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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
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, editor

810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp

Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

History show planned for Sedro-Woolley
Senior Center Oct. 2, 2009, 1 to 4 p.m.; bring your photos

Ellen Palmer announced this week that the Sedro-Woolley Senior Center, 715 Pacific Street, will host a History Show from 1-4 p.m. on Oct. 2, 2009, with photos and remarks by Noel V. Bourasaw, publisher of the online www.skagitriverjournal.com, a free Internet site that includes nearly 700 features about local, Skagit and Northwest history. There is no admission charge and guests can join the group anytime during the show from 2 to 4 or come earlier and share information and copies of documents and photos with each other and the speaker.
Topics to be covered include: naming of Sedro-Woolley; naming local streets and roads; Tusko's 1922 rampage and Col. Frank Wilkeson. Joe Nemo, now 96, witnessed the Tusko tirade and will be on hand to tell guests about it. The photos will be shown via overhead projector and come from the digitized collection of the Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore, a research project that began in 1992 and was posted to the Internet in August 2000. Bourasaw graduated from Sedro-Woolley High School in 1962 and his late parents, Hazel and Victor Bourasaw, were active members of the community and the center. He has been editing books and magazines for most of the past 30 years.
"We will soon pass 4 million page views, in early October, with about 65,000 readers per month at the Journal site," Bourasaw explains. "One of the advantages of the web is that we never have to handle people's original documents or photographs; instead, we can work from clear photocopies and scans. We have about 2,000 scans on the site now and we have a library of about that same number more on file."
The Journal works with local authors and volunteers who provide basic research and find rare documents that are then transcribed for the website, with annotations and endnotes that explain the significance or background of people or towns or buildings, and corrections in spelling are also made.

Tusko and his fellow elephants on parade, heading west on State Street in May 1922 as a promotion of the Al G. Barnes circus show that week. Note that there is no Bus Jungquist Furniture Building behind them. That was not erected until 1923 for the Ludwick-Wuest store.

The show is planned for 1-4 p.m., with time for people to mingle and meet, and plenty of time for questions to be answered by Bourasaw and other authors and experts who appear. Appointments will also be made to conduct oral interviews with descendants of old-time families. Guests are encouraged to bring any scrapbooks, photos, documents or copies of old newspapers and books that they wish to exhibit at tables that will be set up around the room. With the owners' permission, some of those will be copied for the Journal's digital library.
There will be no admission charge, but guests are encouraged to donate to either the center and/or the Journal. If you have any questions, please contact Ellen Palmer at (360) 855-1531 or you can email Bourasaw at skagitriverjournal@gmail.com. No RSVP is required, but it would be helpful for you to indicate how many people will be coming with you if you plan to attend. Any age is welcome, especially schoolchildren and those in their 80s and 90s.

Story posted on Sept. 26, 2009 . . . Please report any broken links so we can update them

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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 fishing
Park 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.

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Skagit River Journal

History show planned for Sedro-Woolley Senior Center Oct. 2, 2009, 1 to 4 p.m.; bring your photos

History show planned for Sedro-Woolley
Senior Center Oct. 2, 2009, 1 to 4 p.m.; bring your photos