Rich history pervades the 'Gateway to the Cascades'

By ALIYA SAPERSTEIN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Sedro-Woolley is a town of slogans and stories.

It is "the gateway to the North Cascades" and "the town that logging built." The state Route 20 advertisement for the Iron Skillet restaurant reads: "Good Grub, Lousy Service."

Everybody here knows how the original settlement of Sedro -- a corruption of the Spanish word for cedar -- was going to be named Bug because of all the mosquitoes that swarmed along the Skagit River banks, until the founder's wife objected.

They commemorate the town's famous bank robbery in their annual Founders' Day celebration with a re-enactment of the entire 1915 shootout that saw $11,000 stolen from First National by five Russian strangers.

And, residents point out, with a grin, the jog in the north-south running roads as they cross State Street. That marks the boundary where the two towns of Sedro and Woolley, somewhat unwillingly, grew together in 1898.

Metcalf Street, the main drag of Sedro-Woolley's downtown, is dotted with memorials to the town's history.

Statues of local wildlife bought from competitors at the Annual Loggerodeo chain-saw carving contest, and donated to the city, adorn the downtown sidewalks. Visitors can get their pictures taken next to the life-size bear or three cubs climbing a tree, which stand outside the town's oldest building -- home of the Holland Drug Co. since 1894.

The bear statues, along with several others on Metcalf Street, were carved by Rocky McArthur, who lives and works in the woods of rural Hoogdal just north of town. McArthur is happy to be a part of showing off the town's heritage.

"We're trying to make it like a little walking tour in history," says McArthur, who claims the area's logging past as an inspiration for his art.

Also on Sedro-Woolley's "walking tour" are monuments of old logging machinery and the Condy Clock, erected by local jeweler and optometrist Horace Condy in 1904.

Condy's descendants still live in town, and still run the local jewelry store. Glenn Allen Jewelers, right next door to the Holland Drug Co., has been operated by the Allens for more than 50 years. Glenn Allen III, 48, points out his grandfather's uncle's clock as he wanders down Metcalf in search of his twice-daily dose of espresso.

"There's just a good quality of life here," says Allen. "It's quiet, and it has a slower pace, but it's a great place to raise kids. Everyone's really friendly."

You'll get no argument from Peggy Proctor, who along with her sister, Cheryl McLaughlin, runs the Hometown Cafe. Proctor grew up here, graduated from the only high school and then moved to Tennessee where her husband was stationed. She soon moved back though, and now her children have graduated from high school here as well.

"I always liked it here," Proctor says. "It's a small town with nice people, and you forget how nice the valley is. The valley is just beautiful."

The picturesque farms, rolling green fields and tree-studded Cascade foothills provide a breathtaking backdrop to Sedro-Woolley and nearby towns.