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Skagit River JournalFree 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 |
810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug |
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Thanks to David Wilma and Priscilla Long of historylink.org, we have one of those whiz-bang photos that only computer cognoscenti know how to compose. Hint: it takes a lot of work and we are very grateful. They recently took a photo, looking north on Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley and matched it nearly seamlessly to a circa-1910-to-1922 postcard of the exact same view. We know the date range because in the latter year, the Knights of Pythias Lodge added two more stories to their building in the left center of the photo, as you will see when it transforms before your eyes. The Princess Theater was then on the ground floor and present-owner Paul Kelly, of Cascade Fabrics, has designed his store to retain the old projection booth. Just to the left was the post office, which Skagit Realty also erected in 1910 on the location where it stood until the present post office was erected in 1939. Click on the postcard photo above to see the whizbang version; we did not upload it here because — Warning! — it takes a long while to upload for those dial-up users like me. If anyone else has "Then and Now" photos like this, please email us. HistoryLink is the most important history resource on the web in Washington state. |
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The four British bachelors who staked out homesteads from future-Sedro to Sterling, starting in 1878, Batey, Hart, Dunlop and Woods. Read our exclusive two-part story on Birdsey Minkler, his mill, his family and the upper Skagit river that results from ten years of research and correspondence with his descendents.. P.A. Woolley, profile of his family and his company town. Introduction to and biography of Mortimer Cook, founder of Bug/Sedro. See 6 rare old photos about the 3 trains in the famous 1890s Sedro-Woolley triangle Samuel Simpson Tingley, Washington Territory pioneer of 1859, who settled on the north fork of the Skagit in 1867 and then Day Creek in 1880. The story of the Hammer, Green and Parker families who made such an impact on Sedro-Woolley and Lincoln, Kansas, and inspired the new Hammer Heritage Square. Transcription of two pages from the Dec. 1, 1949, issue of the Courier-Times, which includes photos and details of the severe flood; plus history of the Wildcat Steelhead Club, the first Great Northern passenger in 17 years; and how violinist Floyd Maxwell bagged his fifth deer despite losing an arm and both legs; plus several more stories. And old Newspaper Logs with links to all our transcriptions on the site, dating from 1878 on. Amasa Peg-Leg Everett, the 1870s settler who discovered coal, lost a leg and then discovered the limestone that led to the cement companies and Baker City/Concrete. Timeline of Sedro and Woolley through the merger in 1898. We know that Sedro and Woolley merged in December 1898 but did you know that the city council voted to consolidate the towns as early as 1891? Who was The Duke of Duke's Hill? The real story versus the many myths. And read about Bottomless Lake, where he lived, and see a photo essay about the lake, where many pioneer kids learned to swim. James B. Hamilton, 1900 clerk for Bingham's Woolley bank. And his Baker Lake-pioneer parents, Frank and Adelaide Hamilton Frank Wilkeson, mining engineer, civil war veteran and author and boomer who lived in Hamilton, Fairhaven and Chelan from the 1880s to 1900 and whose New York Times columns put Skagit County on the national map. Our exclusive profile of Harrison Clothier and the birth of Mount Vernon, the town he founded with Edward G. English in 1877 — Part one — Part two, featuring English, will come in 2008. Closing Northern State Hospital: we reprint articles from the 1968-78 time period when the hospital was being closed and then reborn as a different facility. And the introduction to the Northern State portal, one of the three most popular sections. As we watch the magnificent McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon host a varied entertainment venue, readers often inquire about where the endowment came from that paid for the building. The seed money came after the death of an old friend and a truly generous man, Jack McIntyre. Read about his family and the Skagit Steel business at this introduction site, with a timeline for the business from 1902 and links to other stories about the business and the family of David G. McIntyre, Sedro-Woolley's visionary from Michigan and truly a giant of Washington industry. Gertrude Sawyer, nurse and matron at the old Memorial Hospital in Sedro-Woolley. See the extensive list of all Sedro-Woolley-related stories in our Check out Sedro-Woolley First section. We are updating our Hamilton History section this winter. Here is the link to the Introduction site. We hope that readers will help us as we update the present stories and add new chapters about historic Hamilton families. Three readers' favorites of Skagit County humor features — Otto Klement: Hogtied! Good ole boys in 1882 Lyman — devil rum, hijinks and cooking a pig . . . Frank Wilkeson — Two hobos of old Bug/Sedro, from the Dec. 14, 1890, New York Times. From Whatcom County and Fairhaven. Our own research about the apocryphal Consolidated Black Cat Co. Ltd., the most famous story about Mr. Wardner while he lived in Fairhaven. He fooled a gullible reporter and several subsequent historians and story-tellers by referring to Sam Weller, a fictional character from The Pickwick Papers. The Big Snow of March 1916, when Skagit county was shut off from the outside world for a month and the Skagit river was frozen over. Snow drifted 5 feet high in old Woolley. Including Ray Jordan's memories of the 1916 snow. The Mother of all Skagit Floods, 1815 through the twin floods of 1896-97 and the two November 1990 floods that may have been the worst in tandem. Larry Kunzler and Dan Berentson launch a new website that explores Skagit river floods in depth — past, present and future. See the links to the huge collection of documents that they have posted that include hundreds of newspaper articles from throughout the 20th century. In 1958, Otto Pressentin recalled the 1897 Skagit River flood that wiped out several downriver towns and how he helped save the books and bell from the Marblemount School where he was teaching. Part 4 of the Otto B.C. Series, 1911-21. Plus, we have now found the complete article that started the series, from April 24, 1958. |
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May 3 and 4, 1 p.m., 15th Alabama Civil War reenactors stage mock battle at Marblemount. You can also tour their bivouac area near the North Cascades Business Association Building and watch them drill from 10-12 both mornings. Phone (360) 873-4150 or 873-2103 for details. May 17, 1 p.m., Bow Church of Christ in downtown Bow. Third Annual Bow History Project, where guests are encouraged to bring documents and photos of Bow and the area. No admission cost and refreshments will be served. For details, phone (360) 766-6339 or 766-6070. Thanks to all the history lovers who attended our Concrete History Show on Feb. 16, the best one so far, and Lynn Lennox's April 27 100th birthday party for Edward R. Murrow. We are now planning for a Mount Vernon show at 2 p.m., June 14. We will announce the location soon. The first half will be a presentation of photos and drawings of the original old town, before the fires of 1891 and 1900. The second half will be a walkabout of the revetment area, the scene of Main and Front streets and the original steamboat dock, where development is being planned. Please email if you would like to attend and if you have documents or photos that you would like to share or display. The Skagit Valley Genealogical Society hosts the State Genealogical Society Conference, annual meeting and seminars over two days, May 16-17, 2008, at the First United Methodist Church, 1607 E. Division St., Mount Vernon. See the SVGS website for details of how the public can attend informative seminars on how to study genealogy and family trees, from the novice to the very committed. We are pleased to announce that the new Hammer Heritage Square sign was installed on July 3, 2006, at the downtown park. It is made of bronze and weighs several hundred pounds, and cost $13,000, according to Mark Christ, architect. |
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(In photo at right) June Burn, one of the finest Northwest writers, circa 1940s. See the Frontier Women section for the links to her biography, her book, Living High and her 1930s columns about the 1858 Fraser River gold rush. |
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If you have documents or photos that you would like to show the editor, please email so that we can meet in Sedro-Woolley at your convenience, or elsewhere. Also keep in mind that you can attend our history photos shows and show your material to the editor and other history lovers. Our next show is planning for 2:45-5 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 19, 2007. Read more details here. |
After we complete our CD project, we would like to launch our satellite site, the Washington and British Columbia Travel Advisor. Do any of you remember the International Loop Magazine. We edited it back in the 1990s and described that wonderful 400-mile trip across the North Cascades on Highway 20 from Sedro-Woolley to the Columbia River, via Winthrop and Pateros, then up through Okanogan County to Osoyoos and British Columbia, and west on Canada One through Princeton and Hope and Chilliwack, and back down Highway 9 or I-5 to Skagit County, and all the little historic towns along the way in both countries, all with their own stories? Readers have requested a reprise, so watch for it. Do you have any information or photos to add, or do you have a town you want to learn more about? We would also like to spawn soon a section on the history of wine and vineyards of Washington, contrasted with the exploding number of wineries from less than 40 to well more than 100, in just 30 years. Our plans will be influenced by your interest in either or both ideas. Please email if you would like to see them and if there are particular subjects that would interest you in either spinoff site. |
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Would you like information about how to join them? Jones and Solveig Atterberry, NorthWest Properties Aiken & Associates: . . . See our websitePlease let us show you residential and commercial property in Sedro-Woolley and Skagit County 2204 Riverside Drive, Mount Vernon, Washington . . . 360 708-8935 . . . 360 708-1729 Oliver Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 86 years. Joy's Sedro-Woolley Bakery-Cafe at 823 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley. Check out Sedro-Woolley First section for links to all stories and reasons to shop here firstor 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. Peace and quiet at the Alpine RV Park, just north of Marblemount on Hwy 20Park your RV or pitch a tent by the Skagit River, just a short drive from Winthrop or Sedro-Woolley |
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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? |
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