Old timers keep track of Burlington’s railroad heritage

Getting railroaded usually isn’t a good thing.

Unless, of course, you’re in Burlington – the “Hub City” of Skagit County – where getting railroaded means reflecting back on the passenger and freight trains that were instrumental in its evolution from a modest logging camp into a vibrant community.

The pivotal year was 1890. That’s when the Great Northern and Seattle & Northern railways extended their lines through western Skagit County.

The Great Northern tracks ran north and south. The S&N lines were laid east and west. They crossed at Burlington.

Thus, the enduring nickname “The Hub City.”

That story and many other railroad-themed anecdotes were shared during a one-hour program at the Burlington Visitor’s Center Saturday, July 30.

Billed as “Burlington’s Railroad Heritage,” the interactive event was led by master of ceremonies Larry Gilbert and “Mr. Burlington,” Duane Stowe.

Audience members were invited to share their favorite accounts of the city’s special relationship with trains.

Liza Peth Bott, president of the Skagit County Pioneer Association, recalled watching with her father, the late rodeo legend Wick Peth, the transport and delivery of livestock by rail.

“I remember sitting in the cattle truck with dad and waiting for the box cars that were carrying the cattle,” she said. “I also remember traveling across the country with him and seeing cattle and horses transported across the country by rail before trucking.”

Augmenting the reminiscences was a text-and-pictorial display devoted to Burlington railroad history. Much of that exhibit focused on the Bellingham and Skagit Interurban Railway that arrived in Burlington in 1912.

Several of the attendees spoke of the famed electric trolley built to connect rural areas of Skagit and Whatcom counties. The route linked Mount Vernon and Bellingham via scenic Samish and Bellingham bays and skirting Blanchard Mountain.

It included a two-mile over-water trestle near the Samish Bay shoreline just northwest of Burlington, the inspiration for the line’s familiar moniker: “The Trolley that Went to the Sea.”

An attendee noted that another line extended five miles east from Burlington to Sedro-Woolley.

Improvements in auto and bus transportation ultimately rendered the trolley obsolete. In addition, financial pressure was ratcheted when the stock market crashed in late October 1929. The trolley closed eight months later, in June 1930.

The program, developed for persons of all ages, was created by the Burlington Historical Society.

Gilbert, 86, addressed the youth directly.

“You kids don’t play around with trains,” he implored, then shared a lesson learned from his own youth, the time he took a nasty spill while jumping between moving flat cars.

“I was ornery,” Gilbert quipped.

It was no accident that the railroad heritage program facilitated by Gilbert was held at the Burlington Visitors Center. Fittingly, it is a replica of the original Burlington Great Northern depot train station of the 1890s.