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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Subscribers Edition
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

Archive links for Skagit River Journal
Features about the upper Skagit River
From Utopia to the Cascades and the Sauk River
Dating from Jan. 1, 2001, Subscribers Issues 1-40

Due to continued popular demand, in the interest of furthering our "open source" policy, we have assembled a collection of CDs that will include MS Word files of our pioneer profiles and town profiles from years 1-5, so that you can print them individually at your convenience. They are organized by region: Sedro-Woolley & surrounding area; Upper Skagit River from Utopia to Cascades; western Skagit County. CD 1 is completed and the other two will be finished in time for Christmas season of 2009. Inquire for details today via email or see our site about the planned CDs offering and you will qualify for a pre-publication discount

Reorganized archives
We are now half way through with our ninth year of the Journal Subscribers-Paid Magazine Online. Two years ago, we changed the nature of our archives. With more than 400 articles that originated in the Subscribers Editions, the old method of listing them by Issue Number required readers to sort through all issues. With this system, the links are to all stories in all our past issues, sorted by geographical area and/or subject, rather than by issue.
These links are only for our subscribers edition articles only, so if you do not find the story you want in the articles links in the pages below and you are looking for more links about a person or area or town that interests you, we have two options for you. We suggest, first off, go back to our Free Home Page and peruse the links to Portal Pages we present for more than a dozen categories. If you do not find the story you want at those Portals, then use our search box below.
Because there are so many Subscriber Story links, we have separated them into six groups, as indicated below. Click the link for the area that most interests you. Please keep in mind that some of these links are from our old domain. On some of those pages, the links will not work. In that case, return to the ree Home Page to use the Portals or the Search Box. Please note: some of the stories linked from these archives pages have been extensively updated and moved from the old Stumpranchonline domain to our new domain. Most will automatically direct you. If you are not redirected, please email us and we will connect you with the page.

Utopia-area features
Lyman, Minkler Lake, Utopia features features
Features about Hamilton and its namesake, William Hamilton
Frank Wilkeson's New York Times columns from the 1890s
Birdsview-area pioneers
The Karl von Pressentin family of the upper Skagit River
The L.A. Boyd family of Birdsview
Features about the town of Concrete and the Baker River
Upriver Features: Rockport through the Cascades
Features about the Sauk River area

Utopia-area features

Helen Mathews Burns, now 91, recalls her childhood home in the Utopia district — also the home of your humble editor, and her father, James Hood Mathews. Includes the story of their relatives, the pioneer George Brosseau and family of Sterling and old Sedro, and their friends, the Reische family of Utopia. Issue 35

Upper Skagit River Features
Lyman, Minkler Lake, Utopia features

The Skagit Land Trust has announced that they have purchased a parcel of land including the eastern half of Minkler Lake. Our exclusive two-part story on Birdsey Minkler, his mill, his family and the upper Skagit River that results from ten years of research and correspondence with his descendents. This links to the story of Mary Belle "Matie" Minkler Bratlie, Birdsey's fifth child, who lived to 109, and her husband Hans Bratlie, who published the Hamilton Herald and Concrete Herald. Issue 10
Origins of Lyman, Part One: earliest settlers and homesteaders, including A.R. Williamson, Valentine Adam and Henry Cooper and town namesake, Lorenzo Lyman. earliest businesses, the Skagit River's effect on the town, the Otto Klement and Birdsey Minkler eras. And that links to Part Two, including Flynn and Meyers families; capsule histories of 24 early families. Issue 44
Alexander Ross, who homesteaded an island in the Utopia district of the Skagit River and imported fine cattle after a life on the bounding main. We find that he was lured to this area by David Batey, one of the four bachelors who settled future Sedro, when Batey and Ross met in San Francisco. Issue 17
Brown Wiseman planted fish in high-country, North Cascades lakes and streams in the 1920s and '30s while he was a schoolteacher. Also includes his experience with the True-Love Bandit in 1914. Issue 31
Peter Trueman, who homesteaded in the Cascades and then moved downriver to Lyman, where he sank down roots and married the widow of Birdsey Minkler's original Lyman sawmill partner. The Trueman family still lives in Lyman today. Issue 17
Otto Klement came to Washington territory in 1873 and this excerpt from his 1926 diary details the logging methods that he encountered on the Olympic Peninsula that year before paddling across Puget sound to the Skagit valley. Issue 21
Bill Newberg, the boy from the Utopia area who graduated in 1929 and went on to help engineer the construction of B-29s in World War II and then ascended to the presidency of Dodge and Chrysler. Interview at age 92. Issue 11
During Founders Days the 1914 bank robbery is reenacted, but the Bingham Bank was robbed in 1933 and people are still alive who remember the sadness that gripped Sedro-Woolley when night watchman Carl Strom of Utopia was murdered. Issue 1

Features about Hamilton and its namesake, William Hamilton Mollie Dowdle features, all Issue 36 unless otherwise indicated

Complete growing list of all the Mollie Dowdle stories in the Journal, and the 1966 introduction that the Skagit Valley Herald wrote about her. Issue 36
Mollie Dowdle lived to the age of 97 and she had quite a gene pool. In this 1963 column, she told us about her father, his Tarheel values and how her family maintained the values and culture in Hamilton and the upper Skagit River.
In a 1966 column, Mollie reflected on her Tarheel ancestry and eternal laughter with her upper Skagit River family, including observance of "Decoration Day," not only in late May but on Sundays in times of good weather.
In a 1975 column, Mollie Dowdle wrote about springtime along the fence and behind the barn on the family's upper Skagit River farm, and the ubiquitous cottonwood trees.
In a 1963 column, Mollie wrote about her mother and the challenge she faced with her family, setting up a home clear across the country.
Mollie tells the story of how her beloved grandfather, Malcolm Woods, moved his family and four-year-old Mollie out to the Skagit Valley from North Carolina, where poverty, disease and death had taken several of them while very young.
We especially thank Pat Hegg Brown, Deanna Ammons, Bernie Leaf and Larry Spurling for the large collection of articles that they have shared with us, some of which includes these columns. We encourage readers to share similar columns with us. We also welcome copies of old newspapers, especially those before 1920 and copies of the annual Puget Sound Mail Pioneer Picnic special editions of any year. We never ask for your originals. Please either send us scans or for copies, you can find our mail address at the top or bottom of this story.
The Qualls family and Cary Family, pioneers of Hamilton and their cemetery, including Mollie Moyer Dowdle's stories, memories of Gladys Ellis Pape Miller, newspaper stories and genealogy of each family. Issue 11.
Mollie Moyer Dowdle tells the story of little Gar Green learning the facts of life as Mrs. Tingley races to deliver a Pioneer Baby. Issue 7

Our exclusive in-depth history of the town of Hamilton "Pittsburgh of the West." Unpublished material, and memories and photos of descendants, from the early coal discoveries in 1874 on. Issue 4
Our exclusive, in-depth profile of William Hamilton, who erected his steamboat landing on the north shore of the Skagit — across from the coal mines, and spent 14 years as a hotel-keeper before moving to the Midwest and starting a new family. Issue 4
Read about fishing for Humpback salmon and trout with his friend and Hamilton pioneer, Ike Morrell, in 1892.
Frank Wilkeson, boomer of Hamilton and Sedro, published this column on Fishing and hunting near Hamilton in the New York Times in 1893. Issue 4, Updated Issue 30
Frank Wilkeson wrote a series of columns in 1891 about the richness of the Skagit valley. "Five Thousand Five Hundred Square Miles of the richest lands in the world: No need for commercial manure here!" Agriculture, silver and coal from Sedro to Hamilton and the foothills of the Cascades. Issue 2, updated Issue 5, old domain
In 1891, Frank surveyed the whole valley and the foothills for coal deposits and mines, including the little town northeast of Woolley that would become known as Cokedale.
Story of the 1925 fire that leveled Hamilton. See Issue 5, Subscribers Journal
James Cochrane, a key volunteer on the Mount Vernon logjam clearing team of 1877-79, and Hamilton and LaConner pioneer. Issue 5
A writer at the turn of the century wrote a profile of the early history of Hamilton, "Pittsburgh of the West." Issue 5
Photos of Hamilton, settlers and schools from the early days to the 1940s. Issue 5
Lafayette Stevens, the Skagit pioneer from 1873 who used his Nevada mining skills to prospect for coal near Hamilton, find the coal fields that led to Cokedale and became the most noted mining speculator on the Skagit River. Issue 11
Bert Huntoon, engineer and photographer of Cascade Pass, Fairhaven and Mount Baker. Issue 7
Newspaper stories and web sites about Bert Huntoon, the Huntoon brothers, Bert's photography, Cascade Pass and Mount Baker. Issue 15
Huntoon brothers, John and Isaac D., and their booming and real estate activities in Hamilton, Anacortes and Idaho. Issue 7, updated Issue 15. Also see this link for stories about the impact the Huntoons had on Fairhaven, Seattle and Idaho.
Frank Wilkeson takes his New York Times readers fishing on 6-Mile Creek in the North Cascades in 1890, after walking 14 miles through the forest to Hamilton
This capsule biography file features Hamilton pioneers, William J.S. Gordon and Marshall Edward and Bessie Luton. With more notes about Gordon's brother-in-law James J. Conner, and Bessie's sister Olive, who married Fidalgo pioneer William Munks. Issue 10, updated Issue 22

Frank Wilkeson's New York Times columns from the 1890s See a list of links to all of Frank Wilkeson's columns on our site. Most of them are about fishing and hunting in the area from old Sedro, across the Cascades to Lake Chelan. And read about Patricia N. McAndrew's new book, The Old Soldier Goes Fishing — planned for publication in Winter 2010, a collection of his columns and a biography of Frank and his family.

Birdsview-area pioneers

Read about Frank taking his son and friends for a fishing trip on Grandy Lake.
George Savage profile: 1916 autobiography of 1878 Birdsview settler and first county surveyor, and his daughter, Catherine Pulsipher, plus Equality Colony. Issue 8
For many wonderful stories of the extended Boyd-Royal-Savage-Torrey-Steen clan and stories about the upper Skagit River, go to the website of our partner, Dan Royal's Stump Ranch, Dan Royal's Stump Ranch.
The ghost town of Bessemer, the Elliott and Jarman families, and early Birdsview. Issue 9
A 1971 letter from Birdsview pioneer Catherine Savage Pulsipher that reveals her identity as Mountain Katy in June Burn's book, Living High. Issue 29

The Karl von Pressentin family of the upper Skagit river

Otto K. Pressentin, son of the pioneer Birdsview family and practitioner of the arts of survival from Washington to Alaska. A brief profile and his biography from 1906. Issue 18
1958 article by Ray Jordan about Otto's early years in British Columbia as a fur trader, starting in 1911, and his initial trade with Indians who lived in the interior. Issue 18
Otto K. Pressentin, Fur Trading, Part Two, another story by Ray Jordan that includes prices for goods and furs and details about Otto's later years in the province through 1921. Issue 18
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. Issue 33
A library of articles about the Karl and Minnie von Pressentin family.
Chuck Pressentin's 1961 memories of his grandfather's California flood experiences before moving to Washington territory, and his earliest days here on the Skagit river near Birdsview. Issue 10, updated Issue 23
Karl von Pressentin family arrive at Birdsview in 1878 from Manistee, Michigan, after stopping in Seattle. Includes description of very early Mount Vernon the year it began. Issue 5

The L.A. Boyd family of Birdsview

Family memories of Lewis A. Boydin three parts, written by daughter Mabel and other family members. Round-the-world sailor, Nebraska farmer, first upper Skagit river schoolmaster, Skagit County clerk. Issue 9, updated Issue 19 . . . also see this Journal website
The story of the L.A. Boyd family by his son, Archie Boyd. Issue 1, updated Issue 19

Features about the town of Concrete and the Baker river

Charles M. Dwelley, country weekly newspaper editor. We present for the first time full biographies of the editor of the Concrete Herald for 30 years, his grandfather, Joseph F. Dwelley, who was a pioneer of the Skagit Valley in 1870; and his father, Charles L. Dwelley, pioneer resident of Anacortes. Issue 31
The turn-of-the-20th-century soap opera of the family of Fred Cole of Concrete. Fred was a deputy sheriff and a bigamist and married a murderer, then abandoned her after swindling her savings. And the story of his wives and 16 children. Information from descendant Paul Enge. Issue 15
Our two part exclusive profile of Amasa Peg-Leg Everett, the Skagit pioneer from 1873 who discovered coal, was at the center of Indian hostilities at the Baker River, found the materials that led to Concrete' cement industry and grubstaked upper Skagit miners. Issue 11
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. Father of famous North Cascades ranger Tommy Thompson. Issue 19
A profile of Andrew Jackson Jackman, the pioneer who homesteaded at the creek named for him, two decades before the town of Van Horn was born. And his wife, Mary Ann (Harry) Jackman, whose extended Upper Skagit Indian family includes many more pioneers, including the Bacons, Leggetts and Napoleons, among others. and the birth of the Log Cabin Inn in Marblemount. Issue 27

Upriver Features: Rockport through the Cascades
including forests, parks and mines Von Pressentin family and Rockport History:

Obituary of Minnie von Pressentin, 1945, wife of 1877 Birdsview pioneer Karl von Pressentin. Issue 31
Profiles of Ed V. Pressentin, Rockport pioneer and merchant. Issue 31
Part 2: Obituaries and other articles about Ed V. Pressentin, and his father, A.V. Pressentin, Karl's younger brother. Includes a brief recap of the von Pressentins in Germany and in the U.S. Issue 33
Early days of Rockport, including Ed Pressentin's store and the hilarious story of how Cliff Garrett literally beat his new Model-T to death. Issue 31

More Rockport/Marblemount features:

Tom Benton's 1965 history of Rockport and the role that his von Pressentin family played in its birth. Issue 35
The Rockport Hotel Fireof 1952, a profile of its owner Hugo Bauman, and memories of Will D. Jenkins. Issue 10
A profile ofHugo Bauman, who owned hotels in Woolley and Rockport and became a Skagit County commissioner while living upriver. Includes excerpts from the Will D. "Bob" Jenkins book: Last Frontier in the North Cascades.
Tommy Thompson, everyman and longest serving forest ranger from 1907-43 and his wife, Ella, sometimes called the Boss at Backus. Issue 19
The hair-raising story of how tiny Ella Thompson rode the go-devil tram across the Sauk river and almost got stranded in the middle over the rushing water. Issue 19
Part one of our exclusive section about Poets on the Peaks by John Suiter, the book about Beat writers Gary Snyder, Philip Whelan and Jack Kerouac and their years as firewatchers in the North Cascades from 1952-56. Issue 19
Chapter 4 of the Otto Klement story: Otto, settlers and Indians cross the Cascade Pass in 1877 for gold, bears and a goat that jumped in the boat. Issue 20
Backus Ranger Station at Marblemount, the portal to the Mount Baker and Cascades mountain districts. Along with information about the Bacon creek and Texas Pond substations and the work of the CCC in building many camps in the Cascades from 1933-38. Issue 19
The people who spent months at a time watching for fires and fighting them: the people and their towers. Dr. Quentin Belles shares memories of firefighting in the '40s. Maxine Meyers remembers the Mount Josephine tower. Both in Issue 9.
The birth of organized firefightingin the state of Washington. Issue 9.

Cascade Pass wagon road/highway & David G. McIntyre

Introduction to this Cascade Pass series, with links to all the stories about the 80-year process to build a wagon road, which finally became the North Cross-State Highway in 1972. Issue 31
Early Cascade road efforts. Journal research about the original 1895 Washington State Legislature appropriation and survey; background from regional writers, a 1903 Skagit Times story about the Goat Trail; Will D. "Bob Jenkins's story of the Devil's Elbow. Issue 31
Revived plans for the Cascade Pass wagon road before and after David G. McInytre's campaign. Issue 31
Washingtonian magazine, a January 1929 article about the campaign that McIntyre, who owned Skagit Steel & Iron Works, led to kick-start the Cascade Pass wagon road. Issue 31

Mines area

Lucinda Davis, a divorcee from Denver, arrived at the Cascade River in 1890 with her children, Frank, Glee and Idessa, and they braved floods and fires to live at Goodell's Landing and to establish Cedar Bar, the most famous Skagit River roadhouse. Issue 35
Lawrence.K. Hodges and the book about Washington mining that made him famous. A chapter about the Cascade river region. Issue 20
Nathan Edwards Goodell and his pioneer store on the upper Skagit River during the Ruby Creek gold rush of 1880. Included is the story of how August Dohne converted the store and site into a roadhouse for upriver travelers and miners. Issue 30
George Holmes, an ex-slave who found freedom in the foothills of the North Cascades. Issue 23
John McMillan, king of Big Beaver creek. Issue 23
Pioneer Albert G. Mosier's 1939 history of mining in Skagit County. Issue 20
Skagit Talc Co. of Sedro-Woolley and Newhalem. Issue 20
A quick overview of mining in the foothills of the North Cascades. With links to many stories of miners and mountain men and women of the late 19th century. Issue 20
Gilbert Landre, the French Canadian who made one of the first ore discoveries on the Cascade River, and then built the cabin he is best known for — roadhouse and a place for his fellow miners to hang out on rainy days. Issue 20
Dr. Jesse Kennedy has good news. Gilbert Landre's cabin, a longtime mining landmark near Cascade Pass since the 1890s, is being shored up and partially restored every year, if the snowfall allows. Issue 35

Features about the Sauk river area

Our exclusive 3-part history of Sauk City on the south shore of the Skagit — which is now a pasture, and Sauk on the north shore, a railroad town, and the pioneer miners, farmers and storekeepers who braved the remote wilderness and the constant threat of floods on the trail to the Monte Cristo mines. Part of our 8-part Sauk section. Issue 3, updated Issue 30
Short biographies pioneers of the Sauk River, Stillaguamish River, Illabot creek and Monte Cristo-areas. Issue 23
The towns of Bedal Camp and Orient on the Sauk River, and how they began in the 1890s on the trail from Sauk City to the Monte Cristo mines. Issue 24
Profiles and obituaries of the James Bedal family, Sauk river homesteaders in 1891. The first comprehensive look at this hardy family, including wife Susie Wahwetkin, daughter of the last Sauk-Suiattle tribal chief, son Harry, a forest ranger, and Edith and Jean, the daughters who led pack teams across some of the most challenging trails and rivers in the North Cascades. Includes Bedal's connection to Little House on the Prairie. Issue 24
Short biographies of North Cascades pioneers, A-I. Issue 23
Short biographies of North Cascades pioneers, J-Z. Issue 20, updated Issue 23
Our exclusive 3-part history of Sauk City on the south shore of the Skagit, which is now a pasture, and Sauk on the north shore, a railroad town, and the pioneer families who braved floods and fires, and the trail to Monte Cristo. Issue 3
Two Ray Jordan stories about the Sauk City and Sauk river area and Diane Wainright McMurdie's memories of her relatives who homesteaded there. Issue 13.
Ray Jordan's exciting story of the macabre Sauk Prairie massacre of 1911, a spectacular Darius Kinsey photo and Marvin Olsen's family memories of the incident. Issue 12
Larry Spurling shares an oral interview with his late uncle Howard Spurling about his family's life, growing up on the Spurling ranch on Sauk Prairie. Issue 12, Old domain

Henry Martin family of Illabot Creek

3-part history of Henry Martin family of upriver Skagit at Illabot creek. Part One: biography and genealogy of the family. All 3 parts, Issue 12
Part Two: obituaries of Henry and Katherine Martin. She raised nine children far away from "civilization" and was the benefactor of the upriver Catholic church. Issue 12
Part Three: Fred Martin, the son of the pioneer family who became a state senator. Issue 12
How upriver Skagit Catholics organized their own services in private homes and then built their own mission church, led by Katharine and Henry Martin of Illabot creek.Issue 27
We especially hope that a reader will supply information about other families of the Illabot Creek and Sauk River area. We are working right now on research about the O'Brien and O'Connor families and Will D. "Bob" Jenkins and his mother, who homesteaded near the Martins in the 1910s and '20s.Issue 27

Tom Porter family

Profiles of the Tom Porter family, pioneers of Sauk City and Lyman, with profiles and photos. Issue 6
Bessie Porter's memories of Sauk City, Rockport, Pressentins, Martins and the Great Northern railroad. Issue 5
Marv Olsen, our Monte Cristo-Bennettville correspondent, tells an honest-to-God, true story about his late father leash-trained his pet salmon. Issue 14
Short biographies pioneers of the Sauk River, Stillaguamish River, Illabot creek and Monte Cristo-areas. Issue 20, updated Issue 23
Profile of Chief Wawitkin [or Wawetkin], the last chief of the Sauk-Suiattle Indian tribe. Issue 25

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Archive links for Skagit River Journal Features about the upper Skagit River From Utopia to the Cascades and the Sauk River Dating from Jan. 1, 2001, Subscribers Issues 1-40

Archive links for Skagit River Journal
Features about the upper Skagit River
From Utopia to the Cascades and the Sauk River
Dating from Jan. 1, 2001, Subscribers Issues 1-40