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 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284 Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

This is the Mount Vernon Interurban depot, circa 1920, located roughly at the northwest corner of Kincaid and First streets. It replaced the former Franklin lighting plant and was in turn replaced by what we long knew as Vaux Pharmacy.

      S.F. Shuffleton, construction engineer of the Columbia Improvement company, returned to-day from Nooksack falls. He states that within two weeks the "juice" from the new power house will be turned on and Bellingham will have the additional electric power that has been promised for some time.
      He says he never saw so fierce a forest fire as raged along the banks of the Nooksack during the past week. For a time it was thought that the plant of the electric company was in danger, and work was caused for some time as the tunnels became too hot to work in, but the flames finally turned aside and passed by without doing and material damage.
      On account of the heat, and the burning of a couple of hundred feet of wooden pipe the work received a setback of about a week. Water is now being run through the tunnels to cool them off so that the men can begin work again.
      Mr. Shuffleton states at first it was feared that the buildings of the Excelsior Mining company, had been destroyed but an investigation showed that they were untouched. He says that the whole country around Maple Falls is hot and while there is little damage being done, forest fires are burning in all directions and the smoke at times is decidedly oppressive.

• 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 Interur-ban. And more Journal research about the birth and demise of the line.
  
• Help us identify mystery photos and caption them, and sub-mit scans of your own photos for Paul Dorpat's new Washington book and our updated Mystery Photos sec-tion. Chapter One features Chuckanut drive, the Interurban and Great Northern.
  
• A 1982 article about Andy Loft, "Mr. Interurban," who worked for the company for four decades and spent his retirement decades teach-ing 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.
  

• Warren Wing. To Seattle by Trolley. Edmonds, Washington: Pacific Fast Mail, 1988. Wing is one of our favorite authors. His research and citation is impeccable, his selection of photos and presentation of them enhance the text and he has both a sense of place and time. His research and reference to little known people who made their mark is illustrated in this example: "We are all familiar with the inventions of Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. Yet Frank Sprague, who was their equal, is virtually un-known. Sprague was both an engaging person and an authentic genius. Besides perfecting the electric streetcar his other inventions included the system of multiple unit control that allowed elevated and subway trains to be controlled from a single cab, and the high speed elevator. The reason his name is not as well known today is that the sold his patents to Westinghouse, Otis Elevator and others, he did not insist that his name be associated with the final prod-uct. The building of modern skyscrapers, subways and light rail systems would have been impossible without his in-ventions."
  
• Daniel E. Turbeville III. The Electric Railway Era in Northwest Washington, 1890-1930. Bellingham: Center for Pacific Northwest Studies (WWU) Occasional Paper No. 12, 1979. Turbeville is an Oregon native who received an M.A. in geography from Western Washington Univer-sity in 1976. He served as map curator at Western and worked with James Scott of the CPNW to produce the Illustrated Inventory of Historic Bellingham Buildings, 1852-1915. His book on the Interurban is a very im-portant resource that we consult several times a month.
  
• William D. Middleton. The Interurban Era. Born in Davenport Iowa, the grandson of the first chief surgeon of the Rock Island Lines, Mr. Middleton is a 1950 engineer-ing graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and did graduate work in engineering and journalism at the University of Wisconsin and then was an engineering officer in the U.S. Navy. He retired in 1993 and lives in Charlottesville Vir-ginia. He has written several books on this topic: The Time of the Trolley (1967), When the Steam Rail-roads Electrified (1974), From Bullets to BART and The Last Interurbans.
  

You can read the history websites about our prime sponsors: Allelujah Business Systems/Copies/Mailbox, 133-B State St., Sedro-Woolley, 360 855-1157 Preserve your family keep-sakes . . . allcopiersystems web page Schooner Tavern/Cocktails at 621 Metcalf street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, across from Hammer Square: www.schoonerwoolley.com web page . . . History of bar and build-ing Oliver Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years. Joy's Sedro-Woolley Bakery-Cafe at 823 Metcalf street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years. Heirloom Gardens Natural Foods at 805B Metcalf street, the original home of Oliver Hammer. 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. Would you like to buy a country church, pews, belfry, pastor's quarters and all? Email us for details. DelNagro Masonry Brick, block, stone — See our work at the new Hammer Heritage Square See our website www.4bricklayers.com

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