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.

Features and biographies of Old Sedro by the river
and the first settlement at the site, 1878 to 1897

This is the second stage of Mortimer Cook's mill, which started all the process of forming our town, photographed sometime before it burned in the late 1880s. You can see the drying kiln shed being constructed. Iron Mountain is in the background to the east. Photographer: Arthur Churchill Warner (1864-1943). The photo alas brings with it more questions. The copy we originally scanned from was fairly old, with the barest of notes on the back. If the year of the photo is correctly pegged at 1894 by the University of Washington Special Collections, why did it take six or seven years to replace the original kiln at center left, following the fire of 1888 that leveled Cook's original mill? The kiln looks still unfinished. We know that Warner arrived in Washington Territory in 1886 and Seattle in 1888, so he could have taken the photo around 1890 when the new owners, McDonald & McEwan rebuilt the mill. Warner made headlines himself when he photographed a climb of Mount Rainier by John Muir and others. At that time, Warner photographed Seattle and the Puget sound area for Lowman & Hanford publishers. Read more about him here. Note the stumps still dotting the property and the driftwood from the river. We infer that the well-dressed man is Mr. Churchill, with some sort of timing device or else he might have set up the camera, then stepped in front of it while someone else squeezed the bulb.

We have organized below for you more than two dozen links to stories about the businesses of old Sedro, biographies of the settlers, the towns of Bug and Sedro and the early exploration and settlement. Old Sedro effectively floated away in the flood of 1897, after being battered in the floods of 1894 and 1896. In the 1920s the original townsite location became the town dump. When I was a kid, we used to go down there and shoot rats. Six decades later, the Rotary Club led an extensive overhaul of the site, and the result is Riverfront Park, a much more fitting monument. The barbecue pits and the open theater, made with local rock and wood timbers, add a sense of permanence. Nina Cook's drawing below of the same scene helps us establish where A.E. Holland's ferry crossed the Skagit and thus where the mill was. if you go to Riverfront Park, you will see the sloped upper session to the east of the barbecue pits. Walk down to the river from there and you will find the spot of the mill. In fact, you will find an ancient cedar tree whose base has grown around a cable nearly a century old, the north end of the gravity cable ferry.

Nina Cook's drawing of the same scene.

Introduction to old Sedro and the river settlement period

Any time, any amount, please help build our travel and research fund for what promises to be a very busy 2011, traveling to mine resources from California to Washington and maybe beyond. Depth of research determined by the level of aid from readers. Because of our recent illness, our research fund is completely bare. See many examples of how you can aid our project and help us continue for another ten years. And subscriptions to our optional Subscribers Online Magazine (launched 2000) by donation too. Thank you.

We recently visited our newest sponsor, Plumeria Bay, which 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 & duvet covers and bed linens. Order directly from their website and learn more about this intriguing local business.

For a quick overview of Sedro-Woolley and upper Skagit Valley history, see our comprehensive feature, From Bug to the Bughouse, which was the first story on our website back in August 2000.
The four British bachelors who staked out future Sedro, starting in 1878, Batey, Hart, Dunlop and Woods.
The recently discovered proof of how and when Mortimer Cook's town of Bug became Sedro in May 1885.
The history of Ball's Camp and Sterling and the founders, Jesse Beriah Ball and Emma Ball Welch. Earliest village in the upriver area, two miles west of old Sedro. And more chapters on the very early settlers by the river, Joseph DeBay and family, and the schools of Sterling, dating back to 1883.
Timeline of early Sedro and Woolley
Readers ask and we answer 20 questions about Sedro-Woolley and the immediate area.
All new logging and mills section. We have updated eight stories about early logging and mills, from 1876 logging to the Dolbeer steam donkey. Newest completely updated story: the Goodyear -Nelson mill. Coming soon: the Willis, Rogers and Pearson mill of Sedro-Woolley.

Mortimer Cook and family

Brief introduction to Cook and family.
The diary of Nina Cook, daughter of the founder of Sedro, written while she was a teenager in Sedro in the 1880s. Updated and expanded in 2010.
How Fairie Cook, daughter of the founder of Sedro, staked a timber claim of her own near future Alger in the 1880s.
Ray Jordan's memories of growing up as a child on Mortimer Cook's ranch on what is now Cook Road west of Sedro-Woolley.
Several more Cook stories are planned for 2011, including Mortimer's biography, in preparation for the book-length biography of Cook and his family, which is tentatively planned for 2012.

Early magazine articles about the towns of Sedro

Sedro on the Skagit River, August 1890 Washington Magazine article that introduced readers to the booming town on the Skagit.
Sedro's Improvements, October 1890 Washington Magazine article that listed improvements already made to the two towns of Sedro. Includes a fascinating endnote discovery that ties Sedro with Seattle attorney Elbert F. Blaine and the 1994 suicide of Seattle musician Kurt Cobain.
Sedro and the coal mines near the Skagit River, 1890-91 Fairhaven Illustratedmagazine article that explained why the Fairhaven & Southern Railroad was built between Fairhaven on Bellingham Bay and Sedro on the Skagit, with all its resources.

Various Sedro stories and biographies

Photo collection of old Sedro and the Cooks. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
June Burn, a noted writer from Bellingham and Waldron Island, interviewed our pioneers and descendants and this column is about the raucous early days of old Sedro and Bingham's first bank.
Albert G. Mosier, the last of Sedro's pioneers, who platted the towns of Sedro, Woolley and Sauk City, was city and county engineer and became a famous Alaska miner at the turn of the twentieth century.
Harry Devin, master real estate salesman of old Sedro, Klondike miner, Indian blood brother, best hunter in the Northwest, weatherman and historian & your basic Renaissance man. And the Devin house on Warner Street that Mark Chatt and family have turned from an ugly-duckling into one of the most beautiful restored homes in Sedro-Woolley and the county. Also see the links for his transcripts of his diary and his famous in-laws, the Mosiers, and their homesteads together in Snohomish County in the 1880s and their pioneer work with Mount Rainier. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
The story of the Hammer, Green and Parker families who made such an impact on Sedro-Woolley and Lincoln, Kansas.

Settlement of the Skiyou district from 1880 onwards

Charles J. Wicker arrives in Sedro in 1884, on the way to becoming county's most powerful real estate agent.
Charles J. Wicker's story about how he and Will Mitchell tried to erect a cabin on his homestead near the present Sedro-Woolley cemetery in 1884 and how a tree got in the way.
John Cully shares with historian Ray Jordan the story of how his parents, Charles and Mary Alice Kirkby Cully moved west from Kansas to San Juan Island by covered wagon and boat in 1888 and then to Sedro.
Eliza Van Fleet summarized her family bona fides for her application to the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1928. With links to many more Van Fleet stories from the Skiyou district, east of old Sedro.

Bingham family and bank & the families from Marengo, Iowa: Renos, LaPlants and Odlins

Part One of the Bingham bank and family story, which includes: Binghams arrive and open bank in old Sedro on July 30, 1890; Roots in Marengo, Iowa; Go West, Young Man; Binghams and Holbrooks flexing their muscles in Sedro; Julia feathers the Bingham nest; Bingham follows the business tide to Woolley; Marengo, Iowa, transplants to Sedro and Woolley; Wedding of the decade and even more Renos emigrate. All four parts.
Part 2 of Bingham bank and family, which includes: Bingham bank establishes itself as the most powerful bank in the county and has a monopoly in Sedro-Woolley for 15 years; Charlie Bingham hires very young entry-level people who work for the bank for decades; Bingham mansion becomes social center; Charlie becomes controversial and envied in business and politics; 1st National Bank opens in 1905; Fire strikes again at Bingham bank; Charlie Bingham employs public relations as civic good neighbor; 1st National Bank robbery brings changes, followed by war; Bingham and Odlin boys go to World War I; '20s and '30s were a roller coaster; Bingham Bank is robbed; Reno Odlin excels; recovery from Depression; C.E. Bingham dies and the bank enters a new era; The Bingham brothers "modernize" their building and then sell.
Part 3 of Bingham bank and family, which includes: William T. Odlin remembers his early employment with the original Bingham Bank in the 1890s; Albert G. Mosier recalls the first day and month of the Bingham Bank in 1890; The first three depositors at Bingham Bank on July 30, 1890 Harry L. Devin recalls the very early days of the Bingham bank. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Part 4 of Bingham bank and family, which includes: William West quits school in his freshman year in 1900 and goes on to work for Bingham bank for 42 years; plus the 1952 William West obituary; Bingham and Ingham: the humorous 1911 story of the Indian Twins at the expense of Charlie Bingham and the police chief; Bank's 60th anniversary, employees in 1950; Binghams second and third generation in 1950. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.

Railroads

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. Shared from our optional Subscribers Edition
See 6 rare old photos about the 3 trains in the famous 1890s Sedro-Woolley triangle

Frank Wilkeson, New York Times columnist, lived in Skagit County 1889-1900

Two hoboes of Sedro, by Frank Wilkeson, New York Times, Dec. 14, 1890.
Frank Wilkeson biography
Wilkeson columns

Transition to Woolley, miscellaneous

Woolley, the hub of Skagit Count, November 1890 Washington Magazine article that introduced readers to the booming town where 3 railroads would soon cross.
Woolley has a leg up, 1891 Graphic Magazine article from Chicago that provided many details and statistics about Woolley's sudden rise and resources of Skagit Valley.
Two-chapter profile of P.A. Woolley and his family and his company town, including part two, about how his Woolley town was born, how Metcalf Street was named, Dr. Harbaugh's marriage into the family, how the family moved their business to Savannah, Georgia, and much more.
Check out Sedro-Woolley First portal with full links of all Sedro and Woolley stories.

Story posted on Dec. 25, 2010, moved to this domain Nov. 12, 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.**
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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.

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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.

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Skagit River Journal

Features and biographies of Old Sedro by the river and the first settlement at the site, 1878 to 1897

Features and biographies of Old Sedro by the river
and the first settlement at the site, 1878 to 1897