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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Subscribers Edition 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. An evolving history dedicated to the principle of committing random acts of historical kindness

Noel V. Bourasaw, editor (bullet)

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

Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

Archives, Subscribers Skagit River Journal,

Issues 26-28 (see link for 1-25 at bottom)

Menu of historical delicacies: Volume Five,
Issue Twenty-Eight, May-June 2005 Interurban and Dollar Way

List of all stories in this issue about the Stone & Webster Interurban, with links and suggestions for further reading.
We transcribe an article from a 1913 issue of the Mount Vernon Argus that detailed the route of the Interurban. And more Journal research about the birth and demise of the line.
Help us identify mystery photos and caption them, and submit scans of your own photos for Paul Dorpat's new Washington book and our updated Mystery Photos section. Chapter One features Chuckanut drive, the Interurban, Great Northern, and the Blanchard and Oyster creek area.
A 1982 article about Andy Loft, "Mr. Interurban," who worked for the company for four decades and spent his retirement decades teaching groups, schools and businesses about the importance of the line.
A schedule for interurban depots and stops and the mileage in between them. Story of the first day of operation in 1912, schedules for the trains and locations of the depots.
Transcripts of newspaper stories from 1906-11 about the planning and construction of the Interurban.
Dollar Way in Sedro-Woolley, the first paved highway in the county, which Stone & Webster built as a demonstration project to earn the right of way for the Interurban.

Features already posted:

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. Includes illustrations of the old Sedro depot.
Part Two of the F&S story: Skagit county and Sedro's preparation; how the two towns of Sedro boomed almost overnight in 1889; how developer Norman R. Kelley almost brought the project to a halt at the last moment; how John J. Donovan rode through a snowstorm to defeat Kelley's injunction; details about how the F&S went into decline and disappeared by the turn of the 20th century.
A profile of Nelson Bennett from an 1889 history of Washington and Oregon.
Another story about the F&S by the late Ray Jordan, Sedro-Woolley's ace historian.
A profile of Amariah Kalloch III of Sedro-Woolley, pioneer of Prairie and namesake of Kalloch road. Part one of our series on the famous Kalloch/Hall family.
Our first excerpt from Theodore Winthrop's important 1863 book, Canoe and Saddle, about his 11-day tour of Washington territory in 1853. This excerpt profiles the controversial Klallam Indian chief who preferred then to be addressed as the Duke of York, and we provide some research about how he matured to become Port Townsend's revered friend, Chetzemoka.
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.

Menu of historical delicacies: Volume Five,
Issue Twenty-Seven, April-May 2005

Banking in Washington territory until 1889 and in Washington state through 1913. The first part in a series transcribed from the late John Higgins's unpublished manuscript about Skagit county from 1962.
Our 8-part section about the area around Sauk and old Sauk City 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.
Part One of the story about one of our earliest Woolley families: profiles of Charles Villeneuve and his son-in-law John Lloyd. They were also pioneers earlier on the South fork of the Skagit.
Part one of two of our exclusive profile of Harrison Clothier and the birth of Mount Vernon, the town he founded with Edward G. English in 1877.

The Mount Baker series and many outside sources:

Part one of the story about the first successful ascent of Mount Baker by Edmund T. Coleman and others in 1868.
Major eruptions of Mount Baker. The late Allen R. Moore researched the 1846 eruption, Professor Plummer discussed the threat in 1893, and the Journal editor researched the little known eruption of 1792 and its result in the famous Mount Vernon logjams.
Statistics and geologic history of Mount Baker.
An Indian oral history legend about Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, the Nooksack river and Puget sound.

More new features:

A profile of Andrew Jackson Jackman, the pioneer who homesteaded at the creek named for him, two decades before Van Horn was born. And his wife, Mary Ann Harry Jackman, whose extended Upper Skagit Indian family includes many more pioneers, including the Bacons, Leggetts and Napoleons, among others. and the birth of the Log Cabin Inn in Marblemount
How upriver Skagit Catholics organized their own services in private homes and then built their own mission church, led by Katharine and Henry Martin of Illabot creek.
Did you know that Skagit Steel nearly moved away from Sedro-Woolley in 1953? Read part one of the story of how local businessmen insured that the company would stay and expand.

You can find all stories in Issues 1-25 in these archives

You can click the donation button to contribute to the upkeep of this site at a time when we may be forced to cut it back for lack of funds. You can also subscribe to our optional Subscribers-Paid Journal magazine online, which is about to enter its sixth year with exclusive stories, in-depth research and photos that are shared with our subscribers first. If you like what you read, t hank you in advance for whatever support you can provide.

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You can read the history websites about our prime sponsors:
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Allelujah Business Systems/Copies/Mailbox, 133-B State St., Sedro-Woolley, 360 855-1157
Preserve your family keepsakes . . . allcopiersystems web page
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Schooner Tavern/Cocktails at 621 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, across from Hammer Square: www.schoonerwoolley.com web page . . . History of bar and building
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Oliver Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years.
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Joy's Sedro-Woolley Bakery-Cafe at 823 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years.
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Check out Sedro-Woolley First for links to all stories and reasons to shop here first
or make this your destination on your visit or vacation.

DelNagro Masonry Brick, block, stone — See our work at the new Hammer Heritage Square
See our website www.4bricklayers.com
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Remember, we welcome correction and criticism. Please click on the email slot at the right to report any problems with these pages or to suggest ideas for future stories. This is a completely free site. We fund it by providing an online magazine for paid subscribers. If you are not already a subscriber and you would like to help support our considerable research costs, you can subscribe for just $20.00 per year. As a paid subscriber, you will receive eight yearly issues plus many rare treats between times, including scans of photos and documents that illustrate local history, before they are shared with anyone else. You can go here for Subscription details and you can read the preview edition to see examples of our in-depth research. You may also order gift subscriptions for friends, family or clients who are interested in local history or students or military people who are away from home. Or you can email us for more details. Do you have scanned photos to share? Or you can mail us copies. See addresses to the right.

Email us at: journal@stumpranchonline.com

Mail copies/documents to Street address: Skagit River Journal, 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, WA, 98284.