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Mount Vernon, Washington

© Jerri Brooker

Mount Vernon, Washington is not as well known as Mt. Vernon, Virginia. But this small town in the only state named for a president has a charm all its own.

Mount Vernon lies near the southern Skagit County line in northern Washington State. It's home to The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival 2000 - March 31 to April 16. Mother Nature decides when the actual event is center stage; when the time arrives, tulips and daffodils grace the fields like a ray of sunshine. Join in the Kiwanis Salmon Barbecue, visit street fairs and attend parades - there's a lot to do at this event. This is a big one, folks. If you're planning on visiting Washington, be sure to add this event to your itinerary. If you can't make it, then check out the website for what's going on. You'll see the brilliant flower fields in this agricultural area, Skagit Valley, which is about the size of Delaware.

To find out more, visit the Tulip Festival Site. There are lots of good links, even to places to buy bulbs at this site. Events await you. Spring awaits you. Don't miss it!

For those of you unable to make the trip, here's a personal historical view of Mount Vernon:

Jasper Gates and Joseph Dwelley were the first homesteaders in the area in the 1870's. Gates has been called "The Father of Mount Vernon." Harrison Clothier, a teacher, set out the original townsite after buying ten acres from Gates for $100. Clothier was also the first postmaster in town. He arrived in 1876. He named Mount Vernon after George Washington's Mt. Vernon on the Potomac, as Mount Vernon also sat along a river, the Skagit River. The town was conceived on George Washington's birthday. By 1881 the town population was 75 people.

From that point the town grew and flourished. In 1877 Rienzi E. WHITNEY started a saw and shingle mill on 700 acres of the Padilla mudflats. In 1879 the Ruby Hotel was erected in honor of the Ruby Creek Mines. The mines brought a lot of speculators, but it was a short-lived effort. The mine didn't produce.

The town faced the Skagit River on Front Street. If you visit Mount Vernon today, you will see a small memorial, the Skagit River Jam Memorial, on the river downtown on Front Street honoring James Cochran, Fritz Dibbern, Daniel Hines, Donald McDonald, Marvin Minnick, John Quirk, Dennis Storrs and Joseph Wilson for breaking up a two-mile logjam from 1876-1879 using their brute strength and logger's tools to free the river for trade and travel. The town grew fast after the logjam was removed.

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