Skagit County turned 140 years old last week

It’s often said that crime doesn’t take a holiday. Nor did Washington state politics back in 1883.

It was while Whatcom County lawmakers had gone home for the Thanksgiving holiday that Territorial Governor William A. Newell signed a bill lopping off Whatcom’s lower half and designating it as the new Skagit County.

The bold action came just prior to Thanksgiving Day, which in 1883 was officially designated on Nov. 29 – the final Thursday of the month – by President Chester A. Arthur.

The president’s proclamation had been issued after the Territorial Council in Olympia had killed an initial bill to create Skagit County. As events unfolded, upper Whatcom legislators apparently counted their turkeys before they hatched.

Territorial Senator and publisher James Power, who had moved his Bellingham Bay Mail to La Conner and renamed it the Puget Sound Mail, allied with Amos Bowman’s Northwest Enterprise in Anacortes and Territorial Representative Orrin Kincaid in the campaign to establish Skagit County. When Power’s bill for separation fell short, he and Kincaid didn’t retreat. After a few weeks, Kincaid simply reintroduced the measure. The timing was crucial. With the so-called “Lime Kiln Lobby” of Whatcom County having returned home, Kincaid’s bill cleared both houses on Nov. 24 – exactly a month after the original legislation had failed.

“Without the powerful representatives from Whatcom to help vote it down,” Past Skagit County Pioneer Association President Dan Royal has written, “the bill passed.”

Gov. Newell signed it into law a few days later.