Skagit City, the Town a Log Jam Built - SkagitTalk
A 1876 article from the Washington Standard introducing the Skagit River to the rest of the state noted that, “The peculiar nature of the river is the Jam, about two miles above Skagit City.” This snippet understates the obstructions and impact they had on life in town. There were actually two immense log jams that meant, Jo says, “life and death” to the community. The older of the two, just below present-day Mount Vernon, was roughly a half mile long, and so dense it had trees 10- to 12-inches in diameter growing out of it. Reliable estimates pegged its age at around 100 years old. The second jam, about a half mile upriver from the first, was even larger. Both jams consisted of several layers of driftwood and debris 30-40 feet deep.