Snohomish County prepares to celebrate its sesquicentennial
Published 12:01 am Monday, January 10, 2011
Snohomish County is preparing for its sesquicentennial — what most of us would call a 150th birthday.
The big day is Jan. 14. On that date in 1861, the territorial Legislature granted a petition allowing local settlers to separate politically from Island County and form a county of thei
r own. Snohomish County was born.
Friday morning in downtown Everett, some modern-day denizens plan to kick off a year of events to commemorate the milestone. Among them is Christopher Summitt. The historical re-enactor often dons period dress to conjure the vastly different landscape of the 19th century.
“It was a time of silence on Puget Sound,” Summitt said last week, launching into one of the standard introductions he might give at local schools or the Mukilteo Historical Society. “There were no roads, only the waters, the constant paddling of boats, the smell of drying salmon and wood smoke, native people boiling clams, great hills with timber thick like the hair on the back of a dog, long, lonesome stretches, and silence.”
Summitt will be part of a modest celebration planned at 10 a.m. Friday outside the county administrative buildings at 3000 Rockefeller Ave. There’s also a cake in the works, to be prepared by culinary students from Edmonds Community College.
Everett wasn’t always the county seat.
The original one was Mukilteo. That’s where Port Townsend customs officer Morris Frost and Whidbey Island storekeeper Jacob Fowler decided to set up shop.
In July 1861, the county seat moved from Mukilteo to Snohomish, known at the time as Cadyville. That came after an election: Snohomish won with 17 votes to Mukilteo’s 10. In 1897, the seat moved again, to Everett.
The county already was approaching the end of its third decade when Washington became a state in 1889.
For most of that time, the county remained a sleepy backwater. Then the Seattle, Lake Shore, and Eastern Railroad arrived in the late 1880s, opening the door to economic expansion and a population boom.
A year later, a gold find at Monte Cristo started luring prospectors to hills outside present-day Granite Falls.
Since then, the county has mushroomed into an urban-suburban-rural mix with some 700,000 people. Timber and canning gave away to aerospace and homebuilding, as Seattle’s suburbs enveloped the southwestern part of the county and points beyond.
“Snohomish County’s diverse population through the years has made it what it is today — an economic driver for the state of Washington,” County Executive Aaron Reardon said. “We are hardworking people dedicated to an improved quality of life, and the result of that has been amazing progress in the fields of aerodynamics, biotechnology, agriculture and more.”
At a cottage near the Snohomish River, lore has it, settler Emory Ferguson drew up the petition to form the county. The one-story cabin still stands.
“We’re so lucky,” said Warner Blake, an independent researcher and author who writes a blog at www.snohomishthenandnow.org.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
Snohomish County’s sesquicentennial celebration
At 10 a.m. Friday, Snohomish County marks its sesquicentennial with cake, music and speeches outside the Snohomish County Campus, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett.
Leaders from Snohomish County and the Tulalip Tribes are to attend.
People can contribute to a time capsule for future generations.
For more information, go to www.snoco150.net/events_activities.
Some milestones in Snohomish County history (watch for upcoming events to commemorate them):
July 17, 1861: The county seat moved from Mukilteo to Snohomish. Plans are under way to mark the date this summer with an old-fashioned debate and mock election.
May 7, 1911: Aviator Fred J. Wiseman made the first powered flight in Snohomish County in the vicinity of present-day Harvey Field.
May 30, 1911: An intense fire broke out in Snohomish on the south side of First Street between Avenues B and C, engulfing both sides of the street.
