La Conner, Washington

There were settlers in the area as early as the 1860s, when the area was called Swinomish, after the local Indians. Probably the first iwhte settler was Alex R. Underwood. He built a log cabin on Sullivan's Slough. Underwood and Michael Sullivan began diking the Skagit Flats to protect the land from high tides and flooding. At that time the flats were a maze of shallow sloughs and marshes. Alonzo Low arrived in 1867 and set up a trading post on the west side of the channel. He didn't stay long, just 14 months. He sold the post to Thomas Hayes and left the area.

John and Louisa Ann Conner came in 1869. Conner bought out the trading post from Thomas Hayes and named it after his wife (L. A. Conner). At the time, Louisa Ann was the only non-Indian woman in the vicinity. The trading post was located on the western side of the Swinomish Channel. John relocated the post to the other side of the channel where Totem Pole Park is now. He also established a post office there. Magnus Anderson was another early pioneer and his cabin, built in 1869, still stands today. Other early families include the Tillinghast, Gaches, Whitney, Sission, and Andrews families. It wasn't long before the town and a busy waterfront with stores, hotels, saloons, and a newspaper. The land around the town was bursting with crops of oats, barley, hay, and potatoes.

In 1873, James and George Gaches bought out Conner. They set up a co-op type arrangement with the local farmers. In 1875, a grange hall was built across the street from their home. The building later became the first federal co urt north of Seattle, the district court for Whatcom County, and the first courthouse for Skagit County. It was also a school, a church, a lodge, and a community center. The town was first noted on area maps about 1876.

By 1883, the town was the largest settlement in Skagit County, which had recently been formed from Whatcom County. It was the county seat until 1884 when Mount Vernon was voted the new county seat. In 1890, Tillinghast moved his promising seed company to town. It still operates today. By the turn of the century it had become a shipping port for Skagit Valley's growing agricultural community and housed over 1,000 people. Grains were marketed to Seattle, mainly to feed working horses that pulled streetcars. After Seattle's rail system was electrified, Skagit Valley switched to other crops. Today the area grows a significant part of the world's supply of spinach, cabbage and beet seeds. They also grow a large amount of peas, cucumbers, potatoes and carrots are grown for the processed foods market. But the town is best known for its flower bulbs, especially daffodils and tulips.

For awhile the town was in trouble in the early 20th century. The fish market had collapsed. Then there were some very damaging floods that were hard to recover from. Then came the Depression, and many people left the area.

Artists began to colonize the area in the late 1930s. Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, and Kenneth Callahan became famous founding the "Northwest School" of artistic expression. Today prominent artists Guy Anderson, William Slater, Richard Gilkey, and James Clayton live here. The town's Museum of Northwest Art shows off their art.

In the 1970s Pat O'Leary and then Mayor Red Reynolds tried to rejuvenate the town. New services and shops opened on the waterfront. They began to promote their history.

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Last revised: 4/29/00