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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

Skagit River Journal History show
on Saturday, Feb, 16, 1-4 p.m.
co-sponsored by the Concrete Chamber

The original justice court in the town of Baker/Concrete, circa 1909.

Noel V. Bourasaw, publisher of the Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore, will present a special history photos and documents show from 1-4 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Concrete Senior Center in the historic Railroad Depot next to Hwy 20. The show, focusing on upper Skagit River history from Utopia to the Cascades and Sauk River, is co-sponsored by the Concrete Chamber of Commerce and is free with no reservation required. We will encourage small donations, however, and we hope that those who plan to attend will email and suggest people or towns they would like to see covered. We also encourage people to bring photos and their scrapbooks to share; local authors will also be on hand to answer questions.
Highlights will include the story of Otto Klement, who paddled across Puget Sound in 1873 and established a saloon and trading post at Lyman in 1882, effectively founding the town after Lorenzo Lyman, a country doctor, moved away. And Amasa Peg-Leg Everett, who found coal ore on future-Coal Mountain near Hamilton, then lost part of his leg, but went on to discover the limestone ledges along the Baker River that led to the towns of Cement City, Minnehaha, Baker and Concrete and the cement industry.
Also highlighted: Fred Martin and his family and neighbors at Illabot Creek. The old town of Sauk City, where the Sauk and Skagit rivers merge. Birdsey Minkler, August Kemmerich, Karl von Pressentin and George Savage and all the settlers of Birdsview, starting in 1878. William Hamilton and the booming of his namesake town and the Great Northern Railroad from Anacortes to Rockport. Andrew Jackman, settler at Van Horn who helped build the Log Cabin Inn at Marblemount. Nathan Edward Goodell, whose trading post predated Newhalem. Glee Davis and his mother, Lucinda, and all the Cascade River pioneers, including William Barratt. And there will be more.
The first 30 minutes will be for introductions and sharing of information, photos and scrapbooks by those attending. We are especially interested in seeing your family trees, diaries or letters if you are a descendant of a pioneer family. Please alert any other members of your family or any genealogical group you belong to. We especially want the audience to participate and there will be an extended period for questions in the last hour of the show. In addition, we will record questions that we cannot answer or do not have time to and we will follow up by email.
The free Journal Internet website was launched in 2000 and has experienced an explosion of readership in the past two years. The Journal pass two million page views in the fall of 2007, making the site one of the most-read history website outside of Seattle and it was awarded five stars by a major history rating agency. Bourasaw grew up in the Utopia district on the northern shore of the Skagit, near Minkler Lake, and was a 1962 graduate of Sedro-Woolley, then began writing history and editing wine publications in California before serving as the first executive director of the Washington Wine Institute. This show will also celebrate the rebirth of the Concrete Chamber, which has come alive with unique events in the past six months that have attracted hundreds of visitors to the Baker River area.
Bourasaw has helped write for and edit several history books and magazines and has collaborated with author Patricia McAndrew on a book soon to be published, Old Soldier Goes Fishing, about railroad boomer and New York Times columnist Frank Wilkeson, who lived in Skagit and Whatcom counties from 1885-1900. He is also publishing a series of three CDs that include the stories and photos of the first six years in the Journal's separate Subscribers online magazine, now in its eighth year.
Readers in other areas have asked us present shows about Skagit River and Valley and northwestern Washington history. At this point, we have been asked about Sedro-Woolley, Mount Vernon,; the Blanchard-Edison area and Fairhaven. We hope to interest a club or fraternal organization in each of those areas to co-host future presentations. Do you belong to such a club or a chamber of commerce or history organization? Please contact us so we discuss a future show.

Links, background reading and sources

Remembering Herb Larsen, guiding light of the Concrete Heritage Museum, and keeper of the flame
You can see more details of upcoming events at the Chamber website.
Introduction to our series about Charles M. Dwelley, country weekly newspaper editor of the Concrete Herald for 30 years. His grandfather, Joseph F. Dwelley, was a pioneer of the Skagit Valley in 1870.
A reprinting of Charles Dwelley's fine book, So They Called the Town "Concrete," by the Concrete Heritage Museum is still available. A history of the upper Skagit River, the book was originally printed in 1980. You can read more about it and how to order it here. Also see the history of Skagit County that Charles Dwelley wrote in 1953 to celebrate the centennial of Washington territory.
See Issue 39 of the subscribers-paid Journal online magazine for the obituary and tribute to the late Herb Larsen, who launched the museum and was such an active promoter of Concrete and its history for decades.
The Bratlie family story, obituary and transcripts. Mary Belle "Matie" Minkler Bratlie, was the sixth child of the upriver-Skagit pioneer Birdsey D. Minkler and she lived to age 109. In 1907 she married Hans J. Bratlie, a Norwegian immigrant, and they published a newspaper, first in Hamilton and Concrete. The newspaper burned in the great Concrete fire of 1915 and they moved to Ridgefield, where they were partners in a very large Western red cedar mill.
A profile of James V. Van Horn and the town of Van Horn and his original town of Hartford in Snohomish county. Even before Van Horn established his town, the most notable resident of that area east of Concrete was Andrew Jackman.
A highlight of the 2003 Bald Eagle Festival was the release of a reprinting of Charles Dwelley's fine book, So They Called the Town "Concrete," by the Concrete Heritage Museum. A history of the upper Skagit river, the book was originally printed in 1980. You can read more about it and how to order it here.
Henry Thompson, the famous carpenter and bridge-builder who brought his family to the U.S. from England in 1885. He and his son Richard were county commissioners and are immortalized in Concrete's Thompson bridge, and he was also the father of famous North Cascades ranger Tommy Thompson.
Three of our exclusive photo features about Concrete, including Daniel Dillard, who started the first sawmill at the site of future Concrete on the west shore of the Baker river. Our story of the Dalles Bridge on its 50th-birthday, from 2002. Amasa Peg-Leg Everett, the 1870s settler who discovered coal, lost a leg and then discovered the limestone that led to the cement companies. The latter story is from our old website so the referral links will sometimes not work; please come back here for links.
Fred Cole, deputy sheriff in Concrete and his wife Carrie, who entertained the town.
Trains and trestles from the old days in Concrete when cement dust was flying everywhere, photos courtesy of Lois Pinella Theodoratus.
See links to all stories in the Journal'supper Skagit river section, covering the area from Utopia and Lyman all the way to the North Cascades.

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Please 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.

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Peace and quiet at the Alpine RV Park, just north of Marblemount on Hwy 20
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Skagit River Journal

Skagit River Journal History show on Saturday, Feb, 16, 1-4 p.m. co-sponsored by the Concrete Chamber

Skagit River Journal History show
on Saturday, Feb, 16, 1-4 p.m.
co-sponsored by the Concrete Chamber