Aug. 9, 1928
On the 16th of August rural free delivery of mail will be inaugurated to Similk beach from Anacortes, and those having homes there will be able to receive their mail every day.

Aug. 12, 1948
Another step toward that time when Mount Erie, the highest point on Fidalgo Island, will become an official city park area was taken recently with the announcement by the Anacortes Kiwanis club of the purchase of a 40-acre tract at the top of the mountain for the price of $400. The Kiwanis club has announced that this tract will be allowed open to the public. The property purchased by the Kiwanis club lies adjacent to the city-owned land at the top of the hill.

Aug. 14, 1958
Photo caption: Curious spectators gather around two caskets which washed up on the beach near the Washington State Ferry landing after a truck transporting them to the San Juan Islands ran off the ferry pier yesterday afternoon. Others floated down the Guemes channel (all empty) and were the subject of considerable interest among people and tourists who observed the sea-going coffins.

Aug. 8, 1968
Anacortes City Councilmen voted to scrap plans for Local Improvement District 165, the controversial central area street paving program now stalemated in Skagit County Superior Court.... The district includes almost all presently unimproved streets between Q and K Avenues and between the waterfront and 22nd Street, a total of about eight miles of paving at a cost estimated at $900,000.

Aug. 9, 1978
Construction will begin by the end of the year on the new 40,000 square foot Safeway store in Anacortes, it was learned this week. The store, to be built between Commercial and Q avenues and 11th and 13th streets, will be among the largest Safeway stores in the state when it opens in mid-1979, according to Russ McCurdy, public affairs spokesman at Safeway’s Bellevue office.

Aug. 10, 1988
Results didn’t appear to be such a big deal at the 10th annual Pull and Be Damned Regatta, Anacortes’ alternative to the Arts and Crafts Fair. Put on by the Old Anacortes Rowing and Sailing Society, the regatta features a variety of contests for hand- or sail-powered craft of all sizes and shapes.

Aug. 12, 1998
In a deal of straight cash, a property trade and various construction services, the city of Anacortes has rid itself of its aging 12th Street police building and gained a parking lot. However, part of the deal with owner Rick Rennebohm includes demolishing the crumbling Semar Building at the corner of Fifth Street and Q Avenue. The building, part of a larger complex dubbed the Semar Block, has stood at the corner for nearly 108 years.

— From the archives of the Anacortes American