Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
800 total 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, founder Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284 Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug
Site founded Sept. 1, 2000. We passed 5 million page views on June 6, 2011 The home pages remain free of any charge. Please pass on this website link to your family, relatives, friends and clients.

Stories from towns nearby Sedro-Woolley
in all four directions

Northern State Hospital, Duke's Hill, Warner's Prairie, Prairie, Sterling, Skiyou

Clear Lake, Big Lake, Day Creek, Lake McMurray

This is a 1923 photo, looking southwest towards Clear Lake and the Clear Lake Lumber Co. Do you have other photos like this of any of the lake towns south of the Skagit, and the pioneers of the district? We would love to see copies or scans of them. Read more about the CLLC mill and the Lewis family, which owned it — once the largest such mill in the country.

Northern State, Duke's Hill, Warner's Prairie, Prairie

History of Northern State Hospital
The history of the Northern State Hospital cemetery and the Sedro-Woolley High School senior class that is organizing a memorial for the Northern State cemetery.
Chuck Cruse was literally the last employee at Northern State Hospital, caretaking the empty buildings after it closed in 1973, walking among the ghosts of the patients and employees who worked there and made it their first or second home over 61 years. Shared from the archives of our separate Subscribers Edition online.
How the Northern State Hospital site was selected in 1909 and a Mr. T. Hansen, who homesteaded the site in 1909 and became the namesake for Hansen creek. A two-fer story.
The story of Pete Beletsky, the famous Stumphouse Man near Northern State Hospital in 1948, four parts including newly discovered article.
Joe and Annie Laurie (Boyd) Hoyt, Chapter 1, including a history of the Boyd and Hoyt families back to colonial days, and the story of their Prairie mill. Includes a biography of Joe's father-in-law, Lewis A. Boyd. Just for fun, you'll read about the Battle of Bunker Hill, Paul Revere's Ride, Benedict Arnold and high school in Paris, along with round-the-world sailing trips and shipwrecks at sea.
Profile of Capt. John Warner, namesake of his prairie north of Woolley and of Warner street. He was a 49er with Mortimer Cook in the 1850s, followed Cook up to British Columbia for the 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush, then returned to Sehome with his Indian bride, settled at Edison, then Warner's Prairie. And Ray Jordan's of Jordan.
An introduction to Bottomless Lake, including photos and text from a 1958 Courier-Times "Tella-Pix" photo feature, plus memories from our readers, Bob Garland and Bob Cook, who grew up nearby the lake. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Ray Jordan wrote in his book, Yarns of the Skagit Country, about Bottomless Lake and Duke Fredrick George, the namesake of Duke's Hill. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Amariah Kalloch III, namesake of Kalloch Road, Prairie pioneer and his famous family, which included the late Glenn Hall.
Coming soon: the Kallochs and the Halls; Thornwood. Can you help us research these stories?

Skiyou, east of Sedro-Woolley

Charles J. Wicker moves to the Skagit river from Iowa in 1884 and discovers the perils of homesteading within his first month here.
Steamboat Dan Benson, sternwheeler captain on the Skagit from 1878; plus his brothers and his father, and his adopted sister Julia who was actually the daughter of Seattle sawmill-pioneer Henry Yesler.

Van Fleets

Eliza Van Fleet summarized her family bona fides for her application to the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1928
Eliza Van Fleet summarized her family bona fides for her application to the DAR in 1928
The Van Fleet family floats down the Skagit for the their first Christmas here in 1880
Van Fleet family letter back to Pennsylvania, 1890s, from their Skiyou homestead
Eliza Van Fleet's family history from the 1906 Illustrated History. Extensive annotation.
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

Sterling, West of Sedro-Woolley

Our portal story in our 5-part section is about Sterling founder Jesse Beriah Ball and his namesake town has been considerably updated. You can read about Ball's partnership with Tacoma financier Byron Barlow, who he originally met in California during the Indian Wars of 1866. This was one of our first in-depth profiles of pioneers who had fallen through the cracks of history. You will find in this section the map from 1897 that shows the original double horseshoe bend of the Skagit that formed DeBay's island until the river straightened out its channel from 1909-1921 with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers and several floods.
See these 1875 stories from the Stanwood News that give a marvelous detailed description of the logging camp of Jesse Beriah Ball, the founder of Sterling.
Early days of Sterling, the village at the river. We need your help. Can you add to our introductory list of families who settled at Sterling by the river or DeBay Island before 1929? This part is far from complete. We will add to this chapter as readers provide us more information.
Chapter 3: Joseph DeBay, the Italian immigrant who grew vegetables for the valley and then saw his farm turn into DeBay Island. We hope that readers will send us their own family memories and photos scans for stories of more early Sterling families.
Joseph DeBay, a photo page of the family of the Italian immigrant who grew vegetables for the valley and then saw his farm turn into DeBay Island. We hope that readers will send us their own family memories and photos scans for stories of more early Sterling families.
Chapter 4: Schools at Sterling from 1883-1940, with new information supplied by Jeanie Bond, a descendant of the Dreyer family of Sterling.
We have been researching Sterling, the earliest upriver town, for 19 years now, and we plan several more chapters about it. The next one will be about the families who settled in the area near what later became the Burlington Highway and what is now Hwy 20. We hope that those of you who are descendants of Sterling families or who are researchers will share your family memories and discoveries with us. Copies of documents and scans of photos are fine. We do not need or ask for your originals, which should be kept as either family keepsakes or donated to museums or libraries that will both preserve them and make them available to researchers. Thanks for your help.

Clear Lake, Big Lake, Day Creek, hills area:

B.R. Lewis and his family and the Clear Lake Lumber Co., which at one time was the biggest mill in the Northwest.
The Legend of Big Rock, updated from our original feature. Plus Calamity Jane's gun found at Baker Heights. Plus the Audette sons take over from their father in the continuing evolution of the Big Rock Store into the Big Rock Store/Café.
We are restoring a feature with historic Clear Lake photos. Meanwhile, enjoy Memories of Clear Lake by Charles R. "Chuck" Hyatt.
Big Lake area. We are now working on a history of this area. Can you help with photos and memories?
Samuel Simpson Tingley Part One, Washington Territory pioneer of 1859, who settled on the north fork of the Skagit in 1867 and then Day Creek in 1880. From Maine boyhood through Civil War and meeting his first wife, a Mercer Girl on the ship to Washington Territory and Part Two, Washington Territory pioneer of 1859, who settled on the north fork of the Skagit in 1867 and then Day Creek in 1880. Settles at South Fork, raises family, blacksmith in Mount Vernon, loses first wife, marries again to a doctoress, Elizabeth, settles at Day Creek, builds boats and ferries for Skagit River. Also includes the story of Dr. Capellus B. Knapp, his wife's brother, who also settled here.
Over the River and Through the Woods . . . , Alice Harrison's memories of her grannie's place near Big Lake in the 1950s.
This capsule biography file features Lena Bean and her family and Joseph and Anna Theiler, pioneers of Ehrlich. Includes a brief early history of the old towns of Montborne and Ehrlich.
William Heffron's namesake village on the south shore of the Skagit River, across from Lyman.
Day Creek, Lake Cavanaugh, Cultus Mountain, Phinney/Finney creek, Electron, Marietta creek and hills area south of Skagit river. We are now working on a history of this area. Can you help with photos and memories?

Story last updated on Nov. 14, 2011, links updated Oct. 2017 . . . Please report any broken links so we can update them

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Skagit River Journal

Stories from towns nearby Sedro-Woolley in all four directions

Stories from towns nearby Sedro-Woolley
in all four directions