La Conner's long, rich and colorful journalism tradition

Once there were two newspapers in La Conner.

Soon there will be none.

The pending closure of the La Conner Weekly News and retirement of its owner, Publisher and Editor Ken Stern, is the latest headline – though hardly a joyous one – from a robust local journalism tradition dating to the 1870s.

The story begins, oddly enough, in Bellingham with James Power, who established himself as a politician and newspaperman of note before Washington became a state.

Power published the Bellingham Bay Mail, which depending upon the source referenced, was moved to La Conner in either 1873 or 1879 and renamed the Puget Sound Mail. A judge and territorial senator, Power is widely believed to have circulated the petition that ultimately led to formation of Skagit County, carved from the southern section of Whatcom County.

The PSM, as it was fondly known to generations of La Conner readers, was run by a succession of owners committed to reporting news of the town and its surrounding area. The names of those publishers, editors and office managers read like a Who's Who of La Conner history.

They included Henry McBride, R.O. Welts, Leroy Carter, George Knapp (son of the Governor of Alaska), W.A. Carlson, Richard Fallis and Bonnie Graham McDade. Even the witty and often irreverent Fred Owens took a turn at the PSM helm.

But the name most synonymous with the PSM is that of M.P. "Pat" O'Leary, who ran the paper during its golden age of 1939-1973.

"He wrote with no fear when it came to writing about what was going on," fellow journalism legend Wallie Funk said at O'Leary's 1994 memorial service.

O'Leary, for instance, broke the news in the late 1960s of plans to site a nuclear power plant on Kiket Island, now home to the popular Kukutali Preserve co-managed by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and state of Washington. The project was ultimately nixed.

A true renaissance man, O'Leary was editor, publisher and chief writer during his 34-year PSM tenure. He also ran the paper's Linotype machine. Linotypes stamp letters from hot lead. Operating the system required much skill and training.

O'Leary, whose descendants include La Conner Schools Superintendent David Cram, was a devoted Rotarian and tireless advocate on behalf of the town and its environs. He was often kiddingly referred to as a "capitalist" for insisting that La Conner be spelled with a capital rather than lower case "c."

For years the slogan, "Covers La Conner and its Rich Agricultural Region" appeared on the top of page 1, above the paper's name.

His preference was also to have no space between La and Conner, a practice continued by his one-time staff member Alan Pentz, who in 1976 – three years after O'Leary's retirement – launched the competing Channel Town Press on Morris Street.

Between 1976 and 1982 the PSM and CTP competed for readers and advertising revenue. Under Fallis, the PSM expanded arts coverage and focused on La Conner and Swinomish history. The slogan "Serving LaConner and Historic Skagit County" was part of the flag at the top of page 1 of the Dec. 1, 1977 issue. Go see the copy in Nasty Jack's Morris Street window.

McDade produced a magazine quality layout and well-crafted columns, including the popular "Monday is Soon Enough" penned by La Conner Landmarks founder Glen Bartlett. But in 1982 the Puget Sound Mail closed.

Formerly a courthouse reporter for the old Mount Vernon Herald, Pentz countered with a tabloid-sized paper known for injecting humor into its news stories and editorials while prioritizing accounts of the community's resident characters.

Pentz, a pre-law student at the University of Washington – where he was a student of revered professor Giovanni Costigan – appreciated the off-beat stories that other newspapers didn't cover. He wanted the CTP to be unique and readable, encouraging the use of feature leads for news articles.

"We can't be an inverted pyramid, AP stylebook newspaper," he once said. "If we do that, nobody will read us. They'll read the (Skagit Valley) Herald instead."

The CTP survived 16 years after Pentz's death in 1990. Sandy Stokes, Wayne Everton and Cindy Vest took ownership of it. Within months they changed the name to the La Conner Weekly News. Stokes had a strong reportorial background from her newspaper days in southern California. Everton, mayor of La Conner from 2003-2008, had been in publishing in the Bay Area. He passed away in 2010.

Vest, who grew up in the printing business, had typeset simultaneously for both the PSM and CTP.

Stern, whose father had edited a labor newspaper in Ohio, purchased the Weekly News from Stokes and Vest in June 2017.

And the rest, as they say, is history.