Welcome to Skagit County

November 19th, 2008

Celebrating Skagit Countys 125th Birthday
Skagit County Commissioners invite public for proclamation and cake

SKAGIT COUNTY – The Skagit County Board of Commissioners will read a proclamation celebrating the 125th birthday of Skagit County and cut cake for the public, on Tuesday, November 25, 2008. Skagit County Pioneer Association Historian Dan Royal will give a presentation.

The event will be televised live on Skagit21, Skagit County’s government access television station on Comcast.

Celebrating Skagit County’s 125th Birthday

WHEREAS, upon the establishment of Washington Territory there were but four counties, Clark, Thurston, King and Walla, and;

WHEREAS, the vast inflow of population, began to show lines here and there along the streams, sounds, bays and mountain chains, representing natural points of separation, so almost immediately there began to be the pressure for division, and;

WHEREAS, the beginning of the epoch of the 1880s, the increasing population about that superb stream the Skagit, the largest and finest of the rivers of the sound basin, began to believe they were paying a disproportionate amount of money into the treasury and receiving benefit in inverse ratio, and;

WHEREAS, the rugged range of the Chuckanut formed a barrier betwixt the two parts of the county Whatcom, and;

WHEREAS, a petition was circulated in 1883 at La Conner for a new county out of south Whatcom. The petition called for a division line on the Chuckanut mountain, running west thence between Cottonwood and Guemes island, thus bring Guemes, Cypress and Fidalgo islands into the new county, and;

WHEREAS, after much debate, Skagit County was created on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1883 by act of concerned representatives in the Territorial Legislature who forcibly removed the southern half of old Whatcom County and declared the existence of the new County of Skagit, and:

WHEREAS, La Conner was named the first seat of government, subject to a vote of the people who chose Mount Vernon as the County seat in 1884, and;

WHEREAS, Skagit County has grown steadily and prosperously for 125 years, enjoying a dynamic economy based on farms, fishing and forest, plus many other industries of great worth, and;

NOW, THEREFORE, the Skagit County Board of Commissioners hereby proclaim November 28, 2008 as the 125th birthday of Skagit County and welcome all to celebration Skagit County’s foundation and for all the bounties that have since befallen us.

For further information contact:
Dan Berentson
Skagit County Communications Director
360-419-3461