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Skagit River JournalFree 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 |
 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug |
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At a very early date, certain facts and considerations which have exerted a powerful influence in the later history of the island began to make themselves felt. The superior excellence of Ship Harbor had been known perhaps even before the United States vessel, Massachusetts, began making it her headquarters [apparently early 1870s], a circumstance which is said to have given it its name. It did not escape the notice of the able and energetic [Washington Territory] Governor Isaac I. Stevens, who had been a staunch advocate of the northern route for the proposed railroad to the Pacific. In the interest of this great enterprise he examined carefully all the harbors of the sound and dispatched numerous exploring expeditions to the various passes through the mountains, "going over the whole ground with a zeal and thoroughness, a degree of enthusiasm and pride in the performance of his great work which for all time have marked Stevens the first hero of the territory." The result of this investigation was the choice by Stevens of Fidalgo island as the proper terminus and Ward's pass, at the head of the south fork of the Skagit river, as the most desirable gateway to the Pacific.Hazard Stevens, the governor's son, obtained extensive land holdings along the shore there and kept them until 1877, when the Northern Pacific railway fell further into severe financial trouble. NP was the most logical transcontinental railroad prospect at the time, even though they had chosen Tacoma as their initial terminus in 1873. Anna Curtis Bowman showed that she was not just another pretty frontier face that year when she purchased Stevens' holdings It was she who built the wharf and store on her new land, and her friend, Frances Fuller Victor, helped obtain the post office that was set up there. The 1906 Illustrated History goes on to describe the attributes of the future railroad terminus:
Situated as it is on the northern end of Fidalgo island on Guemes channel, it forms the natural outlet for the entire region of country tributary to the Skagit river. It is nearer the entrance of Puget sound than any other port on the sound. The harbor is deep enough for the largest ocean vessels, the depth being from nine to twelve fathoms in the middle and not less than four or five near shore. Concerning this channel we give the following extract from an article in the Northwest Enterprise of Jan. 20, 1883, by Amos Bowman, a civil engineer, a government geologist and engineer and one of the first settlers on the island.The Enterprise may have been Bowman's most important contribution to posterity. In 1882 he printed a map of Puget sound and the region around Anacortes and Ship Harbor and issued reprints all around the world, attracting the eyes of many promoters, speculators and railroad men. The book, Chechacos All, gives the date of March 13, 1879 as the opening of Bowman's post office, but the 1906 Illustrated History places it in 1877. Regardless of when he opened it, Bowman used it well to let the world know that Anacortes was ripe for the making, and especially ready to be the west coast terminus of any transcontinental railroad. Although it also rose out of a dense forest, as did Sedro-Woolley, Anacortes was all about a deep harbor ready for ships that would be filled from railroad cars and then sail all around the Pacific. Bowman outlined his grand plan in the Anacortes Progress of Aug. 14, 1890. The Progress sprang up on August 3, 1889, to replace the Enterprise, which had died a choking death three years earlier.
"Aside from its central location on the water of the Fuca Mediterranean, on the eastside mainland, or continental shore, and the head of Fuca strait, where all other imaginable approaches by land or sea must either meet or pass, the first feature to impress itself upon the mind of the observer is the fact that, standing anywhere you like upon the Fidalgo shore, Ship harbor has the appearance of being, as it really is, for all practical purposes, a perfectly land-locked harbor.
"The second striking circumstance is the fact that from this sheltered body of water are seen radiating five or six different channels, or waterways, each of them possessing individual merits, either of direction for local commercial traffic or of facility of approach for coasting and sea-going craft from any direction, north, south, east or west. Here a smuggler or a pirate might lurk, if he designed striking in any direction.
"These peculiarities, combining a perfectly land-locked shore with a series of outlets in all desirable directions, make Ship harbor, with its accessory good qualities, the best harbor on Puget sound and rank it among the best in the world. For facility of approach from the open sea, it is unequaled for the reason that Fuca strait is itself unequaled as an approach to more sheltered waters from the open sea; the prevailing direction of the winds in regard to it and the wide unobstructed entrance leaving for it every weather fair to come and go. Coasters from north to south, or from south to north, making use of Fuca, Rosario and Johnstone straits, have not a mile to go out of their way to approach a common point, the nearest by any practicable route from the salt water to the great interior valleys of the Columbia and Frazer rivers."
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Tacoma came into view as a terminus, as everyone knows, from purest accident. The great undertaking of building the Northern Pacific railroad encountered the financial storms of 1872 and got shipwrecked; and Tacoma was the port which saved the enterprise. It is also well known by all the older citizens that the Northern Pacific railway graders had already passed Tacoma some six or seven miles across the Puyallup and into the valley of the Stuck river [later Auburn], when 'Skookum' (Elijah) Smith and General Sprague were delegated to buy up lands at the nearest available point on Puget sound, at which to make the terminal improvements which were required by the act, in order to hold the land grant.
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Now is this a beautiful locomotive or what? This was the first lokey for the Seattle & Northern train, circa 1890, pulling in to Anacortes. Can anyone tell us more about it? Please email if you can.—Photo courtesy of Wallie Funk collection. |
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According to Robertson's Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History (volume 3, OR,WA), the first train of the Seattle & Northern Railway (presumably a passenger train) operated on August 05, 1890. Robertson also quotes the Railway Gazette as saying 'The road was placed in operation August 15, 1890, from Anacortes to seven miles beyond Sedro.' Robertson says the first published timetable was January 04, 1891," Roger wrote.Thank you, Roger, we certainly can imagine it. At one time, up to 11 trains crossed per day at the famous Woolley triangle of the three rail lines. In our extensive research into the columns of frontier columnist Frank Wilkeson, we found these pertinent columns in his Dec. 2, 1891, column in the New York Times:
In [gngoat] on November 10, 2000, Richard Wilkins posted a description of a trip on the first train from the Anacortes American, but the only mention of a date was that it was a Tuesday. Perhaps Richard, or the above dates could zero us in on the actual newspaper date, and therefore confirm the first train date.
Interestingly, before GN's purchase, the railway was a subsidiary of the Oregon Improvement Company which was closely affiliated with the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, which later became Union Pacific. Just imagine later-day UP, NP and GN trains all crossing at Sedro Woolley.
Is it any wonder that each corporation desires to secure the valley? Throughout last Summer many engineering parties were at work in this valley. Here worked Great Northern engineers, some parties high up in the mountains, searching for a pass that would lead from the Okanagon country to the Skagit, down which valley it is the desire of the managers of that system to run their main line. Yonder worked the engineers of the Oregon Improvement Company, and behind them came several hundred workmen who graded the road from Anacortes to Hamilton, and laid rails from Anacortes to within six miles of the Skagit-Cumberland coal mines. There, across the river, on the south bank, the engineers employed by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company ran lines from Mount Vernon to the Sauk to determine whether a line could be built on the south side of the river that could successfully compete with the Great Northern, which will operate north of the river.We have also discovered the details of James J. Hill's purchase of the Seattle & Northern in 1901 (through his Seattle & Montana Washington state company), not earlier as many guess. In the annual report of the Great Northern of 1902, we find "Instead of purchasing the capital stock ($5,000,000) of the Seattle & Northern Company as originally intended, it was decided to buy the physical property of that company and the same was purchased as of February 1, 1902, by the Seattle & Montana Railroad Company for $1,500,000 in cash. To enable the Seattle & Montana Company to make this purchase, action was taken by stockholders to increase its capital stock from $12,500,000 to $14,000,000, the additional $1,500,000 of stock being bought by the Great Northern Railway Company."
In addition to the bitter rivalry that exists between the Northern Pacific and Great Northern transportation companies, a rivalry that causes each company ardently to desire to control the freight-carrying trade of the Skagit valley, the future of two town sites is involved.
Anacortes is a Northern Pacific and Oregon Improvement Company town. Both of these companies hold large areas of land on Fidalgo Island, and many hundred town lots stand in the names of the officers of those railroads or in the names of their agents. The Great Northern is a large owner of property in Fairhaven, and desires to have all the freight germane to the Skagit Valley discharged, preparatory to shipment by sea, at Fairhaven. The town that secures the handling of this freight will speedily grow into a prosperous city. The war will be exceedingly interesting to persons who own no property in either town, but to property holders the contest for supremacy is beginning to be nerve-destructive. [The entire column]
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Would you like information about how to join them in advertising? Oliver-Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 88 years. Peace and quiet at the Alpine RV Park, just north of Marblemount on Hwy 20, day, week or month, perfect for hunting or fishingPark your RV or pitch a tent by the Skagit River, just a short drive from Winthrop or Sedro-Woolley Joy's Sedro-Woolley Bakery-Cafe at 823 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley. Check out Sedro-Woolley First section for links to all stories and reasons to shop here firstor make this your destination on your visit or vacation. Are you looking to buy or sell a historic property, business or residence?We may be able to assist. Email us for details. |
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