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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 City School supporters
are at another crossroads

This photo of the Skagit City School dates from 1937, while the Depression still lingered on nationwide, even though Skagit County was already showing signs of economic recovery. The county schools, however, were already slated for consolidation. The rural school building for Skagit City became part of the Conway School District. The interior of the building today is much like it was at the time of this photo, except the old desks on wrought-iron legs are missing. We hope a reader will have some idea when they were removed and how a small selection of them might be recovered.

We had the pleasure in May 2007 to attend a meeting of the Skagit City Community Club at the old Skagit City School, at 1552 Moore Road, just west of the Skagit City Road on Fir Island. The school building dates from 1902, with an extension on the west side that was added in 1907 due to rapid expansion of settler families on the forks of the Skagit, even as the town of Skagit City itself faded in importance compared to Mount Vernon. The club is hosting its annual (usually the third Sunday in July) picnic in 2007 on July 22 and they especially urge local residents to come out and contribute their opinion, and maybe some of their time, to maintain and possibly restore this fine old rural school.
Just about every ten years a newspaper story surfaces about how the bell may be tolling the last time. Wayne Schuh, the current leader of the club, insists that this is not the case, especially if his fellow volunteers have anything to say about it, but he emphasizes that they need people who can provide expert advice to solve some problems. The group faces a classic Joseph Heller Catch 22 conundrum: they need to welcome the public and school classes to the building more often but they also need to address some structural problems before they can stage more public tours and usage. The good news is that the group already attracted more interested volunteers at their May meeting.
"We don't want to appear to always have our hand out for money," Schuh explained. "At this time, we are instead asking for people who have ideas and expertise to help us assemble a long-range plan for insuring that the school is a community resource for decades to come." The most pressing problem with the interior is the lead-based paint that dates from decades ago, the last time that the school's interior was remodeled. The school closed in 1940, when many rural schools were consolidated with the Mount Vernon district to the north and the Conway district to the south. Three years later, the late Ronnie Holttum, who owned a service station in nearby Cedardale and who used to deliver oil by truck to the island, bought the school at an auction and started the club to maintain it. He also taught Sunday School here for two decades.
Other high-priority structural challenges include the south wall, which sags every time a windstorm blows, and various problems that any building a century old suffers from. Ann DeMarrais, a neighbor just down the road, and John G. Kamb Jr., a Mount Vernon attorney and descendant of two pioneer families from the Skagit forks, emphasize that, in addition to contractors and builders, the group also needs people who have experience in working with grant agencies and regional donors. The annual picnic and a handful of rentals through the year provide just enough income now to pay the taxes and minor expenses. Kamb has personally been working on preserving photographs that have faded badly over the decades when exposed to sunlight. The group hopes to attract volunteers with expertise in preservation, matting and presentation.
This is the first in a series of stories about the school, which will be featured over the next year. This school was not the first one on Fir Island. The Fir district had schools in two other locations and Skagit City's original school was very near the river on the original farm of John Wilbur, a little east and south of the present location. But a series of floods in 1901, following the major floods of 1894, 1896 and 1897, finally undermined the original school so badly that this school was erected on Moore Road in 1902. At least two other schools had preceded this one on the east side of the river, but the danger of crossing the South Fork of the Skagit during storm seasons led to creation of the original Skagit City School in 1889. Much earlier, John Sartwell, the South Fork's first permanent settlers from the 1860s, hosted a small subscription school in a cabin on his property near the town of Fir in 1872. You can read more about the school in the Journal's "Giving Back to the Community" Skagit City section, and in other stories in Issue 39 of the subscribers-paid Journal online magazine.

The bell tolls for Skagit City School Skagit Valley Herald, July 15, 1998

This photo of the school is labeled 1907, the year that the addition to the right was attached to the original one-room school. Click on the photo to see a larger version and more detail of the pupils — you may have to click on that version again to make it larger than your screen. We are thankful that John G. Kamb Jr. found a nearly complete list of names on the back of the photo. You can see the list below and you might want to print it out to match the names with the larger version. Can you help us identify the students not yet identified or tell us more about the identified students and their lives as adults? We also seek obituaries of pioneer Fir Island settlers and we especially hope that descendants of the students and their families will contact us..

Leroy Anderson recollects fiddlers on the front porch of the Skagit City School, baked salmon in the courtyard and people who assembled to exchange lost time and long distances for warm conversation and an embrace. Former students and friends of the Skagit City School would mark the occasion on date books, saving the third Sunday in July for the annual school picnic. It had been this way since the mid 1940s.
However this year, the school bell tolls the end of an era. The Skagit City picnic, slated for Sunday, has been canceled [that was fortunately incorrect]. The future of the school is uncertain. Anderson said the building will be open for part of the day for those who want to reminisce. But there will be no formal picnic.
The Skagit City Community Club, which owns the school, cannot pay almost two years in back taxes, a $2,200 bill. Anderson said the building is deteriorating and potentially unsafe. Appeals for donations have fielded little as once-robust picnic turnouts have waned in recent years.
Anderson, a native of Fir Island and club president, has attended the picnics for two decades. "We're all kind of shook up" he said. "We're hoping we're doing the right thing. Our hands are tied. Most people in the community who we've talked to think we are doing the right thing."

Tax exemption sought The club sought tax-exempt status because it operates as a nonprofit, but was denied. Tax-exempt status would have allowed tax-free use of he school. But state law requires a tax-exempt building to be utilized by the public more than once a year. For the club to organize more public events, it would have to upgrade the building to county code, a cost he estimated between $50,000 and $150,000. The board even hired Mount Vernon attorney Elliot Johnson to file an appeal before the state Department of Revenue, but he found no alternative.
"The state felt it wasn't used enough for public functions," Johnson said. Pat Pinkstaff, former Skagit City School student and club vice-president, said she thought the school already was tax exempt. "There's nothing a single person can do," she said. "Someone who has a couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend could." Anderson called the situation hopeless.
"We just feel we can't keep it up anymore," he said. "The building is falling apart." A nominal amount of money comes from a collection and donation plate passed around each year at the picnic. But those funds are used to put the picnic on, Anderson said.
The Skagit City School, located at 1552 Moore Road on Fir Island, is the last vestige of Skagit City. In 1977, the school house was declared a historical site by the National Register of Historic Places.

A tradition begins

Ronnie Holttum addressing the 1985 Skagit City School picnic. The annual picnic (usually the third Sunday in July) will be staged at the school in 2007 from lunchtime through the afternoon of July 22.

The Skagit City Community Club board of Anderson, Pinkstaff, secretary Martha Tellesbo and treasurer Duane Brown, assumed picnic organizing duties initially begun by local history buff Ronald Holttum. Holttum purchased the Skagit City School in 1943 for $500 and started the picnics soon after.
Even as toils of age and illness set in, Holttum continued to organize and attend the picnics. When Holttum died in 1995, the club maintained the picnics. They grew from an event exclusive to those who attended the school to include all residents of Fir Island, Pinkstaff said. Naomi Kelley, Ronald Holttum' s daughter, said she was sad to see the picnic canceled.
"It's too bad they aren't going to have it," she said. "There's always been a faithful few who always showed up and kept it going for dad's sake.
Skagit City School's history reaches well beyond the picnic. Built in 1888, the school was ravaged soon after by floods. In 1902 it was moved to its present site, The school was originally a two-story, one-room schoolhouse that was expanded after it was relocated. Holttum often used the main room for Sunday school classes. Grades first through eighth were taught until the school closed in 1940 [the same year that Sterling School closed]. Pinkstaff graduated from the eighth grade in the mid 1930s and Anderson attended the first grade in the late 1920s.
Duane Brown was never a student, but this hasn't precluded his involvement. He took a position on the club board when he moved into the house next door nine years ago. He said some fault for the picnic's demise lies with organizers.
"We needed to get younger people involved," he said. Photographs of familiar faces and past moments pasted onto the walls stirred memories in Anderson, Pinkstaff and Brown during a recent visit to the school.
"People would come from Seattle, Tacoma and even California just to reminisce," Pinkstaff said. "If they had any connection to the school they would show up. People just took it for granted that it would always be."
The school's lime paint has tarnished, its walls are chipped and blanched and the floor planks bend. But memories in the pictures and the heavy brass bell that greets patrons remain unscathed by age
Inside, there's patriotic symbolism with its American flags, portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and a copy of The Declaration of Independence for Young Americans, a well-preserved handbook. The main room is sparsely decorated save a few pews, a bureau of books and a well-oiled piano.
Anderson said he is uncertain what will happen to the school. Skagit County can assume ownership after taxes are three years delinquent. Brown expressed hope the picnics may resume. He appealed to the Internal Revenue Service to have the school recognized as tax-exempt because it is a historical site.
An ideal scenario is that a person or organization will purchase the school and transform it into some venue that benefits the entire community, Anderson said. He has his own vision of what the school house co
"It could be turned into a wonderful art studio, dance hall or community building," Anderson said.

Names from the 1907 photo above Top row, l. to r.: unknown boy, unknown boy, Mr. Dilling (teacher), unknown boy, unknown boy, Edwin Salberg, Albert Gerriets, Elmer Larson, Hilda Nelson, Sofie Salbert, Minnie Gerriets, Aurora Hegstrom, Nora Hanson, Nora Larson, Pearl Enquist, Olga Larson, Nellie Larson, (___) Moa, Ruth Martinson. Middle row: Effie McClean (sp.?), unknown girl, Agnes Bylund, Sarah Moa, Myrtle Martinson, unknown girl, Daniel McClean (sp.?), Reuben Asp, Eric Bylund, unknown teacher. Three girls kneeling between rows in middle of photo: Hildur Salberg, Edith Bylund, Ruby Larson. Front Row: Phil Iverson, H.B. Lee, unknown boy, Harold Swanberg, Reynold Peterson, albert Salberg, Ralph Martinson, unknown boy, Walter Nelson, Hannah Fjelstad, Florence Nelson, Julius Moa, Andrew Edler*, unknown boy, Harry Hanson, Eric Enquist, unknown boy, Ellen Martinson, Stella Moa.

Links, background reading and sources

See the table of contents for Issue 39 for more Skagit City stories.
Read about Skagit City, where settlement of the Skagit River region began, and about the July 22 annual picnic at the 1902 Skagit City School.
We plan a whole series of Skagit City stories over the next year. We welcome descendants of pioneer families or other Fir Island and forks-area residents to share copies of articles and other documents or scans of old photos. We never ask for your originals.

Story posted on May 20, 2007 . . . Please report any broken links so we can update them
This article originally appeared in Issue 39 of our Subscribers-paid Journal online magazine

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Skagit City School supporters are at another crossroads

Skagit City School supporters
are at another crossroads