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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

The mother of all Skagit floods, 1815

Including: Newspaper account of the big 1896 flood
and details of major floods of 1897, 1909, 1921 and 1990

This photo has been published before but the caption written by hand on the front of it on the copy we originally saw did not make sense. It seemed to suggest that this damage was from a flood in 1898. We searched everywhere for a ravaging flood in that year and could not find one. Then we were studying photos in the University of Washington system and found this one; the caption explains it all and suggests even more.
The scene is on Water street in Hamilton, which is now, in 2003, at the very edge of the north shore of the Skagit river or possibly underwater. If you go to that location today at the foot of Cumberland street, south of present-day Hamilton, you will find gravel and potholes and a great view across the river of second-growth forest where the South Hamilton School once stood. The flood of 1896 surely inflicted damage like this and the 1897 was even more destructive to Hamilton and the upriver town of Sauk City, which was literally swept into the river.
Note two interesting items in the photo. One is the building at the center, the third fa??ade toward the rear. That is the Yellowstone Bar and Hotel, owned by Peter Jacobino, where Marshal Jake Woodring would be murdered on the sidewalk five years later. The other landmark is the pole at the left center, which was for either telegraph or electric power lines. Hopefully a reader can determine its purpose. It surely was not for a telephone line because that service would not come until 1909 when druggist James Smith and the Quackenbush sisters brought telephone service to Hamilton. We also hope that a reader can tell us who took the photo.
One might ask why the damaged buildings still stood two years later. We surmise the reason to be that Hamilton was suffering from the collapse of a boom and the hopes for mines on Coal Mountain and Iron Mountain on the south shore of the river. The country went through a crushing Depression in 1893-96 that was especially hard on frontier boomtowns such as Hamilton, which just seven years before was touted in newspapers as far away as New York City as the "Pittsburgh of the West." Apparently Jacobino and the other property owners left the shattered hulk of the flood-damaged buildings just as they were when the flood swept through on Nov. 16, 1896. As always, we are grateful to Larry Kunzler and his book, Skagit River Valley, the Disaster Waiting to Happen.

Flood of Nov. 11, 1896
The Great Flood: the Skagit on a big tear

Skagit County Times, Nov. 19, 1896, vol. 6, #43. Masthead reads: Sedro and Woolley. Published every Saturday by Gillis Brothers, editors and publishers. [Ed. note: Read more about the Gillis brothers in the review elsewhere of Orphans by Ollie Kirby.] Post Office as second-class matter. Subscriptions $1 for year. 50 cents for 6 months. News as of Thursday, Nov. 19. Notes and excerpts follow:

On Wednesday of last week [Nov. 11] the wind began to blow from the southeast and, before evening, had developed into a chinook gale. Unfortunately for the river bottom settlers of the Skagit valley, this warm wind continued until about 4 p.m. Sunday.
On Friday the Skagit began to rise rapidly and continued rising at an average rate of 3 inches an hour until Sunday morning when it began to abate. In the afternoon of that day, the river had risen [above] all previous high water marks [until old-] Sedro was one foot, 7 inches under water.
Hamilton was totally inundated, one brick building having caved in and several frame [buildings] torn from their foundations. The county bridges recently constructed were destroyed and the improved roads that had become the pride of the upper valley became an easy prey to the devastating waters.
Lower [old-] Sedro [by the river] suffered heavily. A large number of cattle and small stock perished and buildings, ruthlessly torn from their foundations, were cast hap-hazard amid the heaps of debris.
Mortimer Cook's store that has weathered 15 years rose with the eddying waters and turned half way round before lodging against some trees and stumps.
Fruitvale and Sterling, between Sedro-Woolley & Burlington, were completely inundated. Two barns stored with hay and feed were wrenched from their foundations and rushed down with the torrent, until striking the Great Northern railway bridge at Burlington, they were shattered and their contents strewn upon the waters, wended their hurried way oceanward. The large orchards of this district were badly damaged by logs and stumps that bent and broke the trees like pipestems.
[Ed. note: The word Sedro-Woolley is in bold because this article is the earliest instance we have seen of the hyphenation. This was two years before the merger of the towns in December 1898. Was the hyphenated name already being floated about back then as a suggested compromise between the respective stubborn forces of Sedro and Woolley? We ask because the Times was bankrolled by Junius Brutus Alexander, one of the bulwarks of the Twin Cities Business League, which was lobbying heavily for the merger of the towns as the county climbed out of the mid-'90s Depression.]
South Burlington sustained great damage. Houses and barns were undermined and toppled to the ground and the winter's supply which they contained scattered on the tide. The fencing of years and clearings that represented the toil of a decade were covered with the debris of the surrounding forest.
At Avon, the dikes gave way in three places and the unrestrained torrent rushed pell mell through street and meadow, orchard and garden, tearing and washing until the oldest inhabitant would have to summon imagination to aid him in recognizing some of the old landmarks.
West Mount Vernon is next in line of progress and received no favor from the impartial flood. The water , rising from 1-2 feet above the first floor of the dwellings, swept fences and everything movable with it.
Among the miracles of the age was the ability of the residents of Mount Vernon proper to keep the dikes in shape to restrain the freshet [flood] from sweeping through the streets of the city. By heroic effort all day Saturday and the following night the main dike was strongly reinforced by three temporary ones, which action alone saved the city as the old one repeatedly gave way.
Here we must stop, for aside from the meager reports of the general desolation wrought in Skagit City, Fir, Stanwood and the Olympia Marsh, we know nothing authentic as to the extent of looses of life or property. By the slender reports in we are satisfied that in comparison with former floods, last week's freshet will live in the minds of Skagit valley residents for many decades.
The railroads were among the heavy losers by the freshet. The Great Northern track from the Burlington limits to the bridge across the Skagit was floated from its bed and the fill badly washed out. The bridge was pretty severely shaken but by the adding of a few new piles and the re-ballasting of the pier it will be rendered sale for traffic. At least one half of the Anacortes & Hamilton line [Seattle & Northern, which eventually became part of the Great Northern] is honeycombed and totally unfitted for travel. unless a big force is put on for repair work, it will be several weeks before any trains can pass over this line. The Seattle & International [later the Northern Pacific] sustained the least damage, owing to the river bottoms being mostly spanned by trestle work. Through traffic was resumed on this line Tuesday.
There had been a heavy fall of snow in the mountains at the head of the valley and the strong chinook wind coming before this snow had become packed and frozen caused a great thaw, thus supplying an unusual volume of tributary water to the Skagit. To this fact is undoubtedly due the recent high freshet.

Abridged notes of losses by key pioneer families:

Lyman: Morris Duffy lost 12 head of cattle. [Tobias B.] Cooper lost one ox. George Arnold lost one cow, five calves and 14 stands of bees. Alex Ross lost one hog. [The large island in the slough south of the Utopia area was named for Alex Ross.]
Town of Tingley [Day creek/Happy valley; the village there was then named after settler Samuel S. Tingley.]: James Jameson lost one steer. School house District No. 61 thrown on its side, roof carried off.
Sedro: Mortimer Cook store moved from foundations out to the road. Hay stored in warehouse badly damaged. Donnelly Bros. lost 8-10 hogs, two heifers. Geroge E. Jarvis lost a valuable two-year-old Jersey bull.
Sterling: James Ritchford and family, who have been residing in the one-story cottage on the [Jesse] Ball homestead, were awakened on Saturday night by the roar of the waters as the freshet swept over the farm. After considerable shouting and firing of pistols, a rescuing party removed them to a place of safety. Mr. Ritchford lost his hay, cattle and five hives of bees. Frank Brousseau lost 2 head of cattle, considerable farm damage. Roads here are honeycombed but maybe repaired for about $125. Taylor McRae's property recently purchased from James McLellan was considerably damaged and the fences torn away.

Other notes from this issue:

Page 1. Sedro-Woolley awoke on Wednesday morning to find the townsite covered with a thin blanket of the "mantle beautiful."
Page 1. First freight train from Seattle over S&I [Seattle & International, the interim name between the original Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern and later, the Northern Pacific; north-south rails through Sedro-Woolley] rails last evening at 6 p.m.
Page 2. Hamilton is a desolate looking place. The people look blue and they have a right to the look. The ferry gone, houses settled, furniture and carpets spoiled etc. The Seattle and Northern railroad is a honeycomb. All sidewalks in flooded part of town are gone or lodged against some stumpage . Cumberland street from Water to Maple was small river Sunday; boating considered fine sport by boys. Small flood visited Sat and Sun. Wind blew warm 36 hours, river rose rapidly. Water rose Saturday morning, by night streets in lower part cover by 3-4 feet.
Page 1 Thos. Caskey has put his fine horse & buggy up for raffle for small sum $75. Tickets are on sale for 50 cents until all sold.

Joseph Hart observations about floods from the same issue In the year 1878 Joseph Hart, our well known fellow citizen, came to Puget Sound and two years later came to the Skagit valley, just prior to great flood of 1880. Since the flood of that year there have been, three freshets [floods] that have equaled it in height, and the one we chronicle this week surpassed it by 18 inches. In speaking of the floods and their causes, Mr. Hart said:

Joseph Hart recalls the Indian legends: At the time of my coming to this valley there had been no freshets of note for many years, and the one that came in 1880 was a damper to the enthusiasm of the dwellers on the marsh lands; but, as several years rolled by without a repetition of the catastrophe and a system of dikes was inaugurated, contentment banished fear.
Shortly after the memorable high water of that year, I had a talk with an old Indian and his squaw, who used to live on Skiou [sic, now known as Skiyou] island but have since died of the smallpox [smallpox was rampant in the Indian population in 1890]. These worthies took me to a tree near by and directed my attention to a watermark at least six feet higher than the highest point reached by the recent freshet and said that when they were children the great flood swept down the valley carrying death and destruction everywhere.
He said: 'the lodges of my people were carried with their canoes and winter's food out to the great waters, and they were left to suffer the horrors of starvation and death from exposure to the inclement elements. The snows of winter fell to an unusual depth and the animals upon which we were wont to subsist, greatly reduced in numbers by drowning and driven into the mountain fastnesses by the raging torrent, were hard to get and very poor. The fish we had prepared for winter use were destroyed by the angry waters and we were made to suffer the wrath of the Great Spirit.'
Judging from the apparent age of the Indians at this time I should place the time of that greatest of the great freshets at about the beginning of the present century, and was caused according to the story of these Indians by heavy snows coming early in the fall, which were immediately succeeded by a very warm chinook wind which blew for many days. As to this being the only and real cause of the unprecedented high water, however, I have my doubts.
Our fellow townsman, Mr. H.L. Devin, was some years ago engaged in surveying in the upper valley in the vicinity of Baker lake. Being detained over night in an Indian camp, he was told the history of a great flood. They said that about 60 years ago a great slide had choked up the narrow outlet of the Baker valley and that the water accumulated in the basin thus formed until the whole valley was an immense lake, full 80 feet deep. By this time the imprisoned waters had burst through the dam and in a few hours this great volume of water was precipitated into the Skagit flooding the whole valley. The water marks still plainly visible high up the sides of the Baker valley and the great variation in those upon the trees as you come down the Skagit would indicate that this was the real cause of that terrible disaster.

"See mud on tree, build higher" A present-day perspective by Noel V. Bourasaw, Skagit River Journal Joseph Hart, along with David Batey, were the first two whites to settle the area of present Sedro-Woolley. [Read their profiles on the web page about the four British bachelors who were the first to settle permanently on the future-Sedro area.] They arrived in August 1878 and explored the upper reaches of the valley first but the narrow corridor seemed to preclude a railroad link so they chose to come back down the river in the flatter part of the valley. Hart recounted later that early on, he heard a settler ask an Indian where he should build his cabin. The Indian answered: "See mud on tree, build higher."
The great flood to which the Indian couple referred was probably that of 1815, what is often called the mother of all floods of the Skagit. Explorer Alexander Ross crossed the Cascade Pass the year before, but there is no record of any whites living along the Skagit at that time. White fur trappers followed Ross over the next two decades.
Larry Kunzler, a flood expert who once lived in the flood plain of the Nookachamps, now lives north of Sedro-Woolley. He has amassed thousands of pages of documents regarding floods as a result of investigating for property owners who sued the government regarding losses due to the floods of 1990. He asserts that the most massive flood of the Skagit "occurred, according to historical records, around 1815." He classes that flood as "well above" a 500-year flood, or one that would only occur once in any 500-year span.
The flood of 1909 was the most significant flood since records have been kept. Kunzler explains that flood damage begins when the river flow at the Concrete gauge exceeds 60,000 cubic feet per second (c.f.s.). The estimate for 1815 is 400,000 c.f.s. In 1909 it was possible to row a boat all the way from Mt. Vernon to LaConner across the fields. So we can imagine the terror that the flood of 1815 must have struck in the hearts of those Indian children.
The 1909 flood marked 220,000 c.f.s. at Concrete; 1917, 195,000 c.f.s.; 1921, 210,000; 1951, 150,000. Records are not available for river flow at Mount Vernon for the same floods but in 1951 the flow was 144,000 c.f.s. there. Using that as a comparison, the famous 1975 flood measured 130,000 c.f.s. and in 1990, that level was surpassed twice. If you lived here then, you might recall that a second flood followed the first one of Nov. 11, 1990 by just 13 days, the famous Thanksgiving day flood. The first one measured 142,000 c.f.s. and the second, 152,000 c.f.s.
Experts estimate that the flood crest of 1815 was at least 15 feet above the flood mark of the 1917 flood, which is classified as a 75-80-year flood. 1990, as terrible as it was, is a mere 25-year flood in comparison. Experts also estimate that at Sedro-Woolley the 1815 flood exceeded the 1909 flood by 7 feet, covered the highest ground in the town with 1.5 feet of water, and water would have covered the present downtown business district by about 10 feet.
The next significant flood was in 1856, the second highest in the last 200 years, which had an estimated flow of 300,000 c.f.s. The next significant flood was in 1880, the one Hart mentioned in the interview above. Mortimer Cook apparently did not heed the Indian warnings because he built his general store right on the north shore of the river in 1884. Hart's farm was also very near the river. Settlers of the 1880s apparently assumed that the river had calmed down because they established villages at Hamilton, Sauk and old Sedro in lowland areas. Then, in the 1890s, the river went on a rampage nearly every year or two. We know that 1894 registered a severe flood because noted Skagit valley historian John Conrad was born that year and his middle name is Flood because of the havoc wreaked on his father's farm near LaConner at Pleasant Ridge. The village of Sauk was nearly completely swept away in the flood of 1897, which was the equal of the one described in the newspaper report above. The two back-to-back floods of 1896 and 1897 pretty well spelled the end of old-Sedro by the river. But Hamilton lived through them all. It took the ravages of 1917 and 1921 to convince town fathers there to rebuild up the slope where the present town of Hamilton lies.
[Ed. note: newspapers like these are worth their weight in gold for historians. If you have any old issues from this area or know some one who does, please do not hesitate to copy them and send the copies to us. Thank you. We owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Peterson once again for finding this particular issue, which is packed in two pages with scads of pioneer names and locations. We will quote more of it in a later chapter. Come back and visit this section again.]

Skagit River Past & Present, an introduction to the river section.
The Mother of all Floods, 1815 through the twin floods of 1896-97 and the two November 1990 floods that may have been the worst in tandem.
Facts about the Skagit, from the Skagit Watershed Education Project of North Cascades Institute in Sedro-Woolley.
Skagit valley soil rated best in the nation, 1940. Link is being repaired, will be posted week of April 22.
Larry Kunzler has spent years researching flood control in Skagit county, both for clients and to help farmers understand the wrath of the Skagit river. He speaks from first-hand experience because he bought a farm in the Nookachamps area and learned a hard lesson. As he explains, he asked the realtor why the house was built 6 feet off the ground and the realtor replied, "That's because it used to flood around here. But now we have dams on the river and it doesn't flood anymore." Now that the Avon Bypass is becoming a topic of conversation again, Larry has transcribed the Herzog report and the original documents about the bypass that are eye-opening. You can email mailto:floodway@nwlink.com him to learn more yourself.
Kunzler helped Leonard Halverson and other Sterling/Nookachamps-area farmers research when they sued Skagit county to recover damages from the 1990 Thanksgiving flood, a 35 year event. See Halvorsen v. Skagit county online.
Tanscriptions of other old Newspaper Logs

Story posted on April 13, 2003
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