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.

History of Washington, statewide
and counties outside of Skagit

County Sections

Whatcom county history, Bellingham and Fairhaven
Snohomish county history.
Island County features about Utsalady, Whidbey Island and Camano Island are in Snohomish County section for now.

Olympic Peninsula

Journal review of Tom Camfield's Port Townsend books, An Illustrated History of Shanghaiing, Shipwrecks, Soiled Doves and Sundry Souls (2000) and The City That Whiskey Built (2002), two great volumes on early Washington Territory history.
Read about J.J. Van Bokkelen, who came to the Northwest in 1851 in search of gold, became a key political figure and settler in Port Townsend and explored Skagit County by boat during the Fraser river gold rush of 1858.
Port Townsend, the birth of the town and Blanket Bill Jarman's first Washington home.
Also in Issue 40: the history of the S'Klallam and Chemakum tribes of the Olympic Peninsula. William R. Jarman lived with them and met his wife, Alice, and Chief Sehome there . . . and the early history of Slaughter/Kitsap County.
Our first excerpt from Theodore Winthrop's important 1863 book, Canoe and Saddle, about his 11-day tour of Washington territory in 1853. This excerpt profiles the controversial Klallam Indian chief who preferred then to be addressed as the Duke of York, and we provide some research about how he matured to become Port Townsend's revered friend, Chetzemoka, and nobody's fool, after all.
Kitsap County (originally Slaughter County) and the myth debunked that Blanket Bill Jarman was the first settler there.

Library

An introduction to and biographies of June Burn, and her husband, Farrar, including background quotes from June's book, Living High. She was a Pacific Northwest biographer and columnist in the 1920s-'40s, she met and profiled Skagit and Whatcom County pioneers, and she and her husband and family homesteaded a Puget sound island.
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.
For a thorough review of the North Cascades Mines, we strongly suggest the new book, Discovering Washington's Historic Mines, Volume 3: The Northern Cascade Mountains. See this Journal review. We are moving all our original "stumpranchonline.com" features like this one to our new domain. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Some of our favorite history books and suggestions for further reading.
Transcriptions old newspapers from Skagit County, Snohomish, Whatcom and all over Puget Sound. Includes history of earliest Washington Territory newspapers from Olympia.
See a list of links to all of Frank Wilkeson's columns on our site that he wrote for the New York Times in the 1890s while living in Sedro, Hamilton and Fairhaven.

Washington statewide stories, affecting other counties

Ku Klux Klan in the Northwest, 1920s, and an overview of KKK activities and photos, including a ceremony in Sedro-Woolley.
Claudia Lowman writes about the Klan in Anacortes, 1926
Gabriel Mayer writes about the Klan in Bellingham in the 1920s
Claudia Lowman writes about the Ku Klux Klan in Anacortes, 1926
Gabriel Mayer writes about the Klan in Bellingham in the 1920s
We have studied for 12 years the lives of the two men who first settled the area that became mainland Skagit county: Sam Calhoun and Michael Sullivan, who came to the Swinomish flats in 1863, plus the Calhoun brothers, Dr. George, Tom and Rufus. Includes George and Rufus's impact on Port Townsend, medicine, sailing and the Olympic Peninsula.
Read about J.J. Van Bokkelen, who came to the Northwest in 1851 in search of gold, became a key political figure and settler in Port Townsend and explored Skagit county by boat during the Fraser river gold rush of 1858.
Introduction portal to the Goodell family, which had a marked impact on all of Washington Territory from the year it was formed in 1853, with special emphasis on Lewis, Thurston, Skagit and Whatcom counties. Capsule profiles of the major characters of the family and their biographers in this four-part section. Including Nathan Edwards Goodell, namesake of Goodell's Landing, Skagit river; and Phoebe Goodell Judson, the mother of Lynden. We are moving all our original "stumpranchonline.com" features like this one to our new domain. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Joshua Green builds his steamboat dynasty
Trip One of Green's Henry Bailey sternwheeler
Biography of June Burn, Washington's most important woman historian of the first half of the 20th century.
This is the 150th anniversary year of the famous Fraser River gold rush in British Columbia, which first put Whatcom on the map, if only briefly. Read June Burn's 1931 columns where she reviewed the argonauts and the events. Walter Washington deLacy, father of the Old Military Road and the Whatcom Trail to Fraser River in 1858, and his fascinating life before and after his Whatcom years.
A newspaper article from 1900 urging readers to desert William Jennings Bryan and vote for William McKinley. Frank Wilkeson and other Sedro-Woolley, Skagit County and Washington state business leaders endorse McKinley.

Stories affecting more than one county

John Muir and David Douglas, two Scotsmen who explored and wrote about the virgin old-growth forests of Washington and the greater Northwest. Excerpt from Muir's 1918 book, Forests of Washington.
George Bacon, early Northwest mortgage lender, who helped settlers finance their land and homesteads, and his book, Booming and Panicking on Puget Sound. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.

Washington east of the Cascades

We plan to post several history features about eastern Washington, especially Okanogan County, Chelan County and the Stehekin area. For now, here are two features
Paradise of the Cinnamon Bears, number 13 in the series of Northwest stories by Frank Wilkeson, published in the New York Times, July 10, 1892, about hunting across Skagit Pass near Lake Chelan.
A review of a wonderful book that illustrates the spirit, perseverance and consternation and challenges of the pioneer woman: Bold Spirit, by Linda Lawrence Hunt. The story of Helga Estby, Norwegian immigrant and mother of nine, who accepted a challenge to walk across America from Spokane in 1896, and collect a wager that would save her family home. We are moving all our original "stumpranchonline.com" features like this one to our new domain. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.

Washington Territory and Frontier Experience

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. Shared from Subscribers Edition archives
Links to sources about homesteading and land laws and advice on how you can conduct your own research.
Our introduction to exploration of the Northwest before Washington's statehood.
Local and Northwest map resources

Story posted Oct. 10, 2001, last updated Sept. 30, 2011
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 700-plus stories.		*See this Journal* Timeline website of local, state, national, international events for years of the pioneer period.**
Return to the new-domain home page	Links for portals to subjects and towns	Newest photo features	Search entire site
Our monthly column, Puget Sound Mail (but don't call it a blog) debuted on Aug. 9, 2009. Check it out.

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Did you enjoy this story? Remember, as with all our features, this story is a draft and will evolve as we discover more information and photos. This process continues until we eventually compile a book about Northwest history. Can you help with copies or scans of documents or photos? We never ask for your originals.

Read about how you can order CDs that include our photo features from the first ten years of our Subscribers-paid online magazine. Perfect for gifts. Although it was delayed by our illness, it is due for completion in 2012.

You can click the donation button to contribute to the rising costs of this site. See many examples of how you can aid our project and help us continue for another ten years. You can also subscribe to our optional Subscribers-Paid Journal magazine online, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in September 2010, with exclusive stories, in-depth research and photos that are shared with our subscribers first. You can go here to read the preview edition to see examples of our in-depth research or read how and why to subscribe.

You can read the history websites about our prime sponsors
Would you like information about how to join them in advertising?

Our newest sponsor, Plumeria Bay, is based in Birdsview, just a short walk away from the Royal family's famous Stumpranch, and is your source for the finest down comforters, pillows, featherbeds andduvet covers and bed linens. Order directly from their website and learn more about this intriguing local business.

Oliver-Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 90 years continually in business.

Peace and quiet at the Alpine RV Park, just north of Marblemount on Hwy 20, day, week or month, perfect for hunting or fishing. Park your RV or pitch a tent — for as little as $5 per night — by the Skagit River, just a short drive from Winthrop or Sedro-Woolley. Alpine is doubling in capacity for RVs and camping in 2011.

Joy's Sedro-Woolley Bakery-Cafe at 823 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley.

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Skagit River Journal

History of Washington, statewide and counties outside of Skagit

History of Washington, statewide
and counties outside of Skagit