Check it Out!

What an interesting weekend. To begin with, both Kari and I were independently at CostCo on Saturday (I know, CRAZY right? What were we thinking?!?) and saw this:

Very cool! A couple of local Arcadia titles. I was particularly excited to see Sedro-Woolley. This title had been listed as out of print, was not at our local library, and couldn’t be found on Amazon. But I had been wanting to see a copy because an amazing photographer, Darius Kinsey, who you can learn about in our book as well, had a studio in Sedro-Woolley for many years. I figured they would have had some pretty sweet photographs from which to choose. And they do, it looks like a fabulous book!

But the real topper this weekend was checking my mail this morning and finding a link to OUR BOOK in Amazon! That’s right folks, you can preorder! Oh my goodness, talk about feeling real! But the best part was probably hearing my daughter squeal on my behalf after she asked, “Is that your book momma?” and I told her, “Yes honey, that is MY book!” WOO HOO!

The Whistle

On our List (you know, the List of “Wouldn’t it be great to get a picture of THAT?”) was a certain whistle. We never found that elusive photograph. But that is probably o.k. because there is no way we could work the story of The Whistle into a mere caption. Oh how we love the blog…

In 1901 the Clarence Rowe family moved west. They brought with them, packed in a suitcase, a Mississippi River steamboat whistle. It was used at the Siwash Shingle Mill (which we were able to write about in the book) until the mill burned down in 1909. It is said that one Mr. Turner, the manager of the Pacific Coast Condensed Milk Company, asked for the whistle “before the ashes had cooled”. Eventually that plant became Carnation and the whistle blew several times a day. The sound carried across the flats from Milltown to Sedro Woolley.

According to lifelong resident Lisette Mast, “Everyone lived by the whistle. It blew at five minutes before 8:00 a.m. and again at 8:00; also at 12:00 and 4:30. We could hear it all over the valley and of course those in town as well. We knew exactly when it was time to go to work, have lunch and quit. No one needed a watch. I still miss the whistle!”

Sadly, since the closing of the Carnation plant, the whereabouts of the whistle are a mystery. Even better than finding a photo would be finding the whistle itself!

Funny Thing…

In the last post we mentioned “when the book arrives”. Sadly we did not have a clue when that would be. But then we got a message from our publisher to let us know that the book is scheduled to be released the week of March 18, 2013! WOO HOO!

Perhaps the most exciting thing was getting some feedback—to be honest it has felt like we dropped all that hard work into a black hole. Turns out that must have been a “no news is good news” situation. Apparently everything was great and met specs and is being processed in a timely manner.

We were told to keep our calendars clear for “media interviews, book signings, or other events that will surround the publication of your book”. So exciting! I’m not sure what Arcadia will whip up for us, but we have been having plenty of Release Party dreams over the past year. And everyone will be invited (so sorry for our loyal, long-distance fans).

Line Art

While the book is mainly photographic, a certain percentage of it can be what is called line art: maps, advertisements, brochures, etc. Our book doesn’t include much line art, but what we did include was pretty darn cool, if we do say so ourselves. But, just like the photographs, there were some great pieces of line art that simply didn’t make it into the book.

The first piece is a copy of old official Skagit County letterhead from the early 1900s:

The County Records Office was an unexpected treasure trove. They were warm, welcoming, enthusiastic, and very helpful. Plus they had some really great images they happily shared with us.

Another favorite of ours was a stamp from the 1913 Mount Vernon Pow-Wow, courtesy of the Roger Fox collection:

Never heard of the Pow-Wow? We hadn’t either, but that is one of the many fascinating things you can learn about when the book arrives.

Tulips and the Release

It is so hard to believe that we have the book done. It was such a whirlwind and time pressure cooker to make our deadline. But now, a few weeks after submission, we are looking around and realize we have to wait! We hope to have the book proofs back sometime in December and the book is scheduled for release in the early spring.

So in honor of the big release, which should be near the Tulip Festival, we thought it appropriate to post about some other photos that did not make it into the book.

This one was especially heartbreaking because it is such a great photo. We first came across it while in Karl's Paint store. The photo is large and professionally framed, hanging on their wall. We asked if we could borrow it to scan for our book and without hesitation they agreed to let us take it home to scan. But before we could scan it, they had to remove it from the frame. Talk about helpful! According to them, it had been in the building when they moved in years ago. As we were leaving with the photo, they also mentioned that it might be from up north in Lynden.

Not thinking much of this Lynden comment, we were so excited to have a photo that might illustrate the Mount Vernon tulip festival. However, with a little research it turns out that the style of the dresses certainly do not match up with the history of tulip festivals in Skagit Valley. This is from a much earlier time when there were tulip festivals in Lynden and before tulip growing moved south to our neck of the woods due to the constant threat of frost up north.

Later, after meeting with the WSU extension office, the ladies showed up again!

Still lovely as ever. It was like they were taunting us about NOT being able to use them in the book.

Nonetheless, they are both great photos and they make us look forward to April!

Bonus Picture Tuesday

We promised a post this week, so figured we had better get on it! A true testament to the quality of photos IN the book is the quality of photos that got left OUT of the book. We were fortunate to get some really wonderful items from so many sources.

This photo, courtesy of the Mount Vernon Mayor’s Office, is one of our earliest scans.

It is a great picture, but there is the double whammy of “Are we *sure* this was Mount Vernon?” and “What story would it bring?” There is no doubt that it could be from here—the area had plenty of giant trees like this. But the sign on the left, which is difficult to make out, seems to be saying something about “Blaine”. Too much uncertainly for our taste. But it is still a wonderful photograph from 1899!

Can you read the bottom? It says “This tree was used to shelter 12 head of cattle”. Wow, lucky for those pioneers that lightning is a rare occurrence around here!

Believe it or not we are Verbose

Sorry for the scant blogging of late, but the writing process for our book has been all-consuming the past few weeks. It has been exhausting and sometimes frustrating, but also very satisfying. The entire book has been like a giant puzzle—where to put what, what to include, what to leave out, how can we tell a certain story, etc. Every caption has a word maximum and time and time again we would go past that, it felt like we spent more time cutting than composing! And in the end there would be this great caption, but we would feel kind of sad about what had been omitted. Sometimes we would have the greatest story in mind but no photo that we could use to bring that story to the book. Conversely we have some amazing photos that we simply don’t know anything about. Like this one:

Adorable right? Look at the bell on that cow! But what story would it contribute? Who is that? When was it? So onto the cutting room floor it went so to speak.

But now we are super excited about our blog’s role! This is the place! The place for all the great photos we couldn’t include. The place for the long babbling stories we couldn’t cram into our limited text. The place to expand upon things that ARE in the book. We might have finished writing the book, but we are just getting started here on the blog. The ultimate companion to what we think is going to be an incredible book.

But first, perhaps a small break. We truly are exhausted. So look for a post next week with a fascinating story or at least another great picture!

Eugene, Eugene, Where are You Eugene?

We got a great selection of photographs of former Mount Vernon Mayors. Sadly, the pictures came with no information (the story of our lives). Today we met with longtime lawyer Bud Gilbert and got some great information about most of the former mayors. The one glaring exception was nothing about Mount Vernon’s perhaps most dapper mayor (and a personal favorite of ours from a visual standpoint), Eugene J. “Euge” Harris.

Who was this guy? What did he do? What was is administration like? We really wish we knew so we could come up with a caption for this gem of a photograph!

Mystery after Mystery

We are getting down and dirty going through the hundreds of pictures we’ve scanned over the past year. Here is one we really like, but is a complete mystery:

Well, perhaps not complete, I mean, you have to assume it is a group of teachers. Right? And probably from around the 50s? Maybe? But what school, who are they, what are they doing? AHHH! Anyone out there know?

A Great Day

We keep saying, “We need to pull the plug.” “We need to stop running all over acquiring photos.” “But…” It is that “But” which always seems to keep us going. One more picture, one more gem, one more discovery… What might we find? What might we learn? How might we be amazed? Thus we crammed two meetings in yesterday.

The first was with Ann Basye and her mother Mary Alice Johnson Basye. We met them in the family’s over one hundred year old farm house. If that wasn’t perfect enough, workers were outside busily restoring the accompanying barn. Pictures, stories, wonderful people, all reasons we keep not stopping! It was a fabulous meeting and we got some great pictures. But one of our favorites has to be this one:

Guess where that is. It is inside the Carnation Creamery! The perfect accompaniment to our cover photo! We also got some great family and farm shots. We can’t thank the Basyes enough for inviting us into their home and being so warm, welcoming and generous.

Next we dashed over to Concrete to meet with Skagit County Historian Dan Royal. We got to swap stories about the struggles of book writing/compiling. He recently worked on “Bridgeside: Selected Stores of Dick Fallis Skagit County Historian” (we happily purchased two copies of our own, if you are interested, the book is being sold at the Skagit County Historical Museum in La Conner) and is currently finishing up a MASSIVE Skagit County genealogy project that will be a two volume collection. It would have been worth the trip simply to meet Dan and get copies of his latest book, but we got a few nice photos from him too.

To sum up, a great day! But at some point we simply must curb our obsession.

That Wasn’t Two Weeks Already?

Just noticed that the last post was over two weeks ago! As our final deadline approaches time is apparently speeding up exponentially! Sadly, no information came in about our mystery folks. But we have had some successes of late. We had a great meeting with Mike of Mike and Jean’s Berry Farm. There was also a lot to be learned at the Skagit Valley College Library. And tomorrow we have two meetings set that might be amazing—keeping our fingers crossed.

There has also been a flurry of writing. The book introduction and intros for chapters 1-5 have been penned and sent to our publisher. We are praying they are good enough to not need many edits.

Meanwhile the PR wheels are spinning. We might be making an appearance at an upcoming event in downtown Mount Vernon, but before committing we want to see if Arcadia’s PR department can help us. If it all comes together we’ll be sure to make an announcement!

Long story short, the book is our paramount priority. We’ve got a hard push before us, but once it is over it is over. Then we can get back to fun blogging.

Behind, so Behind…

Wait, it hasn’t really been almost two months without a post has it? Oh yes it has. Summer presents new struggles as we now have to balance full-time children and family vacations with our book project. To put it simply time is flying! It is flying so fast that we are both trying desperately to not hit Panic Mode as book deadlines quickly approach.

One thing that kept us busy was going through even MORE negatives! There were three batches when all was said and done and each box got bigger and bigger. We would love to know how many negatives we looked through in all (Jessica is estimating around ten thousand!). We neatly arranged everything back into new boxes and returned several more boxes than what had been lent. The final batch of negatives is hopefully being processed at Arcadia as I type.

There was some good news too! The best news might be that someone is actually reading our blog! Turns out it was our good friend Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann) and she identified the girls in the roller rink photo we posted. Unfortunately for us, the rink, called the “Roller Frolic” was in Burlington, not Mount Vernon. The girls are Donnajean, Marilyn and Kathleen Eddie. Their parents, Bill and Burl, were the owners of the rink. Our greatest apologies if we spelled any of the names incorrectly. So there you go future Burlington historians, valuable information.

And while we’re on a roll, let’s try it again. Does anyone recognize either of these two people?

The envelope might say “Warren”, but it is very difficult to make out. Based on the number code we can place the time frame around 1950. Don’t know why, but these portraits caught our eye, especially the prim and proper disposition, as well as the hat, of that lovely lady. And is that a crop duster behind her? Just seems like there is a story here…

Batch Number Two!

Recently we received some negatives back from Arcadia that had been sent in for scanning. Unfortunately the disc of scanned images hadn’t made it into the envelope. We were kind of bummed because we had been anxiously awaiting the disc to see what kind of images we had discovered. Well, today the disc arrived and we are so excited! We have looked though so many negatives that we forgot what we had sent for scanning. Turns out we have some real gems! Of course we need to share a couple.

Check out this farmer in his field!


And logging on the Skagit!


This picture is another mystery.

Can anyone help us? Was there a roller rink in Mount Vernon, or was this from another town? We’ve been looking, but haven’t unearthed an answer yet…

Alright, we have to stop. We can’t share all our secrets. But we can't wait to see many more of these printed in the book!

Why Can’t They All be Like That?

A couple weeks ago we were tooling around town, trying to dig up some more history and photos. We decided to pop into the old Baptist Church and see what they might have. We ended up talking to the pastor who was amazingly kind and welcoming! We followed him down a dark hallway and made a right turn as he said, “How about you start here, in our history room.” WHAT? History ROOM?!? Yes folks, it is a shine to their over one hundred year history!

We were amazed and thrilled. Talk about hitting the jackpot!

We returned the next week with computer and scanner to scan a few images. While there we learned that the first Boy Scout troop in all of Washington state had been formed at that church back in 1913. They are troop number one.

Seriously, could this get any cooler?

Of course it can! The Reverend Davis, who formed the church back in the late 1800s (incidentally the first church in the town) also happens to be the first person to bring Holstein cattle to the region. We love how history all comes together.

Please Admire from Afar

Well that sure was fast! We dropped possible cover photos to our publisher last Friday. We then sent in our back cover text on Wednesday. This morning we were shocked to see this in our inbox:

WOO HOO!!! Who loves it? We love it! Don’t look too closely though, we already see some editing we need to do on the text. Think of this as a first draft. But seriously, how PERFECT is that photo? Talk about meant to be.

We are so thrilled that this is something we will accomplish ahead of schedule! And seeing things take shape sure adds some motivation. Now we have to do that whole “book thing” and make the interior worthy of this amazing cover.

Choosing a Cover

Oh the pressure, the deliberation, the agonizing decisions!!! But at some point it must be done. We must choose from all our fabulous photos some possible cover contenders. There are some rules, restrictions and guidelines for acceptable cover images. And of course there is our opinion and our publisher’s opinion. We hope they turn out to be the same.

At first there was a great logging photo that caught our eye. Unfortunately, we discovered the picture was NOT from Mount Vernon. Turns out that was a blessing in disguise. We had to look harder and think more. After all, this is the Northwest. Logging certainly wasn’t unique to Mount Vernon. So what is unique to Mount Vernon? Today people would probably say “tulips”. Right? True, but that wasn’t the case in the early days. However the success of tulip growing can give us hints to the past—fertile farm lands, crops, seeds, cows… Did you know that Mount Vernon used to be called “Milk City”? It was a combination of all the fine dairy farms and the multiple milk condenseries. As a matter of fact, Mount Vernon was home to the third ever condensery built by Carnation in 1907! At that time evaporated milk wasn’t simply used for baking here and there, it was considered the wave of the future!

To us, Milk City seems very unique and interesting. That is why this is our top choice for cover photo (printed with permission from the John Kamb collection):

We’ll see if it makes the cut.

Why Doesn’t Anyone Write Like This Anymore?

Today we paid a visit to the Skagit County Historical Museum. We had asked about the English Logging Company (owned by one town founder, E. G. English). So the librarian brought out an old publication from September 1, 1921 that contained an extensive article on the logging company. It was a large volume entitled “Skagit County, Washington” and “Published by the Mount Vernon Herald”. It was historical GOLD! There were articles about the Milk Condenseries, the churches, the telephone company, and more. Needless to say we racked up a fair amount of photocopying fees.

But the best, and we mean the BEST part of the whole thing had to be the beginning of the Publisher’s Forward by one M. J. Beaumont. He writes:

"It is approximately forty years since there was started in Skagit county the work of changing arid tidelands and dense forest into beauteous and bountiful farmsteads where today reside the most prosperous and happy people that may be found within the confines of the nation."

Oh man have we got to work that quote into the book!

From Negative to Image!

Remember our post about looking at negatives? Since we lack the proper equipment for scanning negatives, we had to oh so carefully send them to our publisher for scanning. We used FedEx to send in a batch, then sat back and waited…

A couple of weeks ago we got scans back from our publisher. It was like magic to see all those small, reverse images turned into photographic scans. Most of them scanned beautifully, but some were duds. To be honest, we were thrilled to get so many fabulous images. These negatives have been sitting around for years in boxes—some of them were completely destroyed—we had no idea how the negatives we selected would look.

Here’s a super cute shot of a school patrol from the late forties.

Obviously we are happy to have these images for the book, but beyond that there is the thrill of preservation. Who knows what will become of these negatives. How much longer might they survive? But now there are digital copies of some of them. We have copies, and look forward to presenting Mark with copies. Those will live on and that is a good thing for history.

And THAT is Why Laptops Were Invented!

This week was busy…still is busy. On Wednesday we visited with Jo An Fox to scan some AMAZING images from the Roger Fox photo collection. Just check out this shot of the Sheriff’s Department from the early 1900s. Love it!

Unfortunately, I might be tech savvy, but I’m certainly not portable. Packing up my printer/scanner/copier/fax machine? No problem. Kari volunteered her Mac laptop. It seemed like an ideal setup. But once we got there and got to work, the limitations of an ancient laptop became apparent. It was taking minutes between each photo to get the software ready to scan again. Add to that my clumsiness with both laptops and Macs. It turned ugly. After almost three hours I decided enough was enough and I returned home to disassemble my desktop computer, loaded it into the car and returned to Jo An’s house. In about three hours we had not gotten through one notebook of photos. Once I was set up with my own computer we got through three notebooks in like an hour and a half! But that still left two notebooks. Luckily everyone was able to gather again this morning and complete the project. And on the bright side, pulling my computer apart gave me a great excuse to do some major cleaning in my office!

It was a really great time. As if it wasn’t enough that Jo An was letting us paw through the entire collection, she got in on the research and was making calls left and right to help us dig up information. She even lent us a lightbox! Wow, now that is a truckload of help! And she was a simply delightful hostess while we invaded her home for two straight days. It’s going to be a happy day when we can deliver copies of our book to Jo An because I don’t know if it is possible to thank her enough.

History Hiding in Clear Sight

A couple months ago I was talking to someone about how Mount Vernon doesn’t do a great job of presenting their interesting history. He asked me, “Have you seen the plaque about the log jam?” No, I hadn’t! I *know* about the log jam, but I had never seen a plaque about it. “Well, it’s up there on the revetment somewhere”. I made a mental note to search out this item of interest.

In my mind’s eye I was envisioning a small plaque on the railing, or one of those state sponsored historical plaques you see all over the place—a pole with a metal sign. A couple weeks later I was making a quick run to a store downtown. I parked in the place I always park when going downtown, got out of my car and looked up to see this: That’s no rinky-dink plaque, that is a full on memorial! And it is beautifully crafted--a true work of art.

And I had parked next to it dozens of times! In my defense, you have to walk up a ramp from the parking area to get to the walkway that this borders. But really? How had I missed that so many times? And how does everyone miss this? Most people I talk to don’t know the first thing about the infamous log jam. It seems simply crazy, how is history managing to hide in plain view like this? Perhaps we all need to look up from our cell phones more often...

Our Dream Remodel

Let us present to you the ugliest building in Downtown Mount Vernon; we’re talking ugly with a capital UG:

Now that is merely our opinion. People might disagree, but we happen to find this building sad and depressing. We thought that before, but then we saw what it USED to look like:

Are you kidding? Nope, that is the very same building. Turns out the ugly was installed over all that gorgeous brick! We also found out that the top floor has a huge ballroom. What we wouldn’t give to see that building restored to its former glory!

Speaking of Dancing…

Who remembers school dances? Did you love them or hate them? Were you the Belle of the Ball or an awkward wallflower? Either way, I’m pretty sure school dances were a regular occurrence in your youth. A rite of passage if you will.

So imagine our surprise when we were looking through documents at the district school office and came across a file of documents all about school dances! Apparently it was a raging controversy back in the 1930s. There were multiple petitions from high school students asking for the right to have dances. There was a letter from Kathryn Hammer Heron (class of 1934) describing how her parents and their friends hosted a Senior Dance at the Skagit Country Club since the School Board refused to allow school dances. According to Kathryn, “It is my recollection that it was such a beautiful occasion for all, the school board soon relented and the Senior Ball, the Junior Prom was born.”

We aren’t sure when the school board relented, because the controversy seemed to continue, or reemerge, in 1936. Once again there were multiple petitions from students. We also found anti-dance letter from First Baptist Church (it was so “Footloose”!).

There was a bulletin, dated October 16, 1936, stating, “The subject of school dances was presented to the school board last evening by a committee of students. The board passed two motions. In one they complimented the committee and expressed their appreciation for the courteous and business like manner in which the committee presented the subject. In the other they thought it unwise for the school as such to assume the responsibility for the sponsorship of dances.” D’oh!

On the bright side, Superintendent J. A. Reeves wasn’t ignoring the students. He sent several letters to principals throughout the area asking about school dances and how they were handled at other schools. Eventually that information was compiled and strict rules were created to govern school dances. The next time we return to the school district office, we might have to dig into the school board records and see if we can find more information. In the meantime, let’s take a moment to celebrate formerly uncelebrated pioneers—the students that established school dances!

Way to Make Me Feel Old

We have had some real jackpots when it comes to getting photos—collectors with tons of images from which to select the best and most interesting. But we also have an extensive list of “single targets”. Random things on our wish list, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a picture of _____?”

One image I wanted was something from the first production of “The Nutcracker” by Skagit Valley Academy of Dance. This institution has been teaching kids to dance for almost 27 years now. In 2011 they put on their twenty second annual production of “The Nutcracker”. Twenty-two years with no end in sight? That sounds like history to me!

My daughter happens to be a student there at the moment, so for the past four weeks, when I drop her off, I’ve been harassing the lovely ladies that work there about getting a picture from their first production. They finally located a huge display they had made two years ago titled “Twenty Years of Clara”. Every single Clara was pictured with descriptions of where they are now. It was downright fascinating!

And the money shot:
The first Clara, in 1990, Renee Kinnear pictured with the Prince, Ralph Fandel. Take a not-so-crisp photo, scan it in grey-scale and suddenly it looks way older than twenty-two years, I think. Now for some personal history, I graduated high school in 1990. Oh man does this photo make me feel OLD!

Boxes and Boxes, Oh My!

This week we’ve been delving into boxes of negatives from Mark. Each box contains dozens of envelops, each envelop contains large old negatives. All these negatives are from photographer Bill Forman. For years he worked as a commercial photographer in Mount Vernon. Being a commercial photographer meant taking pictures of a lot of various topics: weddings, funerals, roads, parties, store fronts, construction sites, sports teams, etc. It is the most amazingly random assortment! Luckily these negatives, which have spent many years in storage, are in pretty good shape. Every now and then we come across some negatives that are beyond repair and it is kind of sad. But we are so excited to look at all these images that have been hidden from the world for so long!

Sadly, we don’t possess a light table. We didn’t really anticipate working with so many negatives. Luckily the first day we had lots of natural light. Today I discovered that the light over my kitchen table is the perfect strength to stare into while it backlights a negative—not too strong, not too weak. Of course my neck will probably be cursing me for so much looking up…

I spent the morning pulling the specific negatives we want to use from the first huge box. Then Kari dropped off a second, smaller box, along with the report that there are two more huge boxes waiting for us. The first box had a lot of gems, but I’m not going to reveal *all* our secrets. This second box, not so much. I think I found four photos that are book-worthy. That box had a lot of portrait work, weddings, storefronts, and my personal favorite, batches of damaged car photos for an insurance company. There were even quite a few serious accidents, like this one. Didn’t I tell you that kitchen light works great?

I can’t wait for boxes Three and Four!

The Bigger Picture

Last night I was watching NBC Nightly News and there was an article about a former school teacher in Mississippi who sends birthday cards to about 400 of her old students every year. It was pretty amazing. But to me the amazing part was at the end when they showed her going into her local post office to mail a batch of cards. “That’s our old post office!” Apparently *her* post office was built as part of the same public works project that built Mount Vernon’s old post office.



I never really thought about it, but I’m sure many of those Public Works Projects were simply cookie cutter plans. So all over the country there are old post office buildings with the same exact design as Mount Vernon’s, and most of them have a unique painting, just like ours. I even found an album on flickr titled “Post Offices and New Deal Art” that shows these buildings and their artwork from around the country (Mount Vernon included!). I don’t know who “jimmywayne” is, but he’s logged a lot of hours around this country photographing post offices! Very impressive if you ask me.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, our old post office is no longer the local post office, but the building still survives—a part of our town’s history and our country’s history.

The New Running Joke

When we started our project, the running joke was “when will we ever get our first photograph?” We talked to lots of folks, we saw lots of pictures, but we couldn’t seem to find anyone who had the rights to any of the pictures they showed us. It was frustrating to say the least. Eventually though we got our first picture, and many more.

Now the running joke seems to be “when will we ever meet the mayor?” Mount Vernon has a new mayor. We had met with the former mayor and gotten some great photos from his office. We want to keep the lines of communication open with the leader of our fair city, so we feel it is important to introduce ourselves to the new mayor. But every time we attempt to meet her, something happens. One time we were going to see her at a meeting at the library, but the meeting got canceled due to the big snow storm. Another week we were going to attend a Friday morning coffee but we ended up with a meeting at the historical society instead (just a shade more important). Finally, FINALLY, today we were going to be able to attend a Friday morning coffee and hopefully meet the mayor. This coffee had the advantage of happening at Mark’s on Pine Square. And Mark was another one of our targets. Double bonus!

Unfortunately the “Mayor’s coffee” was also attended by Congressman Rick Larson. Great. Instead of a tiny, intimate gathering, there were dozens of citizens crammed into Mark’s and they all wanted to gripe at Congressman Larson. The mayor hardly got a word in edgewise. We never got within ten feet of her. Struck out again.

But it still turned into a banner morning! We did find several other interesting folks in the crowd who gave us suggestions, names and contacts. And when almost everyone had cleared out we accosted Mark. First off, he is a super nice, friendly, approachable man. Secondly, he has boxes of old negatives from Bill Foreman (hope I’m spelling that right) who was a local photographer for several decades (approximately 30s through the 60s). Holy Cow! Just reaching into the box the first envelope of negatives contained shots of the semiprofessional baseball team, The Milkmaids, from the 40s. LOVE IT! We walked out with the first box and can’t wait to start digging through all those negatives. Happy Friday!

Collaboration Rocks!

A week and a half ago there was a meeting…a BIG meeting. Sadly, Jessica was sick as a dog, luckily Kari was feeling good and on her game! She met with the new director of the Skagit County Historical Society, Clark McAbee, to discuss the possibility of obtaining a few photographs from their extensive collection. Permission was granted and we’ve been jumping for joy ever since. We can’t think of a better collaborator for this project.

And now for some shameless promotion, for those of you who are in the area. Have you been to the Skagit County Historical Museum in LaConner? If not, you should plan a trip. It is a great day trip with some fascinating photos and artifacts. The first time we went there we even had all the kids in-tow (at the time, three six year olds and a four year old) and they were thoroughly entertained. The staff kindly provided them with a scavenger hunt and coloring pages. Way to make history fun!

Why Didn’t I Think of That?

Today I’ve been doing a lot of research on line. History is funny. It is what it is; you can’t change the history of a place. That might make it seem very cut and dried, black and white, objective really. But everyone knows that isn’t the case. All history has been filtered through the perspectives, judgments and views of people—ultimate subjectivity! The people who lived it, the people who recorded it, the people who write about it today. You can read so many different accounts or takes on the same thing—it can truly make my head spin.

As I was reading at the computer, my head spinning, my five year old climbed into my lap (mainly to annoy me I think). “What’s this map for?” “It’s an old survey map showing the log jam that used to be here?” “Is it still here?” “No, getting rid of that jam is what made Mount Vernon a successful, viable city over a hundred years ago. Before they got rid of that, big boats couldn’t come up the river.” There was a long pause while I hoped he was thinking about the wisdom I’d just dropped on him. Then he stated, “I think the beavers made it. They needed higher water so they built a dam. But it’s not so nice for beavers to do that so boats can’t go across the places.” Thanks for adding a new perspective Little Man. I needed a good chuckle this afternoon.

Deciphering Notes

Well the lunch meeting we had to cancel due to snow happened last Thursday. I think my head might STILL be spinning. It was a fun and fabulous lunch, but once Wendy got on a roll thinking of names, places, businesses, ideas, etc., it quickly became overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, overwhelming in a good way! But suddenly we’re looking at a long list of names and we need to get busy and serious! Goals, plans, deadlines, work…

Our next step needs to be an article in the paper. Fortunately the paper has been on a little run of printing historical stories themselves recently. I’m hoping they will see an article about us as a benefit and something that will play into their current theme. Anyone have a friend who is a reporter for the Skagit Valley Herald?

Snow Days

Today was supposed to be a lunch to discuss Mount Vernon history with a new acquaintance. But since today is our third snow day in a row, we are stuck home with children. Hopefully we can reschedule for next week.

While snow is on our minds, how about a great photo:

See, this probably isn’t the worst snow storm to ever hit Mount Vernon.

Who Knew?

There is a building at the corner of 3rd and Montgomery in downtown Mount Vernon. It is a very unassuming building; we’ve probably driven by it hundreds of times without as much as a glance. It is boxy and brick and somewhat plain except for a fancy white frame surrounding the skinny front doors. Currently it is the property of Skagit Valley College. But it turns out this building has a story. And oh how we love stories!

From 1935 until 1964 this building was Mount Vernon’s Post Office. It was a W.P.A. Project that employed contractors, construction workers and several skilled artisans. The project also included a commission for a special artist. Ambrose McCarthy Patterson was born in Australia, studied both there and in Paris, worked in Hawaii and San Francisco before making his way to Seattle. In 1919 he established the University of Washington School of Painting and Design. He created a mural at the head of the lobby that depicted rural farm land in the background and a milk processing and evaporating plant at work. At the time, milk processing was the major industry of the area.

And guess what? History survives! As soon as we read about this painting we were off to the old post office to see what remained. The lobby has been preserved with gorgeous wood paneling, an intricate tile floor and the mural:

Please forgive the quick, and somewhat grainy, cell phone picture. Now for another trail to follow—wouldn’t it be incredible to find a photograph of Patterson working on the mural back in the 30’s?

Not a Lonely Hunter

Well we had a prolonged holiday break when it comes to the book and blog (sorry about that), but it was fun and relaxing and we have approached 2012 with more energy and enthusiasm. I suppose it is motivation when you realize you are in the year of your publication deadline!

But before the madness of the holidays Jessica had a great meeting with folks at the Lincoln Theater. In 2011 this downtown landmark celebrated its 85th birthday! When you think “theater” you tend to think all things visual and that had led us to fantasize about an amazing stash of old photographs from this historical institution. Imagine our shock to hear that the Lincoln didn’t have any historical photographs! In addition, due to their recent anniversary, they had been on their own hunt for historical photos last year. Hum, small world…

On the surface that might make the meeting seem unproductive, but we don’t believe that is the case. It was a joy meeting Executive Director Thom Mayes. He and Jessica had great discussions about the nature of non-profits, the history of Mount Vernon and events at the Lincoln. And now we know that when we do find photos of the Lincoln we should treasure them and pass copies along to the theater itself. Apparently preserving our history is a group effort.