Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore

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, founder , Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284 Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug
Site founded Sept. 1, 2000. Passed 7.5 million page views, November 2014; passed 800 stories in 2013 The home pages remain free of any charge. Please pass on this website link to your family, relatives, friends and clients.

History Snohomish county

Eldridge Morse, editor of the Northern Star, first newspaper in Snohomish county. He came West in 1872 and for the next 32 years traveled the Northwest and reported his findings to readers and the government while bringing culture and science to the region with his friend Dr. A.C. Folsom.
Obituaries and documents about Morse, his wives and Northwest pioneers.
Cyrus Mosier, Snohomish pioneer, father of Sedro pioneer Albert G. Mosier, and President Harrison's choice as administrator of public lands in the Western frontier.
Harry Devin's journal entries about living on a homestead near Skykomish in the 1880s and fishing and hunting for food.
Cyrus Mosier helps preserve Mount Rainier in its natural state.
Snohomish pioneer R.D. DeSelle recalled the history of the county and city in this 1950 article.

Monte Cristo/Darrington/Sauk River area

The Everett and Monte Cristo Railway, a book filled with photos and details of the railroad that led to the mines in the North Cascades in the 1890s..
Photos and introduction to the railroad and mines of the Monte Cristo district in the North Cascades in the 1890s.
Sam Strom, the young Count of Monte Cristo, Norwegian immigrant of 1893.
Sam Strom, pioneer miner — 2-part memoir of the Snohomish County miner in the 1890s, courtesy of Alice Elinor Lambert via Elizabeth Poehlman.
Frank Wilkeson wrote an article for the New York Times issue of Feb. 27, 1893, about the mines and railroad at Monte Cristo in Snohomish county. This continues our extensive section on frontier mining.
Alice Elinor Lambert Ransburg, a character in her own movie, Darrington writer from 1930s-1970s and member of Seattle's original Bohemian, artistic community at the turn of the 20th century.
Elizabeth Poehlman, author and pastor's wife, who wrote the book on Darrington and in this issue she profiles Alice Elinor Lambert.
Our 8-part section about the area around Sauk and old Sauk City and Monte Cristo remains one the most popular on the site. We have totally updated our portal site, Part One of four parts about Sauk City and the pioneer miners, farmers and storekeepers who braved the remote wilderness and the constant threat of floods. Keep in mind that three of these Sauk links are on our old domain, so the click links will not work in all cases.
Profile of Chief Wawetkin [or Wawitkin], the last chief of the Sauk-Suiattle Indian tribe. Profiles and obituaries of the James Bedal family, Sauk river homesteaders in 1891. The first comprehensive look at this hardy family, including wife Susie Wahwetkin, daughter of the last Sauk-Suiattle tribal chief, son Harry, a forest ranger, and Edith and Jean, the daughters who led pack teams across some of the most challenging trails and rivers in the North Cascades. Includes Bedal's connection to Little House on the Prairie.
Profiles and obituaries of the James Bedal family, Sauk river homesteaders in 1891. The first comprehensive look at this hardy family, including wife Susie Wahwetkin, daughter of the last Sauk-Suiattle tribal chief, son Harry, a forest ranger, and Edith and Jean, the daughters who led pack teams across some of the most challenging trails and rivers in the North Cascades. Includes Bedal's connection to Little House on the Prairie.
The towns of Bedal Camp, China and Orient on the Sauk river, and how these villages began in the 1890s on the trail from Sauk City to the Monte Cristo mines.

Background reading and books?

We also strongly suggest that you look for Philip R. Woodhouse's definitive book on Monte Cristo, published in 1979 and now out of print but widely found in used-book stores and libraries. Woodhouse also teamed with Daryl Jacobson and Bill Petersen on the book, Everett and Monte Cristo Railway, which is still in print from Oso Publishing.
Darrington, Mining Town/Timber Town, by Elizabeth Poehlman, 1979, Gold Hill Press, Kent, WA. Elizabeth moved to Darrington as a pastor's wife and soon set about interviewing surviving pioneers and their descendants, touring the mines and meeting with Indians who explained the area to her. This is a must for anyone studying the towns of the region and the Monte Cristo Cristo.
A Broad Bold Ledge of Gold: Historical Facts of Monte Cristo, Washington, by Rosemary Wilkie, 1958. Rosemary spent every summer in Monte Cristo from 1951 on and fell in love with the mines and the deteriorating properties. When she discovered that no book had been written specifically about the area, she endeavored to write her own and succeeded with a slim volume with photos, pegged on the date of July 4, 1889, the year Washington became a state. A real find in used book stores.
For a delightful personal view of this area, we heartily recommend that you read this website by Margaret Robe Summitt, Ph.D., longtime stalwart of the Sno-Isle Genealogical Society: The history of Robe, Washington, Robe Canyon and the Robe family who settled it.

Upcoming stories will include In 2008-09 we will share more stories about the history of Snohomish city and county, including Stanwood, Camano Island and Utsalady. We will concentrate especially on the sawmills where future residents of Skagit county worked and the Swedish families that first settled in the area, along with the Grennan-Cranney sawmill at Utsalady. Several mill hands from there settled in the Skagit valley, including Michael Sullivan and Samuel Calhoun.

The families of John N. and Lydia Low and Woodbury Sinclair. The Lows were members of the 1851 settling part at Alki Point which produced Seattle's city fathers and mothers, but the Lows have fallen through the cracks of history. Their son Alonzo was the first merchant in Skagit county.
The Cranney & Grennan mill at Utsalady.
Do you have family memories, copies of old newspapers and documents, or scans of old Snohomish photos that you think would make an interesting story — especially ones that connect with Skagit county in some way? Please email us if you do.

Links, background reading and sources

The Sno-Isle Genealogical Society is a tremendous resource. And they have an online magazine called the The Sounder, edited by Margaret Robe Summitt.
The League of Snohomish County Heritage Organizations is also a great resource. They also have a collection of online Snohomish county history stories, and here is the link to the Women's Legacy Project of Snohomish County.
The misplaced pioneers, a Seattle Times story about the old Snohomish cemetery that was abandoned in the 1920s and the controversy over the graves of the John Low family, Alki/Seattle pioneers in 1851, and Snohomish pioneers in the 1860s and '70s:
Stories of Snohomish County history, compiled starting in 1989 by the Third Age News, a monthly newspaper published by Senior Services of Snohomish County: http://www.sakkal.com/Snohomish/Articles/Perspective.html

Story posted on Dec. 25, 2004, and last updated on Feb. 22, 2006

Page and links updated Feb 2017
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 800-plus stories.
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See this Journal Timeline website of local, state, national, international events for years of the pioneer period.
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