By REBEKAH DENN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

One hint of the town history is found only in memories and in the older business signs that still refer to the "Twin Cities," meaning Stanwood and its one-time companion town of East Stanwood.

East Stanwood sprang up around the railroad that bypassed Stanwood by a mere mile in the early 1900s, growing into a city in its own right, and into its sister city's archrival.

Each had its own schools, newspaper, government and businesses. The school districts merged in the 1940s; the joint need for a sewer system and other services eventually forced the two municipalities to follow suit in 1960.

"There was always a feud going on between the two of them," says 75-year-old Don Moa, who was elected mayor of East Stanwood just before the merger and later served for years as mayor of the combined towns.

"If one got a new city hall, then the other one had to have it," Moa says. "If one got a new fire truck, the other one had to have it."

Moa's decades as an elected official included one of the most dramatic events in Stanwood's history, the 1996 fire that destroyed the Twin City Foods processing plant.