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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

Journal editor hospitalized
A brief letter from your editor

We apologize for shocking you last week by announcing our recent hospitalization. No one was any more surprised than your humble country editor when he was wheeled out of the ER and admitted to a hospital ward. And surprise turned to shock when two days turned into two weeks and counting.
The upshot of it all is a diagnosis of prostate cancer. The good news is that a terrific team of doctors addressed the problem, immediately inserted a pin in my femur to stabilize it and they are immediately beginning a radiation program to neutralize the cancer.
Now that the shock has subsided, this all answers the lingering illness we have experienced over the last year or so. Those of you who know us know that we have been physically unable to keep up with the ambitious schedule at times. We have to reassess some priorities and make time for recuperation and rest. But we are confident that we can now maintain the site on a realistic schedule and fulfill our obligations to readers and subscribers.
Meanwhile we are grateful to the many well-wishers who have contacted us and encouraged us with positive thoughts and advice for such a time. Over the next three weeks we may be confined to another location for our therapy. We do not want to burden the facility with phone calls, so we ask you instead to email us with questions and reminders and suggestions for stories, and that you have patience as we wade through a very high stack of mail. We are learning once again the virtues of humility and patience and we appreciate all your concern
We share with you below some of the images that helped keep our mind off the scary stuff of the past couple of weeks. Years ago, when a much older friend volunteered for hospice, she shared with me her "summoning of thoughts and reasons" that she shared with those who were tired and lonely and at the end of their physical tether, and needed inspiration to open their eyes one last morning, and then maybe one more. As my body mends here in the healing house, and the big, bad Mr. C. recedes further towards the background, I am of course thankful that I have not come to that terminal point in my own odyssey, but I've thought about it a lot as I've met patients in here, especially the children, who are just about stretched to the breaking point.
Following my friend's lead, I share with them the opening of a poem by Robert Sund, a splendid human being who lived in an old shack on the north fork of the Skagit River for several years at an unincorporated commune called Fishtown, and developed into a poet of international note before giving up the ghost, himself.
One of his lifelines, a vein that circulated the blood that his body, brain and heart needed the most, was the image of the Snow Goose and Trumpeter swan, subjects of several of his poems and meditations. Centuries ago, these swans and their Tundra brother-species were ubiquitous all over the river valleys of the United States. But the approach of concrete and toxic things have narrowed the feeding and breeding grounds to the point that the Skagit River Valley is the last place where they can be seen in great profusion, dancing vertically, chatting over the tops of cat-tails, and scatting as if Dexter Gordon were playing his saxophone in the center of their snow-white circle, once in November and then back in February and March for one more curtain call.
The sound of their trumpets is one of my earliest memories, from the time I was a toddler, after we drove the old blue 1946 Plymouth out west from Middletown, Missouri, to the Skagit River. I can still recall the Doppler effect, the murmuring overture of their instruments as we drove up the hill on Swan Road and then crossed the summit. Here they are below. Does this look like a good reason to open your eyes just one more time?

http://www.trumpeterswansociety.org/	Courtesy Duke Conrad/Click thumbnail for larger image
Courtesy Duke Conrad/Click thumbnail for larger image	Ish River "Ish River" — like breath, like mist rising from a hillside. Duwamish, Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Samish, Skokomish, Skykomish . . . all the ish rivers. I live in Ish River country between two mountain ranges where many rivers run down to an inland sea. &mdash Robert Sund

Story posted on March 18, 2009 . . . Please report any broken links so we can update them

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Skagit River Journal

Journal editor hospitalized A brief letter from your editor

Journal editor hospitalized
A brief letter from your editor