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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 (bullet)

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

Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

Stories from towns nearby Sedro-Woolley
in all four directions

Northern State Hospital, Duke's Hill, Warner's Prairie, Prairie, Sterling, Skiyou

Clear Lake, Big Lake, Day Creek, Lake McMurray

Northern State, Duke's Hill, Warner's Prairie, Prairie

History of Northern State Hospital
The history of the Northern State Hospital cemetery and the Sedro-Woolley High School senior class that is organizing a memorial. With links to our other four exclusive NSH stories: Introduction to Northern State, 1910-73; Chuck Cruse's Last Day as the last NSH employee, 1976; Pete Bielecki, the Stumphouse man who lived near Northern State; and the original 1909 siting on land owned by Mr. Hansen, the namesake of Hansen creek.
Chuck Cruse was literally the last employee at Northern State Hospital, caretaking the empty buildings after it closed in 1973, walking among the ghosts of the patients and employees who worked there and made it their first or second home over 61 years. Shared from the archives of our separate Subscribers Edition online.
How the Northern State Hospital site was selected in 1909 and a Mr. T. Hansen, who homesteaded the site in 1909 and became the namesake for Hansen creek. A two-fer story.
The story of Pete Bielecki, the famous Stumphouse Man.
Joe and Annie Laurie (Boyd) Hoyt, Chapter 1, including a history of the Boyd and Hoyt families back to colonial days, and the story of their Prairie mill. Just for fun, you'll read about the Battle of Bunker Hill, Paul Revere's Ride, Benedict Arnold and high school in Paris, along with round-the-world sailing trips and shipwrecks at sea. Shared from the archives of our separate Subscribers Edition online.
Profile of Capt. John Warner, namesake of his prairie north of Woolley and of Warner street. He was a 49er with Mortimer Cook in the 1850s, followed Cook up to British Columbia for the 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush, then returned to Sehome with his Indian bride, settled at Edison, then Warner's Prairie.
The Duke — Frederick George, of Duke's Hill and Bottomless Lake
An introduction to Bottomless Lake, including photos and text from a 1958 Courier-Times "Tella-Pix" photo feature, plus memories from our readers, Bob Garland and Bob Cook, who grew up nearby the lake.
Ray Jordan wrote in his book, Yarns of the Skagit Country, about Bottomless Lake and Duke Fredrick George, the namesake of Duke's Hill.
Little Mabel Boyd [married: Royal Steen], joins her Hoyt relatives on a wagon trip from Prairie around Lake Whatcom to Fairhaven for Fourth of July 1897.
Coming soon: the Kallochs and the Halls; Thornwood. Can you help us research these stories?

Skiyou, east of Sedro-Woolley

Charles J. Wicker moves to the Skagit river from Iowa in 1884 and discovers the perils of homesteading within his first month here.
Steamboat Dan Benson, sternwheeler captain on the Skagit from 1878; plus his brothers and his father, and his adopted sister Julia who was actually the daughter of Seattle sawmill-pioneer Henry Yesler.
The Van Fleet family of Skiyou and their trip by canoe from their homestead in Skiyou to Skagit City for their first Christmas here in 1880.
Introduction to the Van Fleet family and how they settled at Skiyou east of Sedro-Woolley in 1880 as the first family in the future Sedro area.
Ethel Van Fleet's 1968 memories of how her pioneer parents settled during the 1880s and their actions and attitudes regarding Indians already living here.
Christmas memories from the Skagit river frontier include the story of the Van Fleets' first Christmas on the frontier, 1880.

Sterling, West of Sedro-Woolley

Our portal story in our 5-part section is about Sterling founder Jesse Beriah Ball and his namesake town has been considerably updated. You can read about Ball's partnership with Tacoma financier Byron Barlow, who he originally met in California during the Indian Wars of 1866. This was one of our first in-depth profiles of pioneers who had fallen through the cracks of history. You will find in this section the map from 1897 that shows the original double horseshoe bend of the Skagit that formed DeBay's island until the river straightened out its channel from 1909-1921 with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers and several floods.
Read about Jesse Ball's early logging in Washington territory in the 1870s.
Early days of Sterling, the village at the river. We need your help. Can you add to our introductory list of families who settled at Sterling by the river or DeBay Island before 1929? This part is far from complete. We will add to this chapter as readers provide us more information.
Chapter 3: Joseph DeBay, the Italian immigrant who grew vegetables for the valley and then saw his farm turn into DeBay Island. We hope that readers will send us their own family memories and photos scans for stories of more early Sterling families.
Joseph DeBay, a photo page of the family of the Italian immigrant who grew vegetables for the valley and then saw his farm turn into DeBay Island. We hope that readers will send us their own family memories and photos scans for stories of more early Sterling families.
Chapter 4: Schools at Sterling from 1883-1940, with new information supplied by Jeanie Bond, a descendant of the Dreyer family of Sterling.
We have been researching Sterling, the earliest upriver town, for 12 years now, and we plan several more chapters about it. The next one in Winter 2005 will be about the families who settled in the area near what later became the Burlington Highway and what is now Hwy 20. We hope that those of you who are descendants of Sterling families or who are researchers will share your family memories and discoveries with us. Copies of documents and scans of photos are fine. We do not need or ask for your originals, which should be kept as either family keepsakes or donated to museums or libraries that will both preserve them and make them available to researchers. Thanks for your help.

Clear Lake, Big Lake, Day Creek, hills area:

Historic Clear Lake photos and the book about Clear Lake and Sedro-Woolley by Charles Hyatt. Will be re-posted in 2005.
Big Lake area. We are now working on a history of this area. Can you help with photos and memories?
Over the River and Through the Woods . . . , Alice Harrison's memories of her grannie's place near Big Lake in the 1950s.
This capsule biography file features Lena Bean and her family and Joseph and Anna Theiler, pioneers of Ehrlich. Includes a brief early history of the old towns of Montborne and Ehrlich. Shared from Subscribers Edition, Issue 22
Day Creek, Lake Cavanaugh, Cultus Mountain, Phinney/Finney creek, Electron, Marietta creek and hills area south of Skagit river. We are now working on a history of this area. Can you help with photos and memories?

See this Journal website for a timeline of local, state, national and international events for years of the pioneer period.
Search the entire Journal site.
Due to continued popular demand, in the interest of furthering our "open source" policy, we are assembling a collection of CDs that will include MS Word files of our pioneer profiles and town profiles from years 1-5, so that you can print them individually at your convenience. Inquire for details today via email or see our site about the planned CDs offering.

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, thank you in advance for whatever support you can provide. You can go here to read the preview edition to see examples of our in-depth research.

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.
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Can you help? We welcome correction and criticism.
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Please report any broken links or files that do not open and we will send you the correct link. With more than 500 features, we depend on your report. Thank you.

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You can read the history websites about our prime sponsors:
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Jones and Solveig Atterberry, NorthWest Properties Aiken & Associates: . . . See our website
Please let us show you residential and commercial property in Sedro-Woolley and Skagit County 2204 Riverside Drive, Mount Vernon, Washington . . . 360 708-8935 . . . 360 708-1729
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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 section for links to all stories and reasons to shop here first
or make this your destination on your visit or vacation.
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DelNagro Masonry Brick, block, stone — See our work at the new Hammer Heritage Square
See our website www.4bricklayers.com
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Are you looking to buy or sell a historic property, business or residence? We may be able to assist. Email us for details.
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Peace and quiet at the Alpine RV Park, just north of Marblemount on Hwy 20
Park your RV or pitch a tent by the Skagit River, just a short drive from Winthrop or Sedro-Woolley

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

Tip: Put quotation marks around a specific name or item of two words or more, and then experiment with different combinations of the words without quote marks. We are currently researching some of the names most recently searched for — check the list here. Maybe you have searched for one of them?

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Skagit River Journal

Stories from towns nearby Sedro-Woolley in all four directions

Stories from towns nearby Sedro-Woolley
in all four directions