Skagit River - History

History

The river takes its name from the Skagit tribe, the name used for two distinct Native American peoples, the Upper Skagit and Lower Skagit. Native people have lived along the Skagit for many centuries. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Upper Skagit tribe lived in the area now called Ross Lake National Recreation Area at least 8,000 years ago, and were quarrying chert from Hozomeen Mountain for blades used across a wide area. The Upper Skagit tribe occupied the land along the Skagit from what is now Newhalem to the mouth of the river. The Lower Skagit tribe lived on northern Whidbey Island and are also known as the Whidbey Island Skagit. Archaeological evidence reveals that these people lived from the land through fishing, hunting, and gathering.

The first written description we have of the upper Skagit was written by Henry Custer, the topographer for the US Boundary Commission in 1859. With two other government men and ten locals from the Nooksack and Chilliwack bands, he canoed and portaged from the Canada – United States border down to Ruby Creek. They found no native people inhabiting the Upper Skagit at the time, but an elder Samona Chief named Chinsoloc drew, from memory, a detailed map which Custer found to be accurate. (The "Report of Henry Custer, Assistant of Reconnaissances, Made in 1859 over the routes in the Cascades Mountains in the vicinity of the 49th parallel" belongs to the National Park Service.)

Settlement along the river by European Americans in the late 1800s was inhibited by two ancient logjams that blocked navigation, forcing them to live nearly on the tip of the delta at a settlement called Skagit City. The first was located about 10 miles (16 km) upstream from the mouth of the river. Attempts to remove it began in 1874 by a team of loggers who salvaged the logs. After three years of work a 5-acre (20,000 m2) section of the jam broke free and scattered downriver. Soon thereafter the river was navigable. Mount Vernon was founded at the approximate site of the logjam.

In November 1897 the Skagit River experienced a major flood, resulting in two new logjams forming, again blocking navigation. The largest was near the mouth and filled the river from bank to bank for about 800 yards (730 m). A recently built logjam removal boat named Skagit was able to clear this jam in about a month.