Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
600 of 700 total Free Home Page Stories & Photos
(Also see our Subscribers Magazine Sample)
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
Site founded Sept. 1, 2000. We passed 5 million page views on June 6, 2011 The home pages remain free of any charge. We need donations or subscriptions to continue. Please pass on this website link to your family, relatives, friends and clients.

Portal to the beautiful Skagit River
Skagit county, Washington state

Gravity ferry, northwest rivers, circa 1900-20

Several sources and individuals have sworn that this photo was taken on either the Skagit river or the Sauk. But we knew that we had seen it someplace else. The mystery was solved on page 208 of Percival R. Jeffcott's fine history of Whatcom county, Nooksack Tales and Trails. The photo is of the Harkness Ferry on the Nooksack river in Whatcom county at a famous place west of Everson called "The Crossing." Woolley pioneer Susie Alverson would have known the ferry well because her father served as telegrapher there before the family moved to Woolley in 1895 to manage the old St. Clair Hotel. We share the photo because this was a gravity ferry — with a winch-like attachment at both ends, attached to a cable above that was chained to trees on both shores, which used the strong current of the river for power. Nowadays we would call it "environment-friendly." That is the type of ferry that crossed the Skagit in at least 12 different places from Fir on the South fork to Marblemount in the foothills of the Cascades.

Below we provide links to other stories on the website that profile the river in the past, present and future. And then we provide links to other stories about the river that you can access on the Internet. Because the river is the web that ties our entire project together, we encourage you to share any information or sources that we can share with other readers. We will talk about the history of the river, its different channels, the famous floods that have occurred, the fish, birds and animals that make this their home, the rich soil of its bottomlands, the hills that were formed by volcanic and glacial action, the gorges in the Cascades and anything you request to read. Your feedback is encouraged, either by email or via the Guestbook below. Click the underlined links to read the pages:

The Skagit River is 120 miles long, 25 miles of which are in Canada.
The Skagit Watershed drains over 1,700,000 acres of land.
It is the largest watershed in the Puget Sound Basin, providing over 30 percent of all water that flows into the Sound. That's 10 billion gallons of water every day.
The Skagit Watershed is home to eight species of seagoing fish, comprising about 30 percent of all anadromous fish entering Puget Sound.
The land within the Skagit watershed is 82 percent forest, 13 percent rangeland, 2 percent farmland, 2 percent lakes or streams and 1 percent developed areas.
The watershed is home to more than 250 wildlife species, including 174 birds, 73 mammals, 25 fish, 17 amphibians and 10 reptiles.
The Skagit River supports one of the largest wintering populations of bald eagles in the continental United States.
The Skagit watershed boasts 394 glaciers, 387 lakes, 35 major tributaries, 5 dams and 32 towns.
Humans have existed within the Skagit Basin for more than 11,000 years.
In addition to private lands, the Skagit Watershed is managed by 24 federal, state, local and Canadian governmental agencies.

This information comes from the Skagit Watershed Education Project by permission of the North Cascades Institute. Contact the institute about their many classes: North Cascades Institute, 810 State Route 20, Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284-1239. phone: 360-856-5700 ext. 213. www.ncascades.org

Handmade cedar canoe, Skagit River, 1880s

This was the main mode of travel on the Skagit river for the first few decades. Men would split a cedar log lengthwise, burn out the center and then scrape away the residue until they had a sturdy craft, just as the Indians had done it for eons. As you can see, several people could board. Such canoes were often lashed together to carry goods and ore weighing a ton or more. This photo was taken by the early Anacortes photographers Booen and Ewing. One conclusion is that a group of Indians from the Sauk River region were being transported to the new reservation at Swinomish, near LaConner.

Links to stories on our site:

Our introduction to the Skagit river from various points of view
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. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
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. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Homesteading and land laws in the 19th century and details of how settlers claimed and purchased their land, and the connection with Frederick Jackson Turner and his Frontier Thesis. Shared from Subscribers Edition archives
Our introduction to exploration of the Northwest before Washington's statehood.
We have added to our subscriber edition an in-depth history of Skagit county that was written in 1953 by Charles Dwelley, who was then publisher of the Concrete Herald. edition.
The Mother of all Floods, 1815 through the twin floods of 1896-97 and the two November 1990 floods that may have been the worst in tandem. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Facts about the Skagit, from the Skagit Watershed Education Project of North Cascades Institute in Sedro-Woolley. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Skagit valley soil rated best in the nation, 1940. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
External Internet links

. Links to more information about the mighty Skagit River

Larry Kunzler has spent years researching flood control in Skagit county, both for clients and to help farmers understand the wrath of the Skagit river. He speaks from first-hand experience because he bought a farm in the Nookachamps area and learned a hard lesson. As he explains, he asked the realtor why the house was built 6 feet off the ground and the realtor replied, "That's because it used to flood around here. But now we have dams on the river and it doesn't flood anymore." Now that the Avon Bypass is becoming a topic of conversation again, Larry has transcribed the Herzog report and the original documents about the bypass that are eye-opening. You can email mailto:floodway@nwlink.com him to learn more yourself.
Kunzler helped Leonard Halvorsen and other Sterling/Nookachamps-area farmers research when they sued Skagit county to recover damages from the 1990 Thanksgiving flood, a 35 year event. See Halvorsen v. Skagit county online.
GORP — Great Outdoor Recreation Pages and the Skagit River
Information on Wild and Scenic Rivers, such as the Skagit
Fascinating facts and quotes about rivers of the nation and world
The fascinating four-part PBS series — Cadillac Desert, Water and the Transformation of Nature
The Center for Watershed production
The Need to Know Library — a compendium of hyperlinks to World Wide Web Resources. Resources included on this page may be of interest to botanists, plant ecologists, conservation biologists, resource managers, and students.
River corridor and wetland restoration
The Pacific Rivers Council
Water resources of the United States — provides data on the physical characteristics of streams in the United States, including real-time stream flow data.
The name Skagit derives from the Indian tribes of the area. We explore the meaning of the word in some depth at this Journal website, but for now, we can tell you that it has many meanings, all of which blend together. The Indian language developed a word so complex in meaning that it is more of a state of mind and product of experience with the river than one that can be defined easily in a linear sense. Settlers who developed a firm sense of place and took the time to understand the Indian ways often interpreted their version of the word as meaning "the ultimate." Over the years, the embodiment of the word was the mountain cat or wildcat, which roamed over the hills and the forests unabated for thousands of the years until civilization and settlers encroached onto its territory. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
If you want to know more about the overall big picture of the land and river, we suggest that you move on to the section about the conference convened by Western Washington University professor Roland L. DeLorme in 1977 — Of Man, time and a river: the Skagit river, how should it be used?. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.

Story posted on Jan. 4, 2002, last updated Oct. 29, 2011
Please report any broken links so we can update them

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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 with copies or scans of documents or photos? We never ask for your originals.

Read about how you can order CDs that include our photo features from the first ten years of our Subscribers-paid online magazine. Perfect for gifts. Although it was delayed by our illness, it is due for completion in 2012.

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Our newest sponsor, Plumeria Bay, is based in Birdsview, just a short walk away from the Royal family's famous Stumpranch, and is your source for the finest down comforters, pillows, featherbeds andduvet covers and bed linens. Order directly from their website and learn more about this intriguing local business.

Oliver-Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 90 years continually in business.

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 — for as little as $5 per night — by the Skagit River, just a short drive from Winthrop or Sedro-Woolley. Alpine is doubling in capacity for RVs and camping in 2011.

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Skagit River Journal

Portal to the beautiful Skagit River Skagit county, Washington state

Portal to the beautiful Skagit River
Skagit county, Washington state