline of their construction.
Sexless Oysters and Self-Tipping Hats, 100 years of Invention in the Pacific Northwest, Adam Woog, 1991. A really fun book that also has historical nuggets. Dozens of Northwest inventions and inventors from plywood to the slinky toy, erector sets to Eddie Bauer's down jacket.

Washington State

Native Seattle, Histories from the Crossing-Over Place, Coll Thrush, Seattle: UW Press, 2007. Skagit County author Tom Robinson gave me this fine gift when I was in the hospital recuperating from cancer and a quarter way through I agreed with the reviewers' consensus that this is the finest book on the Indian experience of adapting from a rural to a village to an urban standard of living, with all the pains and tears that go with it. Thrush asserts that Seattle has the most in-depth Indian presence of any city in the country. The "Crossing-Over Place" was one of the more than a hundred Indian geographic places and names on special maps in the book, and the key place for Seattle. Located in the lagoon that lay where King Street Station is today, the Place was the beginning of a trail that went to roughly Leschi on the east and connected with another trail that sent south along Rainier Avenue to present Renton. This is a delight.
Skid Road, Murray Morgan, 1951. I wonder if Washington readers realized a little over a half century ago when this book was published that it would become the consensus most important book of our state history record, and that Murray Morgan would become the most revered history writer. Morgan (1916-2000) is the author we historians all try to emulate and this is the book that will tell you almost everything you need to know about historic Seattle from Doc Maynard to Asa Mercer's Girls to John Considine and the Box-Houses after the June 1889 great fire to Hiram Gill and Dave Beck after the turn of the century. Don't fail to read this. Another of Morgan's terrific books is Puget's Sound, A Narrative of Early Tacoma and the Southern Sound.
The Everett & Monte Cristo Railway, Jacobson, Woodhouse, Peterson, 2000. A terrific photo book with details of building one of the most troubled rail lines to mines far back in the Cascades.
Darrington's Mining Town/Timber Town, Elizabeth S. Poehlman, 1979. This is the definitive book about the history of this crossroads town in the North Cascades.
Digressions of a Native Son, Emmett Watson, 1982. Second only to Morgan as the area's most read and revered writer, Emmett Watson held court for nearly a half century at both of Seattle's newspapers. He launched the satirical Lesser Seattle and he would likely still be chortling if he were still here to see the Post-Intelligencer bite the dust in 2009. Emmett did not write this book in the traditional history mode, but it is instead autobiographical starting from the time he hoped to be a baseball player while growing up in Seattle and weaving in Seattle history along the way.
The Dry Years, Prohibition and Social Change in Washington, Norman H. Clark, 1965. The best source on the prohibition years in the Northwest, featuring terrific research. And Clark's earlier masterpiece, Mill Town, A Social History of Everett, 1970, for those who want to understand the boom and extreme bust of the town on Gardner Bay.
Bold Spirit, Linda Lawrence Hunt, 2003. The one book that we enthusiastically suggest to anyone who wants to understand what a woman's "place" was in the West during Victorian times, and how Helga Estby refused to be pigeonholed. She and her daughter walked across the country from their home in Spokane all the way to Manhattan after Helga's husband was injured and their home was about to be foreclosed in the worst U.S. Depression until the 1930s. A Norwegian immigrant and mother of nine, Helga accepted a challenge to walk across America from Spokane in 1896, and collect a wager that would save her family home.
Doc Maynard, Bil Speidel, 1978. If you ever met the late Mr. Speidel, then you know what a stubborn and quixotic businessman, researcher and writer he was. Bill rediscovered underground Seattle and created the tour there, which started at Pioneer Square and continued underneath on the old streets that predated the famous June 1889 fire. You could often find him at Shorey's wonderful bookstore, one of the few to seek out and carefully read the original documents that were brimming over in their stacks. Although the reader has to be very careful to check for corroboration on some of Speidel's material — he admitted that he occasionally created some dots, in between the original ones he found,. when he wanted to connect them all — Speidel also may have been the last person to actually research the original documents of famous Northwest events. In this book, he lionizes Maynard, and picks apart the sacred cows, Henry Yesler, Arthur Denny and Michael Simmons, and provides rare portrayals of the character of both Chief Seattle (Sealth, etc.) and Patkanim, the Snoqualmie chief who alternately bedeviled the settlers and at other times was of great aid. A great, fun book, which has no pretension about it. His other fine historic work is Sons of the Profits, 1967, his wicked satirical look at the pioneers who made it big, with digressions to profile those who failed or barely hung on or who were ostracized or ignored by the town fathers.
Century of Honor, Victor, Rae Anna. Victor profiles police officers in Washington state. This link will take you to the story of Carl Strom, the night watchman who was killed in the 1933 Bingham Bank robbery in Sedro-Woolley, which is included in the book. She also profiles Marshal Woodring of Hamilton, who died there.
Washington, Then and Now by Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard; Denver, Colorado: Westcliffe Publishers, 2007. Dorpat has become the "dean" of Washington history writers and last fall we celebrated his 70th birthday by telling him so at a grand dinner. Paul became instantly famous and infamous in 1967 when he teamed up with the late Walt Crowley to publish the alternative newspaper, the Seattle Helix. In the four decades since then, he has published several books with then-and-now photos, he has spoken to groups all over the Northwest and he has written a then-and-now photo column for the Seattle Times for nearly 20 years. All the while filling parts of his two homes to the gunwales with historical photos, slides and documents. In other words, he has paid his dues and has given back many-fold. See Dorpat's other oversize photo book, Building Washington, A History of Washington state Public Works, with Genevieve McCoy, his long-time collaborator and a Holy Names graduate (the most famous alumnus?). Nearly a thousand photos of Washington's historic buildings, structures and curios.
Canoe and Saddle, Theodore Winthrop, 1863. After an extensive trip around Washington by canoe with Indians and on horseback to the Okanogan and east of the Cascades, Winthrop published this book, which has become a staple for those hoping to understand the early Territorial days. He is the namesake for the town at the eastern side of the North Cascades on Highway 20 that has become almost a theme town for the Old West.
Algonquin Elegy, Tom Tompson's Last Spring, Neil J. Lehto, 2005. If you have not yet been introduced to Alice Elinor Lambert, the eccentric almost centenarian writer who spent her last half century in Darrington, please visit these sites. She was just a name to us and almost unknown outside of Snohomish County, but she and her pioneer-educator father both left deep marks on their environment. Tompson became the most famous landscape painter in his native Canada years after his mysterious death on an Algonquin lake in 1917, which Lehto expertly reviews with a historical fiction format. Tompson spent about two years here just after 1900 and had a brief affair with Alice, likely the love of her life. She became a confidant of the famous Bedal sisters of the Monte Cristo area, daughter of the mysterious homesteader, "James" Bedal, who married Susie, the daughter of the last famous Sauk-Suiattle Indian chief, Wawetkin.
Port Townsend, Thomas W. Camfield, 2002 "The City that Whiskey Built" and "Shanghaiing, Shipwrecks, Soiled Doves and Sundry Souls." An old-time weekly newspaper journalist, Camfield published these two volumes after he retired and they include documents and photos that make his books the most comprehensive history yet of the town that was one of the most famous of the young Washington Territory in the 1850s and '60s. Packed with details and results of his extensive research and written in a social rather than dry academic style. I depend on these books a lot.
The Smiling Country, Sally Portman, 1993. Portman wrote this short overview of Okanogan County history and focused on the Methow River Valley where she and her husband moved in 1977.
Roots and Branches, David M. Buerge and Junius Rochester, 1988. You may remember Junius Rochester from his years as a broadcaster on National Public Radio. He has a keen historical sense and grew up next to Denny-Blaine park in Seattle. They published this terrific basic history of Washington churches in 1988 under the auspices of the Seattle Church Council. We hooked up with Rochester again in 2008 when he and I spoke at the 100th birthday party for Edward R. Murrow in Blanchard.
Time, Tide & Timber (the history of Pope & Talbot and Port Gamble, Bibbs and Conan, 1978. Thank you, David Cunningham, now gone these ten years, my best man and my best friend. I still miss you.
Nothing Like it in the World, Stephen E. Ambrose, 2000. The story of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads and how they joined in Utah in 1869 to form the first truly transcontinental railroad. The story of the four titans, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford and Collis Huntington, who became rich off the line, and Theodore Judah who did not, but died trying.
Sketchbook, a Memoir of the '30s and the Northwest School (of art and painting), William Cumming, 1984. Cumming's autobiographical history of the painters who were originally linked by the WPA arts program of the Depression years and how he lived with, painted with and argued with the painters who rose to the top of the school, including Mark Tobey and Morris Graves, the most famous; Lubin Petric, the most erratic and impossible to control, but also brilliant; and all the others. Many wound up in LaConner and northwest Washington, including Guy Anderson and Richard Gilkey. We will soon connect this book with a Skagit County arts colony of two decades later, Fishtown, on the North Fork of the Skagit where the river meets the Sound (or Whulge, as the Indians called it).
The Last Spike, The Great Railway, 1881-85, Pierre Berton, 1971. Our railroad section is one of the best read and this new book adds more to it. If you are fascinated with James J. Hill's triumphant march west on the iron rails of what became the Great Northern, this book will explain his Canadian roots and what transpired to help him build his empire.
Washington's Centennial Farms, Yesterday and Today, 1989. Farms all over the state are profiled here, including some of the historic farms of the Skagit Valley.
Profanity Hill, Irene Burns Miller, 1979. The story of pioneers on Yesler Hill above Skid Road in old Seattle, overlooking what was once a lagoon at the mouth of the Duwamish River.
This Was Logging, Ralph W. Andrews, 1954. After World War II, Andrews met aerial photographer Jesse Ebert, who by then owned almost all of the work of Sedro-Woolley's early acclaimed photographer, Darius Kinsey. Andrews published this book with many of Kinsey's photos from the early logging days and went on to publish nearly two dozen more like it, which still form the nucleus of many loggers' libraries.
The Stanwood Story, Alice Essex, ed., four volumes. Published by Stanwood's excellent historical society, this series provides photos and many details of the early settlement of the Stillaguamish River delta, Camano Island and the towns of Florence and Centerville/Stanwood.
The Saxon Story, Marie Hamel Royer, 1982. This regional history stands heads above many of its kind, describing the land and the people of the area north of Sedro-Woolley and east of Bellingham, in Whatcom County.
Seattle, Past to Present, Roger Sale, 1976. Another good basic history of Seattle and King County.
Island in the Sound (Anderson Island), Hazel Heckman, 1967. This is a journal about a family who moved to Puget Sound from Oklahoma after World War II and made Anderson Island their home. The story about the duck and the slugs alone makes this worth the price of admission..

United States

What Happened When, Gordon Carruth, 1991. Our basic reference work, quite a compendium of a chronology of Life and Events in the United States over 400 years.
The Civil War Dictionary, Mark M. Boatner III, 1959. Another great basic reference work for the researcher.
Imperial San Francisco, Urban Power, Earthly Ruin, Gray Brechin, 1999. This has become our favorite overall history of The City by the bay where we lived for many years. Brechin researched and profiled the highlights of San Francisco history along with some obscure events and the personalities like the DeYoung brothers who made this a rollicking town for the past 160 years.
Frontier Women is not a book. It is an extensive portal section in the Journal where you will find argument the most extensive history of Washington and Skagit County in Washington history websites from a woman's point of view.

Historical Fiction and Novels

The Women, T.C. Boyle, 2009. This is a fun fictional narrative of the three wives and the mistress of America's most famed architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, including second wife, the spitfire Miriam Noel, and mistress Mamah Cheney, who was hacked to death by their Barbados handyman before he set afire Wright's dream home, Taliesin, in Wisconsin.
The Living, Annie Dillard, 1992. The Pulitzer Prize winner for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Dillard wrote this historical novel about early Whatcom and Bellingham Bay while living in the San Juan archipelago in the 1980s.

Links, background reading and sources

Our favorite history books and suggestions for further reading, including an index to all our reviews. Completely updated and expanded in May 2009 with dozens of reviews, mini-reviews and links to full-length features about Journal book features.
Transcriptions of old newspapers
Introduction to the Library Portal, where you will links to our dozens of pages about book reviews, mini-reviews, logs of old newspapers and magazines and collections of historic documents.

Story posted on April 1, 2001, last updated May 1, 2009
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See this Journal website for a timeline of local, state, national, international events for years of the pioneer period.

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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

Joy's Sedro-Woolley Bakery-Cafe at 823 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley.

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Books we love to read reviews, mini-reviews and links

Books we love to read
reviews, mini-reviews and links