of History & Folklore
Covering from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Washington counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish, focusing on Sedro-Woolley and Skagit Valley.

An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness

Publisher: Skagit County Historical Society

Noel V. Bourasaw, founder, Sedro-Woolley, Washington Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug and Noel Bourasaw still haunt these pages. Happy Halloween!

New, Updated and Notable

Fall 2018

We at Skagit River Journal are pleased to have finished our first printed edition of 'Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore 2018' (see just below). Unfortunately, while a lot of work went into SRJ  print version, the website in 2018 has been neglected this year due to the other project. So let's see if we can't direct you to a few new stories and wonderful archived stories.

• Thank-you to Erik Lacitis of Seattle Times for his referral to Skagit River Journal with his article: "How a descendant of Napoleon's willow tree took root on a Seattle hillside."  (at link) General J.B. Metcalfe, Washington Territory Attorney General and namesake of Sedro-Woolley's Metcalf Street (at link) brought the cutting of a Napoleon willow tree from George Washington's Mount Vernon home. We were asked by Lacitis if a cutting of the tree might have been planted in Sedro-Woolley? If anyone can help us with that question, send an email.

• Happy 50th Anniversary to Skagit County Historical Museum's building. More info coming at the underlined linked page, events and party's. Stay tuned also for info on the 135th Anniversary of Skagit County this November, help us celebrate at the County Commissioners office. More info soon.

• Happy 50th Anniversary to the North Cascades National Park Complex. One of the most famous U.S. Forest Service Rangers in Skagit County history was Tommy Thompson, check his story out and that of his wife Ella Thompson and her Sauk Go-Devil.

• If you haven't yet visited one of the museum's cemetery tours, you will have to make the effort in 2019. This year at our 5th Annual Historic Cemetery Tour at Mount Vernon Cemetery on Fir Street, we had actors share stories of some of the unique people for whom this is their final resting place. Former SCHS museum Director, Dr. Jesse Kennedy portrayed John McMillian, a friend of the late George Holmes (1854 - 1925) 'Black Patron of Ruby Creek - in the wilds of the Upper Skagit - found freedom which few of us attain'...some great Pioneers of the North Cascades, A - L and M - Z...we had a few other wonderful players plus the good folks from Kern's Funeral Home shared "What are the 'Knights of Pythias'?"on this page Mount Baker Lodge 73 in Sedro-Woolley

•  We are changing the Pioneer section section for biographies of Skagitionians titled: 'Colorful Lives!' a title created by the late great and prolific Skagit County Pioneer Association historian, John Conrad and Pat O'Leary, editor of Puget Sound Mail for the yearly Pioneer Edition of said newspaper the week of the Pioneer Picnic, always first Thursday in August. Ronnie Holtumm, a preservationist who left his mark in the county by saving pioneer structures such as schoolhouses like 'Skagit City School' or the 'Lee [Meadow] School.' Wallie Funk of Anacortes and Madrene "Tootsie" Clark of Marblemount. Two very loved Skagitonian who left their mark. Dick Fallis, 'The Breadman of Mount Vernon' is another late great historian of SCPA and we will include here  Dick's short autobiography.

• The nuts and bolts of Pioneer Life in Skagit County, Special resource features for background reading and reference. Nutshell history of water transportation on the Skagit river since early 1890s.  Our early profile of the centenarian, Joshua Green, who was a pioneer of steamboats, ferries and banks. See this Journal story of Green's first trip on it in 1888, from the manifest he saved.

• Updated Skagit County Museum Section in the works

New Publication Is Here

August 2, 2018 at Pioneer Picnic

In association with the Skagit County Historical Society and Skagit County Pioneer Association, the Publication Committee is happy to announce the first print edition of 'Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore 2018' is published and available for sale at the Skagit County Historical Museum and Seaport Books in La Conner. They can also be ordered and mailed with our order form here.   We have stories on the "50th Anniversary of Skagit County Historical Society’s museum building…”on top of the hill” in La Conner; the 135th Anniversary of the formation of Skagit County; Cedardale area of Skagit County; Oral History of Dr. Maynard Johnson - Founding Member of Skagit Valley Medical Center; Harriet Rowley-Angel of Mercy. From local authors; The Journey Toward Home by Arlene Sundquist-Empie, about her early Pioneer Family in the Cedardale area; Henry & Sarah Summers of Fir Island by John Summers; Seven Years of my Life-A Story of Maxine Jones Gow's Tuberculosis Scare as told to Deanna Ammons by Maxine Gow in 2010; A history on Bethsaida Swedish Lutheran Church in La Conner, WA by the late Angelika Anderson Olson. Some wonderful  folklore stories by authors old and new, Bard of the North by Ray Jordan; Birth of a Pioneer Baby by Mollie Dowdle; Two Sisters Put Out the Family Wash by Dan Royal. These  along with some poetry and book reviews for good measure.

Submissions for the 2019 edition of Skagit River Journal will be the end of January 2019. You will be sent a submission form for consideration giving guidelines and permission. You may submit any time for the website. Visit Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore at skagitriverjournal.com, now under the direction of the Society’s Publication Committee. Dan Royal, Editor. Contact the Publications Committee at museum@co.skagit.wa.us or skagitriverjournal@gmail.com

Site founded Sept. 1, 2000. Passed 7.75 million page views, January 2017; passed 800 stories in 2013  Noel V. Bourasaw, 1944-2015, Founder Sedro-Woolley, Washington,— where Mortimer Cook started a town & named it Bug

Please send us calendar items for any history-related or community events in your area scheduled for the rest of 2018

• Please let us know of any broken links you find on this website and where you found them, which is just as important to know.  Updating and fixing links will be an ongoing process but will be helpful to all  you researchers out there making use of this website. Email us here or below.

• We will always welcome your suggestions on making Skagit River Journal a better website, especially making it more navigable. The fastest way to find your subject of interest  will be to use the Search Engine at the bottom of the page.

• If a subject or a person is not found on this website, let us know. It is possible we have something on file or we can direct you to a person or an institution in the county who may have the answer for you.
  
  

The long awaited reprint of Ray Jordan's "Yarns of the Skagit Country, Ray's Writin's" has been available and for sale  as of August 4, 2016 at  the Museum bookstore. Link to Ray Jordan web page for an introduction.

• We lost two of the loveliest people I have been privileged to know for a very long time. Wallie Funk of Anacortes, famous newspaperman and historian and Madrene "Tootsie" Clark of Marblemount. We hope you get a sense of both their lives and that of their family and history in their prospective areas of Skagit County. We also updated a page on Bullerville and Marblemount which include a few short stories by the late Dick Fallis... wrote about his visit to Tootsie and the area in late 90s.
• An Introduction to Mollie Dowdle and her stories! Samples of her tales can be found at the page. Her book "My Best Loved Stories" can still be purchased at Skagit County Historical Museum in La Conner or by order form.
• 'Major John the Frog Boy'..." John was billed as "Major John the Frog Boy." In some regards this was true — the nature of his toes could be considered frog-like, and he could "hop" like a frog, but this wasn't his true method of locomotion." poignant story by his nephew, Joe Jacobin Jr.
• John Flood Conrad and his father Charles, Historian of Skagit County Pioneer Association
• Samuel Simpson Tingley, his pioneer Skagit family and the Mercer Girls, in two parts.
• Edridge Morse, Pioneer newspaper man in Snohomish
• Silas M. Butler, his logging and dairy family. A three part profile and obit.
• Joseph F. Dwelley, 1870 Puget sound pioneer and his daughter Kate Maloy of La Conner
  
• Eugenia Clinchard, child star of silent-movies, the earliest Western picture shows and her Sedro-Woolley family.
  
• 1915 UW Graduates who were Skagit movers and shakers: Frank Evans, Sid McIntyre, Art Ward and Herman Anderson
  
• "Whatever happened to Lyman Cutler?" Lucille McDonald's history of the Pig War principal
  
• Forest M. Elwell, sternwheeler builder
  
• Frank Bradsberry, the whimsical logger and politician of Sedro-Woolley
  
• Lavina Gates Chapman's 19th-century memoir of bloody Kansas, including the bravery there of future-Sedro pioneer Lewis Kirkby during the civil war.

• The Ball House in Whitney is still asked about and missed. What year did the winds finally bring the house down?

• The Wheels of Commerce...What would transportation in Skagit County be without our filling station? "There was a time of the full service, service stations"...  Consider sending us your stories and pictures of your favorite Service Stations from around the county. In the meantime, go to this link showing service stations in Sedro-Woolley.

These days, Skagit City School and a road of the same name are all that remain of  "Skagit's Lost Communities", Skagit City. (link to Skagit Valley Herald article)  Find out "Where was Skagit City?" ...Skagit City School Grand Re-opening July 16, 2017.

Bert Webber, photographer of the first Loggerodeo

Howard Miller, Steelhead Fisherman and County Commissioner

The obituary and the life story of Norm Lisherness, Sedro-Woolley's beloved police chief, during Loggerodeo of 1967.
If you have any photos, articles or documents about Northern State's long history, please email Judy Torfin, who has begun a museum on the NSH premises to honor the history of the institution and its employees.

Lost Cities of Skagit

Memories and Profiles  of Skagitonians, not necessarily here during the pioneer period...Ray Jordan Yarns  stories . . . 

Museums, Genealogy, Historians, Researchers, Historical Associations, Fraternities.    Regional Museums updating

Skagit County Pioneer Association

    You can find links to our transcriptions of this most valuable resource. An Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties, Washington published by Interstate Publishing Company, Chicago, IL (hereafter the 1906 History), published in 1906, is hands down the most important book on the shelf of anyone who researches, writes about or reads about our Northwest history. Out of Print for years, the original sometimes turns up on ebay, but is very expensive. The Skagit Valley Genealogical Society reprinted the hefty volume in hardbound in 2000 and it quickly sold out. At that same time the society created an All Name Index for the 1906 History, which is still available at their website.

   Did you find what you were seeking? We have helped many people find individual names or places, email if you have any difficulty.

See this Journal Timeline website of local, state, national, international events for years of the pioneer period.
Did you enjoy these stories and histories? The process continues as we compile and collaborate on research about Northwest history. Can you help? Remember; we welcome correction, criticism and additions to the record.
Please report any broken links or files that do not open and we will send you the correct link. With more than 800 features, we depend on your report. Thank you.