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.

State Senator Emerson Hammer. He and his father-in-law George Green were heavyweights in business and mills in Sedro-Woolley and all over the county. They are honored by the new Hammer Heritage Square in downtown Woolley. In an upcoming issue we will feature the dozens of people to followed them to Skagit County from Lincoln, Kansas, the town that Green founded in 1870.

The nuts and bolts of Pioneer Life in Skagit County
Special resource features for background
reading and reference

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.
Links to sources about homesteading and land laws and advice on how you can conduct your own research. Issue 17
Our introduction to exploration of the Northwest before Washington's statehood.
Local and Northwest map resources
We have begun transcribing chapters of the most important source of Skagit County History, the 1906 book, Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties. We have annotated the chapters, adding footnotes that give background to people, places and businesses.
Read Chuck Easton's 1976 history of history of Skagit County. And publisher Charles Dwelley's 1953 Skagit County history. And a very early 1902 history of the county from Sebring's Illustrated magazine.
The Skagit Valley Genealogical Society is one of the finest such organizations in the state and it provides a regular series of programs where volunteers help people research their own family's roots.
Skagit County Historical Society, Happy 50th Birthday 1959- 2009. The 50th Anniversary is coming up on the Museum building in 2018, watch for news of celebration. Skagit Valley Historical Society and Museum website can be found on the highlighted link.
Links to Skagit County and regional museums can be found at this link. The page is in the process of being updated. Also the Washington State Archives Northwest Regional Branch provides archival and records management services to local government agencies throughout Clallam, Island, Jefferson, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, and Whatcom counties. Go to there website to see the listing of items available to Skagit and surrounding counties.
For first-time readers, we suggest that you read our introduction, From Bug to the Bughouse, about early Sedro-Woolley. This story was the nucleus of our site in 2000. Other basic files: Sedro founder Mortimer Cook . . . P.A. Woolley personal & town history . . . Four British bachelors settle future Sedro.
Transcriptions of Northwest and Skagit County newspapers, back to the turn of the 20th century.
Introduction to Skagit Steel & Iron Works, Sedro-Woolley's most important industry for six decades.
We share our updated, extensive list of first schools in Whatcom County (from 1854 onwards) and the area that became Skagit County from 1883. Many readers have shared updates and corrections. Can you help?
Reviews and mini-reviews of one of our favorite history books and suggestions for further reading. The Library Section of history books, newspaper transcriptions and suggestions for further reading. Here is a link to our most recent full reviews.
Our special section about the experience of Valley Girls - Skagit Counties own Frontier Women has been updated with several new links and our introduction to the book, Bold Spirit, about Helga Estby's walk across America from Spokane to Brooklyn in 1896. Also read about Lewis Kirkby, 1888 Sedro native, and his connection to biograhies and writing on pioneer women by Lavinia Gates Chapman, Joanna Stratton, and Lilla Day Monroe. The Territorial Daughters of Washington, the keeper of historical records for Skagit county since 1936 — read how the club began in 1936, the frontier memories of the charter members and how you or your descendants may qualify.
Introduction to Northern State Hospital, 1909-76, and that includes links to three other stories about the Sedro-Woolley institution.
Part One of our totally updated story of the Fairhaven & Southern Railway, which chugged into old Sedro on Christmas eve, 1889, as the first standard-gauge railroad in the state, north of Seattle. Includes profiles of F&S pioneers Nelson Bennett and John J. Donovan and the birth of the two Sedro towns.
A review of Jill Livingston's book, That Ribbon of Highway III, Highway 99 which follows the history of the road from its beginning in the Teen years of the 20th Century, through its designation as US99 in 1926 and its long life until the mid-1960s when most of it was replaced by Freeway I-5 from the Mexican Border to Vancouver. She also profiles Sam Hill — son-in-law of Great Northern magnate James J. Hill. Sam Hill launched the Good Roads Association in 1899 and that inspired similar groups in states and localities all over the West Coast.
Larry Kunzler and Josef Kunzler host a website that explores Skagit River floods in depth — past, present and future. The Kunzler website, an outgrowth of the work Larry is doing with Dan Berentson of the Skagit County government to study floods; the website features new research about the upper Skagit River. Featured in the New York Times. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Readers ask and we answer 20 questions about Sedro-Woolley and the immediate area. Timeline of Sedro and Woolley through the merger in 1898. We know that Sedro and Woolley merged in December 1898 but did you know that the city council voted to consolidate the towns as early as 1891?
Frank Wilkeson was a columnist for the New York Times and Sun. He lived in Sedro, Hamilton and Fairhaven from 1885-1900 and wrote about his experiences here. Read about the hobos of Sedro, the coal mines of the Skagit region, fishing and hunting on the Skagit river and much more. Also read about the new book about Frank, Old Soldier Goes Fishing. And see links to more than a dozen of his columns

This depot for the F&S Line was erected in the fall of 1889 at a spot that is now about where the Riverfront RV Park is located. It was considered one of the finest depots in the state at that time, rivaling the depot in Seattle. About a decade later the adjacent town of old Sedro had faded, following a series of disastrous floods, and the depot was put on a flatcar and moved up to spot by the Seattle & Northern tracks in old Woolley in the 600 block of Metcalf street. For the next 30 years it served both passenger and freight trains and from 1932 until the 1970s it was used by those hauling freight to and from upriver.

Story last updated Oct. 24, 2011, Oct. 2017
Please report any broken links so we can update them

Getting lost trying to navigate or find stories on our site? Read how to sort through our 800-plus stories.
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See this Journal Timeline website of local, state, national, international events for years of the pioneer period.
Did you enjoy these stories and histories? The process continues as we compile and collaborate on research about Northwest history. Can you help? Remember; we welcome correction, criticism and additions to the record.
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Skagit River Journal

The nuts and bolts of Pioneer Life in Skagit County Special resource features for background reading and reference

The nuts and bolts of Pioneer Life in Skagit County
Special resource features for background
reading and reference