Annual Pioneer Picnic Thursday

One year and a global pandemic couldn’t wipe out a La Conner tradition more than a century in the making.

The annual Skagit County Pioneer Association Picnic and General Meeting resumes tomorrow at Pioneer Park after the 2020 gathering was nixed due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The much-anticipated event, a fixture here on the first Thursday in August, starts at 11 a.m.

After the 12-month hiatus induced by the pandemic, a period that also saw major restoration work at the park in the aftermath of severe windstorms, a Good time is promised on several levels for those in attendance.

That’s because the Good family, integral in the settling and agricultural development of nearby Fir Island and whose members have since made their marks in a host of areas – perhaps most notably public service – will be honored as the 2021 Pioneer Family of the Year.

There have been Goods in Skagit County since the 1870s and their achievements through the decades in farming, military service, education, innovation and music have been chronicled in various media, starting with the voluminous “An Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties,” published in 1906.

Pioneering Goods included early diking commissioner Thomas Good, a native of New Brunswick who spent his early working life handling cargo in eastern Canadian harbors and was engaged in the timber industry of Wisconsin prior to settling in Skagit County.

Another of the family’s pioneers was Edward Eady Good, who became a significant landowner on Fir Island, which his generation discovered provided some of the richest soil in the nation.

The Goods have long taken the lead in preparation of the salmon served by members of the La Conner Civic Garden Club as the Pioneer Picnic’s main luncheon course.

The Good family legacy will be showcased on pictorial story boards designed and assembled by Skagit County Historical Museum staff, who will also be on hand with a variety of publications, including the 2021 edition of the Skagit River Journal.

The public is cordially invited to attend the picnic, notes Pioneer Association President John Kamb, Jr., a Mount Vernon attorney, who will chair the group’s business meeting following the luncheon.

Kamb is grateful the picnic will be business as usual this year.

“At our meeting last month,” he told the Weekly News in May, “there was a feeling that it might be iffy having the picnic (again) this year.”

Those fears were allayed when COVID-19 vaccines became more accessible, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) relaxed social distancing and facial covering restrictions and Washington state fully re-opened under Gov. Jay Inslee’s Roadmap to Recovery Plan.

For the cost of $20, those attending this year’s Pioneer Picnic receive a commemorative ribbon, event program, memorial pamphlet and dinner ticket. Beverages will be made available by the La Conner Sunrise Food Bank, with proceeds going to its various service projects.

The accordion duo Leif and Sunnie will be on the park grounds to provide live music.

In addition, the Pioneer Picnic ribbon allows free admission to the historical museum, located on Fourth Street – “on top of the hill” in La Conner – through Aug. 8