New features posted most recently:
 | Click for the Concrete Theatre story
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- The Audette sons take over from their father in the continuing evolution of the Big Rock Store into the Big Rock Store/Café.
- What's New in Concrete, including the reopening of the historic Concrete Theatre on Feb. 12, 2010.
- Have you read our introduction to our planned Food & Wine portal? Bold and old Zinfandel from Sausal Winery in Sonoma County.
- Become a history detective. Join the NW Washington History Detective Meet-up group, based in Sedro-Woolley, members sharing history discoveries.
- Introducing our new weekly journal within the Journal (but please let's not call it a blog), the Puget Sound Mail, debuted August 9, this week featuring: the Trumpeter Swans returning; the new Cygnus Gallery and Arts Alive Nov. 6-8 in LaConner; Get Well, Helen Manier; Robert Sund and the Ish rivers; and how to tell those moons apart: Harvest, Hunter's and Blue.
- See our new Calendar section for historical events and family and school reunions coming up or planned for 2010. Can you help with events and dates?
Sedro-Woolley and surrounding area
 | Young Sedro
 | Young Woolley
Transcriptions of five stories about Sedro and Woolley in an 1890s magazine
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- Read about how and when Mortimer Cook's town of Bug became Sedro in May 1885. This is a great story in several parts that together explain the story. We apologize that the link appears to have been broken for a year.
- Readers ask and we answer 20 questions about Sedro-Woolley and the immediate area. 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?
- Frank Wilkeson's riotous story of the two hobos of old Bug/Sedro, Jack and Paddy, and frontier justice, from the Dec. 14, 1890, New York Times
- We have researched and discovered five articles about the beginning of Sedro and Woolley in 1890 magazines. Five stories shared from our Subscribers Edition.
- 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, Sedro-Woolley's beautiful downtown park.
- The real and the unreal story of Sedro and Woolley's merger in December 1898; myth debunked. And did you know that the towns almost merged as early as 1891? Deanna Ammons discovered the story.
- Profiles of the Emerson Hammer mansion, which was razed in Sedro-Woolley in 1966, and of Isabel Hammer, Kansas and Skagit pioneer — the Blue Lady.
- 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.
 | Hammer mansion being razed
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- Read our Subscribers Magazine story about how local businessmen took the ball into their own hands and raised the money to pay for the land and homes north of the original plant in 1953, actions that convinced Skagit Steel not to move away from Sedro. Woolley.
- Greg Platt, genial salesman at Oliver-Hammer Clothes Shop in Sedro-Woolley, is also the genius behind the "Hashbrowner," a perfect gift and the secret to inexpensive, wholesome breakfasts.
- The original Oliver-Hammer Clothes Shop, circa 1921, and the modern evolved pioneer clothing store, in its location since 1958 and celebrating 89 years in business and preparing to move into the building next door in 2010..
 | Charles Wicker at 60
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- Charles J. Wicker arrives in Sedro in 1884, on the way to becoming county's most powerful real estate agent.
- Rebuilding downtown Woolley post-July 1911 devastating fire. The birth of our brick downtown.
- Sedro-Woolley Museum, 17 years of work by volunteers, without government stipends.
- Charles Woodworth, long-lost but now-found namesake for Sedro-Woolley's street. And a Tacoma promoter.
- Amariah Kalloch III, namesake of Kalloch Road, Prairie pioneer and his famous family, which included the late Glenn Hall.
- Read about how the Froggy Orchestra entertained settlers around the swamp that became P.A. Woolley's original company town in 1890, and how that area north of the railroad tracks is changing today, becoming almost chic.
- Introduction to Darius Kinsey, Sedro-Woolley's most famous photographer; he lived here from 1897-1906. Also includes information about the complete Kinsey collection at the Whatcom Museum of History and Art and links to other Journal Kinsey stories and other background sources.
- Washington Territory Attorney General James Metcalfe, namesake of Metcalf street in old Woolley and the man who pulled the strings to pave the way for P.A. Woolley's company town.
- Profile of the Seabury family and memories of Skiyou and the neighboring Van Fleet family 1902 by Lloyd Seabury, 1970s Skagit author. Lloyd Seabury recalls Skiyou and the rampaging 1909 flood
- Profile of the Seabury family and memories of 1902 by Lloyd Seabury, 1970s Skagit author. Lloyd Seabury recalls Skiyou and the rampaging 1909 flood
- The Hard Fight for Hoogdal, by Ray Jordan. A community with its roots in the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909.
Library, books, transcriptions
- Transcriptions of four stories from Ron Strickland's fine 1984 book, River Pigs and Cayuses, including profiles of Howard Miller, Glee Davis, Mark Gilkey, Ralph Parker
- Read our latest book review, of Coll Thrush's terrific book, Native Seattle. We have totally revised and updated our Library/Books to read portal section, with dozens of reviews, mini-reviews and links to history books.
- Our new portal section with links to all 29 Journal stories by Ray Jordan of Sedro-Woolley.
- The link has been repaired for our growing, updated section about Frontier Women, which includes our review of a wonderful book that illustrates the spirit, perseverance and consternation and challenges of the pioneer woman: Bold Spirit, by Linda Lawrence Hunt. The story of Helga Estby, Norwegian immigrant and mother of nine, who accepted a challenge to walk across America from Spokane in 1896, and collect a wager that would save her family home.
- Read our exclusive annotated transcripts of the 1906 book, the Illustrated History of Skagit & Snohomish Counties. See why this is often called the "bible" of historians' collection as you read the first two Skagit County chapters with full annotations and photos about the first two decades of settling Skagit County mainland. Portal home with chapter links.
- Our newest book review, of Let the Chimes Ring Out, the terrific story of Mount Vernon's First Baptist Church and its founder, Rev. B.N.L. Davis, from Tennessee. This also includes reviews of Washington, Then and Now by Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard; The Nooksacht's Trail and Crossing by James Berg; Lake Chelan in the 1890s, by Robert Byrd. Also read reviews of two great Snohomish County histories, including our new review of Snohomish County, an Illustrated History, by David Cameron and Charles P. LeWarne, et al; and our review of Blake Warner's new photo book, Early Snohomish.
- Read the full review of this fine book, Samish Island, a History, by Sue and Fred Miller, which all Skagit history-lovers will want to read, along with those who want to learn about the geology of the Puget Sound area and the "pre-history" of the Indians of the archipelago before the white settlers arrived. And see the new home of the terrific Samish Island history site.
- Vi Hilbert, Skagit County's most revered linguist, author and Upper Skagit Indian, passed on at age 90 at her LaConner home on Dec. 19. Read her obituaries and profiles. Sent to an Oregon Indian school as a child, where speaking in her native language was punished, Hilbert revived the language and led the effort to preserve the ways of the Northwest Salish Indians.
National & Miscellaneous
- Who wrote "Go West, Young Man"? Horace Greeley or John B. Soule?
- We imagine that many of you have already read: KKK stages a wedding and dedicates a church altar in Sedro-Woolley in 1924-26 because thousands of readers log onto it every year, but two more KKK stories are linked there, one about Anacortes and another about the state convention that was staged in Bellingham.
- Editor Bourasaw hospitalized: a letter from your editor.
- Last year was the 150th anniversary year of the famous Fraser River gold rush in British Columbia, which first put Whatcom on the map, if only briefly. Read June Burn's 1931 columns where she reviewed the argonauts and the events. Walter Washington deLacy, father of the Old Military Road and the Whatcom Trail to Fraser River in 1858, and his fascinating life before and after his Whatcom years.
- A brief history of the Dolbeer steam donkey, and the Ephraim Shay/Lima locomotive, which revolutionized logging methods from the 1880s onwards.
Railroads and Skagit countywide fetures
- Have you ever wondered about the details of how moonshine was marketed during the Prohibition era? Otto Peterson, patriarch of a fascinating Marblemount family, told us how. Also see the Journal Introduction to Prohibition in Skagit County.
- John Fravel, namesake of the Oyster Bay/Chuckanut town that became Blanchard. Updated with new information, including the obituary of his mysterious father-in-law, George Hall Richardson.
- The Skagit County Courthouse Fight of 1909, when Burlington tried to wrest the courthouse from Mount Vernon.
- See our completely updated Railroad Section
- The first saloons in Sedro-Woolley, Skagit County and up the Skagit River
- Anacortes, the town founder Bowmans and S&N railroad
- The link has been repaired for Journal feature about the triangle formed by three railroads crossing north of Woolley town in 1890, the reason why Woolley became the dominant town over the two Sedros.
- The Two-Spot Lokey at the entrance to Woolley. Puget Sound & Baker River Railroad's logging legacy welcomes visitors.
- First marriage licenses in Skagit county, 1884-86.
- Happy 50th Birthday, Skagit County Historical Society
- Read Chuck Easton's 1976 history of history of Skagit County. And publisher Charles Dwelley's 1953 Skagit County history. And a very early 1902 history of the county from Sebring's Illustrated magazine.
Upriver to Cascades and Sauk River
Any time, any amount, please help build our travel and research fund for what promises to be a very busy 2010, traveling to mine resources from California to Washington and maybe beyond. Depth of research determined by the level of aid from readers. And subscriptions to our optional Subscribers Online Magazine (launched 2001) by donation too. Thank you. Thank you.
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- More excerpts from Otto Klement's memoirs, the man who arrived in the valley in 1873 and became the father of Lyman in 1881: the early years . . . Farming methods and earthquakes 1870s & '80s . . . winter weather and frozen Skagit River . . . Otto led teams of pioneers back and forth across the Cascades Pass, and Julian Itter painted it and Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote about it extensively after crossing it with her sons.
- Introduction to this Cascade Pass series, with links to all the stories about the 80-year process to build a wagon road, which finally became the North Cross-State Highway in 1972. Multi-part section includes exploration from 1814, road plans from 1895, Devil's Elbow & Goat Trail, competing routes, David McIntyre's 1920s and 1930s promotion, All shared from our Subscribers Edition.
- Updated transcription of an account of Otto Pressentin and his 10 years in outback BC, 1911-21, by Ray Jordan, third in a series.
- Complete growing list of all our six Mollie Dowdle features.
- R.I.P. Fred Slipper, 1917-2007. With links to the full history of the Slipper and Sprinkle families of Hamilton
Old stories about Sauk and Illabot Creek moved to this domain
- Our exclusive 3-part history of Sauk City on the south shore of the Skagit — which is now a pasture, and Sauk on the north shore, a railroad town, and the pioneer miners, farmers and storekeepers who braved the remote wilderness and the constant threat of floods on the trail to the Monte Cristo mines. Part of our 8-part Sauk section.
- A transcription of a Ray Jordan story about old Sauk City and the difficult transportation to and from.
- Old Sauk City and new (north-shore) Sauk memories of the Wainright and Gay families, with information by Diane Marie Wainright McMurdie, and a transcription of a Ray Jordan story about old Sauk City.
- Three-part history of the Henry and Katharine Martin family of Illabot Creek, and their son, Fred.
- Bessie Porter's memories of Sauk City, Rockport, Pressentins, Martins and the Great Northern railroad. And Ted Porter's memories and photos of Tom Porter and his famous cabin near Illabot Creek.
West County
- Our exclusive profile of Harrison Clothier and the birth of Mount Vernon, the town he founded with Edward G. English in 1877 — Part one — and new Part two now posted from the subscribers edition, plus an obit of English and the full story of his famous kidnapping while a timber magnate.
- See our exclusive six-part series on William R. "Blanket Bill" Jarman, the first full study in 50 years about the first Whatcom/Skagit settler and all the myths surrounding him. We hosted a visit by his English relatives in June and July 2009.
- E.R. Million, Mount Vernon attorney and capitalist from 1889 to 1906, associate of timberman Ed English and friend of the high and mighty.
- Part One — we explain the mystery of the Allen and Roray, dueling names for the town and the mill the two men opened there, plus a profile of Joy Busha.
- On Sunday, April 27, 2008, Lynn Lennox of the Blanchard Wedding Chapel hosted a 100th Birthday Party for Egbert "Edward" R. Murrow. See the Murrow Portal Section for all the stories about him and the towns of Blanchard and Fravel. Note change in date from April 20.
- Read about Skagit City, where settlement of the Skagit River region began, and about the annual July picnic at the 1902 Skagit City School on Fir Island. Would you like to help preserve the school?
 | The Coon Chicken Inn near Bothell; click thumbnail above for story
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Surrounding counties & Washington
- Stan Stapp reminds us of the Coon Chicken Inn and Cotton Club between Seattle and Bothell, home of NW Jim Crow
- Biography of Nellie Coupe, an educator who made an impact on both Island and Whatcom counties and wife of one of the most famous Whidbey sea captains.
- Introduction portal to the Goodell family, which had a marked impact on all of Washington Territory from the year it was formed in 1853, with special emphasis on Lewis, Thurston, Skagit and Whatcom counties. Capsule profiles of the major characters of the family and their biographers, especially Phoebe Goodell Judson, the mother of Lynden, and Edward Goodell, namesake of Goodell's Landing, founded in 1879 near future Newhalem during the gold rush. Updated with photos of the family.
- Introduction to Dirty Dan Harris, founder of Fairhaven, including his biography, a consensus timeline and Ralph Thacker's resource books. With links to all our seven Harris features and schedule for Dirty Dan Days of April 25-26, 2010.
- On July 8, 2008 — the 91st anniversary of the day that famed Canadian landscape artist Tom Thomson disappeared, we repost on the new domain our profile of Snohomish writer Alice Elinor Lambert and her 1904 romance with Thomson.
- Sam Strom, the young Count of Monte Cristo, Norwegian immigrant of 1893, who worked the mines, later became a lawman and shared this memoir.
- The history of the S'Klallam and Chemakum tribes of the Olympic Peninsula. Blanket Bill Jarman lived with them and met his wife, Alice, and Chief Sehome there.
Oldies but Goodies
Features that originated in the early years of our project, from 2000-05
- 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.
- 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. See the Cement City street fair above re: July 26.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Humor on the frontier.
- 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. A brief biography of Otto Klement from our research.
- 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.
- Kitsap County (originally Slaughter County) and the myth debunked that Blanket Bill Jarman was the first settler there.
Floods and snow stories, timely for the season
- 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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810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
