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.

Oldies but Goodies, sorted by region and category

Sedro-Woolley

Logging, mills, loggers

Upriver

Western Skagit county

Towns nearby
Sedro-Woolley

Washington, national

Railroads, Skagit countywide

Books, reviews & resources

Sedro-Woolley and surrounding area

Young New Sedro

Very Early Sedro and Woolley. Click photo for transcriptions of five stories about Sedro and Woolley in an 1890s magazine

See 6 rare old photos about the 3 trains in the famous 1890s Sedro-Woolley triangle
Read about how and when Mortimer Cook's town of Bug became Sedro in May 1885. This is a great story in several parts that together provide depth.
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?
Old Woolley's Opera House, the Bowery Square and the building that became the Moose Club, fully updated from our recent newspaper research.
As we watch the magnificent McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon host a varied entertainment venue, readers often inquire about where the endowment came from that paid for the building. The seed money came after the death of an old friend and a truly generous man, Jack McIntyre. Read about his family and the Skagit Steel business at this introduction site, with a timeline for the business from 1902 and links to other stories about the business and the family of David G. McIntyre, Sedro-Woolley's visionary from Michigan and truly a giant of Washington industry.
Did you know that Skagit Steel nearly moved away from Sedro-Woolley in 1953? Read Part One of the story of how local businessmen insured that the company would stay and expand.
Ku Klux Klan in the Northwest, 1920s, and an overview of KKK activities and photos, including a ceremony in Sedro-Woolley.
The Kelley Strip, no man's land owned by developer Norman R. Kelley on the border between Sedro and Woolley until 1906. Do you think you know where Sedro ended and Woolley began, geographically?
Sedro-Woolley's famous 4th of July Loggerodeo. Four features with more than two dozen photos and history of 4th celebrations in Skagit County back to the 1870s.
We 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?
The story of the Hammer, Green and Parker families who made such an impact on Sedro-Woolley and Lincoln, Kansas, and inspired the new Hammer Heritage Square, Sedro-Woolley's beautiful downtown park.
The real and the unreal story of Sedro and Woolley's merger in December 1898; myth debunked. And did you know that the towns almost merged as early as 1891? Deanna Ammons discovered the story.
Read about how the Froggy Orchestra entertained settlers around the swamp that became P.A. Woolley's original company town in 1890, and how that area north of the railroad tracks is changing today, becoming almost chic.
Introduction to Darius Kinsey, Sedro-Woolley's most famous photographer; he lived here from 1897-1906. Also includes information about the complete Kinsey collection at the Whatcom Museum of History and Art and links to other Journal Kinsey stories and other background sources.
Washington Territory Attorney General James Metcalfe, namesake of Metcalf street in old Woolley and the man who pulled the strings to pave the way for P.A. Woolley's company town.
Sedro-Woolley's Hal's Drive-in started as the first drive-in in the county in 1949, a Dairy Queen
Holland Drugs closed in Sedro-Woolley on Oct. 15, 2010, after 120 years in business in old Sedro and downtown Sedro-Woolley. Read our fully updated profile of the business and founder Albert E. Holland.

All links for this category

Logging, mills and loggers

See many stories about Mills, Logging and Forestry history and methods in this portal section with links, including these updated features below.
The story of early ox-team logging, from the Dec. 25, 1890, issue of the The Aberdeen Herald, and photos of logging equipment from before the turn of the 20th century. Shared from Subscribers Edition, Issue 3.
John Muir writes about the Douglas fir in Washington Forests, written in 1889 after hiking through Washington.
Woolley vigilantes tar and feather a Wobbly woods organizer in 1918 and the aftermath across Washington state through the massacres of 1919.
Articles profiling the history of the Goodyear-Nelson mill of Sedro-Woolley, and Journal research about this company, which became the town's first "modern" mill in 1928.
Early logging history and methods by W.E. Crosby, Editor, West Coast Lumberman; from oxen to steam donkey to steam railroad, in two chapters.
William Entwistle, who began logging in Washington at age 12 in 1876, tells about early logging methods, plus rare old logging photos.