End of an era: last logs towed out of La Conner

The surreal became all too real last Wednesday as a few locals watched from both sides of the Swinomish Channel and the Rainbow Bridge, witnessing what for decades has been an everyday occurrence here.

With cell phones and cameras in hand, they captured images that morning of Dunlap Towing skipper Tom Zimmerman bringing a log tow south past town, Swinomish Village, and Shelter Bay to storage off nearby Goat Island---a familiar scene that has played out for as long as most locals can remember.

But for Zimmerman and Port Susan deckhand and engineer Kurt Bassford, it was no ordinary day at their...