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Present day pioneers

This year’s Pioneer Picnic honors, for the one-hundred-and-twelfth time, Skagit Valley predecessors who, by definition, plunged forward into an unknown future.

Their hard work, perseverance, faith, and yes, vision, told them that a better world for their children would be brought forth by their efforts. And so they took chances and relied on each other.

Discussion at the Picnic will probably include renovation of the Pleasant Ridge schoolhouse. That property’s purchase makes that project possible. It will take years, monies and hard work. We save the schoolhouse as much for our kids as our grandparents. They need to know how they got here.

The schoolhouse renovation is a relatively small project. Bigger, more pioneering challenges are before us. Everything and everyplace is not settled. We have duties to more than the status quo.

Last week, candidates for the Town council seat were given Jacques B’s litmus test: What was their willingness to publicly advocate funding finishing the ring dike, a bulwark against future flooding?

The one certainty is that uncertainty is before us. Microsoft is contributing to a bullet train feasibility study. Significant population increases reach beyond Seattle through the Skagit Valley and to Bellingham. More people means all kinds of pressures, environmental and otherwise.

Another certainty: the future will be more expensive than the past.

Wallace family ancestors started in Nebraska. The Hedlins moved on from North Dakota sod huts. Thulens attended Pleasant Ridge School. That’s one century’s pioneering.

Well-lived pioneer lives are documented by descendants memorializing their accomplishments in monuments long after the pioneers’ passing. What will the story be that our great grandchildren tell their 21st century ancestors?

It is too early for me to respond. I have more listening to do, questions to ask and the need to hear more histories. This is the appropriate forum and time for asking questions and asking readers to share their answers.

What are the big dream, big ideas, still under development and waiting for the courage of champions to bring this community and this valley safely and fully into a sustainable future?

Either we pick a route into the future or the future will wind its own way. Time, in each present moment proceeds slowly, perhaps imperceptibly. Where will we end up? What will be the monuments to our pioneering efforts generation hence?

 

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