Site founded September 1, 2000, passing 300,000 page views in January 2005
These home pages remain free of any charge. We need donations or subscriptions/gifts for students, military and family. Please pass on this website link to your family, relatives, friends and clients.

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

Alexander R. Underwood
Was he the first settler on Skagit mainland?

Transcribed from the partially burned copy of May 28, 1891, Puget Sound Mail, LaConner Alexander R. Underwood, the first settler of the Swinomish flats was a visitor in LaConner on Monday, with his prospectors kit and hunting equipment slung across his back and his trusty rifle in his hand. He is known by old settlers from the Frazer [Fraser river] to the Columbia and from the Cascades to the sea.
Mr. Underwood was born in East Tennessee in 1828. At the age of 10 he was taken to Missouri where some of his family still live. He served during the Mexican War from which having reached the age of 63 he is now drawing a pension. He then worked his way across the plains and mountains and arrived in Olympia in 1854. He served faithfully in the Indian war of 1855-56, and was at the battle of Grand Ronde Valley and the battle of the blockhouse in Seattle. He arrived at Conley's Prairie too late to witness that fight.
In 1864, Mr. Underwood built the first white man's cabin on the Swinomish flats, on the east side of Sullivan's slough. [Part of the story burned here] A few months later Michael Sullivan and Samuel Calhoun arrived and began the reclamation of tide marsh lands, and though they were the first to actively engage in farming, Mr. Underwood was the first white man to raise garden truck on the flats, having raised onions and potatoes that year on a slight rise of ground that formerly — perhaps centuries ago — a favorite landing of the Indians, their old platforms being covered with sedimentary deposits to a depth of several feet.
Mr. Underwood also at the same time had a claim at Dugualla Bay on Whidby [Whidbey] island but lost it by non-residence. He used to go between the island and the flats in a sloop and spent most of his time hunting, trapping and fishing. He also lost his donation claim on the present site of Whatcom, which is now worth many thousands of dollars.
After leaving the Manchester place, he lived for awhile on the Christianson place and afterward on the Porter place, where he injured his knee with an adz while hewing knees for a boat. He then left the flats in disgust.
Ed. note: for you landlubbers, he was not hewing his own knees. Knees on a boat are supporting braces. This story is quoted in the book, Skagit Memories, but the wrong year of 1893 is given. We found the story in the actual newspaper, which is on microfilm in the Suzallo Library at the University of Washington.
The only reference to Underwood in the authoritative 1906 book, Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties is this brief mention: "It is said by some that Mr. Underwood was the first settler on the north fork, locating in or before 1865 on the place afterward taken up by Peter Vander Kuyl."

Story posted on Jan. 3, 2005
Please report any broken links or files that do not open and we will send you the correct link. Thank you.

You can read about our prime sponsors:
Read the history websites of our sponsors and supporters, who help fund research of local history:
Heirloom Gardens Natural Foods at 805B Metcalf street, the original home of Oliver Hammer.
Oliver Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years.
Bus Jungquist Furniture at 829 Metcalf street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 36 years.
Schooner Tavern/Cocktails at 621 Metcalf street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, across from Hammer Square.
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 driver from Winthrop or Sedro-Woolley.
DelNagro Masonry Brick, block, stone — See our work at the new Hammer Heritage Square
See our website www.4bricklayers.com.

Would you like to buy a country church, pews, belfry, bell, pastor's quarters and all? Email us for details.

Did you find what you were looking for? If not, please email us and tell us what you seek and we will put it on our list to research. The more details, the better.

Please sign our guestbook so our readers will know where you found out about us, or share something you know about the Skagit River or your memories or those of your family. Share your reactions or suggestions or comment on our Journal. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to visit our site.

Sign Our Guestbook

View Our Guestbook

Remember, we welcome correction and criticism. Please click on the email slot at the right to report any problems with these pages or to suggest ideas for future stories. This is a completely free site. We fund it by providing an online magazine for paid subscribers. If you are not already a subscriber and you would like to help support our considerable research costs, you can subscribe for just $20.00 per year. As a paid subscriber, you will receive eight yearly issues plus many rare treats between times, including scans of photos and documents that illustrate local history, before they are shared with anyone else. You can go here for Subscription details and you can read the preview edition to see examples of our in-depth research. You may also order gift subscriptions for friends, family or clients who are interested in local history or students or military people who are away from home. Or you can email us for more details. Do you have scanned photos to share? Or you can mail us copies. See addresses to right.

Email us at: journal@stumpranchonline.com

Mail copies/documents to street address: Skagit River Journal, 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, WA, 98284.

Skagit River Journal

Alexander R. Underwood Was he the first settler on Skagit mainland?

Alexander R. Underwood
Was he the first settler on Skagit mainland?