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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

How to navigate this huge site
and find your story among 650-plus

Karen Prasse, the noted Stanwood museum volunteer who is now working temporarily at the Burlington Public Library, convinced us that we should make a real effort at providing advice for the frustrated readers who try to find features about particular towns or people among our 675+ stories on this huge site. Author Tom Robinson has asked for the same aid, as have many other readers as our site has grown exponentially the past two years. So we will provide some guidelines here and we will try to avoid making this into a dense, unreadable manual like the ones that come with your new hardware.

The search function The quickest way is to use the search function, a box that you will find at the bottom of each story. Here is what it looks like:

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?

Using the search box is an art that you perfect after using it a bunch of times. For instance, you need to learn when to use the simple way:
Blanket Bill or to save time and narrow down the results, to use the more specific way:
"Blanket Bill" Without the quotation marks, you get a result from every story that contains the word "blanket" AND every story that contains the name "Bill." But if you use the quotation marks, you get only the stories that include the exact combination, "Blanket Bill."

The Portals First of all, Think Portals. Those are our building blocks that we constructed back in 2004 to split the huge amount of stories into smaller chunks. Portal pages are what we use to provide a central place where you can peruse the links to all the stories about a specific town or area. For instance, Karen wanted to find all the stories about Burlington. First, you need to know how we split up the geographic areas. We have portal sections about Sedro-Woolley and the surrounding areas, from Clear Lake to Sterling to Prairie to Skiyou — in all four cardinal directions. We have an upriver portal for everything each of Skiyou, from Utopia to the Cascades and to the Sauk River area. Most importantly, we split Skagit County in half. Every town that lies west of Hwy 99 or I-5 is "West County." If either of those roads run through it, then the stories are included in the West County section. For instance, when you go to the main portal page, you will find a box that looks like this:

West Skagit County: Hwy 99 to Sound

includes: Mount Vernon to Belfast, west to Fidalgo, south to LaConner/Fir Island/Conway, north to Alger & Samish

That obviously contains Burlington, so you click on that link, which brings you to the West County Portal page, which has a box that looks like this:

Portals to cities in western Skagit County
Mount Vernon	Burlington
LaConner area	Anacortes/Fidalgo

Chuckanut/Blanchard/Equality Colony

Samish Island/Edison/Bow/Allen	Belfast/Belleville & North on 99
Southwest County/Fir	Bayview/Padilla

Click on the Burlington link and you will be taken to a list of all the stories specifically about the town of Burlington and its pioneers. (BUT you have to go to the actual Portal Page to do so.) And then just click the link of the story you want. One proviso: all stories about Burlington may not be listed yet on that portal page. There is a backlog. So, if you do not find the story you seek there, go back to the search box and try that method. There is a search box at the bottom of every story.

Other Area Portals: We provide many Portals for you. For instance:

Sedro-Woolley Portal. All features about Bug, Sedro, Woolley, Sedro-Woolley, Cokedale, and the pioneers and events of the town(s).
Nearby Sedro-Woolley Portal. Or the towns and townships in all four directions, from Sterling to Clear Lake to Skiyou to Prairie
Upriver Portal. Everything east of Skiyou in Skagit County.
Skagit River Portal. This will take you to the links for the river, floods, weather, hunting and fishing, flora and fauna, etc.
Skagit countywide Portal. This is for all stories that affect the whole county or several parts of the county together. For instance, Charles Easton's or Charles Dwelley's "History of Skagit County" would be there. As would be the stories about sternwheelers, the process of building a county road, weather — floods and snowstorms, etc.
Washington state Portal. This is for the counties outside of Skagit. Especially Whatcom and Snohomish, plus Island, King, Olympic Peninsula group, Statewide-impact stories, etc. And it is being expanded all the time.

Subject Portals: Then there are the Subject Portals. For instance:

Library/Books Portal. Reviews, suggestions and bibliography
Timeline Portal. We are slowly building a chronological timeline that will eventually cover every ten-year period from 1850 to 1920. And in it you will find what of historical substance was happening elsewhere in the rest of the state, in the country and the world.
Trains of the Northwest Portal. All stories that address the early railroads and their transformation will have links there
Obits and Bios Portal. Includes links to stories about individuals, their profile or their death. We are still completing this. There will eventually be hundreds of links there, alphabetized by name, and by maiden name if the woman is or was well known by both.
Subscription Magazine preview. This will give you links to stories that originated in our optional online magazine, which we have provided for the past nine years, to give you a taste when you are deciding if you want to subscribe.
Mining Portal. All stories about mining for gold, coal and other minerals. The miners that did the work. The authors of mining books and articles.
Odds and Ends Portal. This is where we provide short stories and grab-bag stories with no special Portal, along with stories that assemble clippings of short stories from various newspapers and towns. And soon, a blog (oh how we hate that word) that will include short notes about amazing discoveries and our plans for the future and our lists of upcoming stories that we are researching, and ones with which we hope that readers can help.
Maps Portal. Maps showing where we are and areas around the Pacific Northwest, and exploration maps.
Anniversary Portal. This is for special stories that address centennials and golden jubilees of towns, businesses, etc., and is just getting started.
Logging Portal. For everything oriented towards mills, logging and loggers, as well as the forests and forest fires and lookouts.

Sub-Portals In addition, there are sometimes Portals with Portals. For instance, inside the Upriver Section, you will find a portal for all stories about the Sauk-Suiattle-Illabot Creek area. And within the Snohomish County Portal, you will find a sub-portal about Darrington and Monte Cristo areas. Then there are housekeeping Portals:

Administrative Portals

Newest Features Portal. This is where you will find click links to the newest stories we have posted, along with stories originally shared with subscribers first (one of the real benefits for your investment), along with Oldies But Goodies that you may have originally missed, or which we have updated.
Nuts and Bolts Portal. Links to the basic stories about Pioneer life. For instance, exploration of the area, homesteading and the laws involved, frontier women, etc.
Relatively New Features Portal. Links to new features posted in the past year.
Who we are Portal. And why we are nutty enough to have done this, includes our statement of purpose, why we think we are unique and worthy of your time.
Wish List Portal. Things we need to sustain this nine-year project. For instance, computer items we hope that readers will contribute if they are upgrading to newer, whizbang systems. And documents and photos we would die offer, that will help illustrate stories, prove hypotheses or reveal what areas and people looked like.
Why Subscribe Portal. Reasons why you should subscribe to our online magazine, and the details of what you get for the price.
CDs Portal. What we are offering on CD for readers who want copies of our stories in MS Word format, or for gifts for people who do not have access to the Internet or who find it overwhelming. Our cancer illness and surgery put this project on hold for a year and a half, but we are completing it in 2009.
Archives Portal. Archives of our subscription magazine's stories back to Issue One in January 2001. You get this as part of your subscription package.
Donation Portal. How and why you should help support our research project. You will find a . . .

You can click the donation button to contribute to the rising costs of this site. You can also subscribe to our optional Subscribers-Paid Journal magazine online, which has entered its ninth 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.

. . . on every website in this umbrella group.

Subscribers and the Subscription Magazine We hope that this helps you and reduces the anxiety about tackling such a huge site as ours. If you are a subscriber, please let us know and we will send you Navigation II, a special list of instructions that will help you navigate that sub-site and most importantly will help you distinguish between our email mailings. In short, anyone can sign up for our periodic bulletins (one or two per month) that alert readers to new stories. The mailer about the entire free site will be headed: SkagitJournalfreeHistory and the bulletins to Subscribers only will be mailed for each issue (currently 49), such as: SubscribersSkagitJournalNewIssueXX.

As simple as 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . We have provided one central portal page, which also provides you a 1,2, 3 checklist to follow when searching for something.

So . . . how did this work out? What do we ask in return? Your feedback. Did this help you? Is there still a problem that you uniquely have in trying to find a story about a subject, person or town you seek? If so . . .

Thank you for your patience. We hope this help. And Karen and Tom Robinson, this Bud is for you.

Story posted on June 28, 2009 . . . Please report any broken links so we can update them

Return to the new-domain home page

Links for portals to subjects and towns

Newest photo features

Search entire site

See this Journal website for a timeline 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 until we eventually compile a book about Northwest history. Can you help?

Remember; we welcome correction & criticism.

Please report any broken links or files that do not open and we will send you the correct link. With more than 550 features, we depend on your report. Thank you.

Read about how you can order CDs that include our photo features from the first five years of our Subscribers Edition. Perfect for gifts.

You can read the history websites about our prime sponsors
Would you like information about how to join them?

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.

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.

Please sign our guestbook so our readers will know where you found out about us, or share something you know about the Skagit River or your memories or those of your family. Share your reactions or suggestions or comment on our Journal. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to visit our site.

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Email us at: skagitriverjournal@gmail.com

Mail copies/documents to Street address: Skagit River Journal, 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, WA, 98284.

Skagit River Journal

How to navigate this huge site and find your story among 650-plus

How to navigate this huge site
and find your story among 650-plus