May 13, 1909
The carnival cannibals are coming — in fact, they are already here. The original Portland exposition Kiki, who wore the same weird, man-monkey make-up for 37 years, arrived yesterday with two of his ferocious Kaffir cannibal Zulu warriors, rare representatives of a troupe of 35, directly from Zululand. Originally they were cannibals and now they by choice of habit insist upon eating beef, liver and fish raw.

May 8, 1919
Dr. Minnie Burdon, who left her practice in Anacortes last winter to enter government service as a contract physician, returned to the city Saturday after five months at Fort Douglass, Utah. She expects to visit here this summer and will go East in the fall. She will practice here this summer but will maintain no office.

May 9, 1929
Wanta part with two dollars? Then just drive into Commercial avenue off of one of the side streets without paying any attention to the pumpkins that have been placed at the entrance of each street into Commercial avenue.

Of course, they aren’t really pumpkins, but are called traffic buttons. Out further, where there is no paving, you’ll find stop signs placed at the right-hand side of the street, which will also possess the two-dollar set-back if you fail to observe them.

May 11, 1939
A communication received this week by the American, from Wm. O. Thonniley, advertising manager of the Puget Sound navigation Company, Black Ball Line, announces that full summer ferry schedule to Sidney, British Columbia, via Anacortes will be effective May 27. The full summer’s schedule in Anacortes will see two Black Ball ferries operating out of the Anacortes terminal for the Canadian city.

May 12, 1949
Sale of the Island Bus Line of Anacortes by Phil Cope to Paul Murker of Bellingham has been announced during the past several days.

Mr. Murker has now taken over the operation of the bus line which he himself is driving. His wife will assist him in the driving of the bus as soon as the family is settled here.
Mr. and Mrs. Murker are living at present in the housing project but plan to purchase a home here. They have four small children.

May 14, 1959
Precedent breakers — Winners of Anacortes High School Student Body posts this week were Phil Robbins Jr., the first boy ever elected as an alternate song leader, and Sue Lowman, the first girl ever elected student body president.

May 8, 1969
Up with the new — A sleek new sign, and a new name appeared Monday at 6th and Q Avenue. Workmen are shown hoisting the new identification sign which led one worried observer to comment “You can fight city hall, but how do you fight a municipal building?”

May 9, 1979
Fidalgo Island land homesteaded in the 1880s and continuously owned by the same family since that time is being purchased by the state as an addition to Deception Pass State Park. The state will pay $237,000 for the 135-acre Ginnett homestead covering the hillside behind Pass Lake.

May 10, 1989
The group responsible for the Anacortes Community Forest Lands has come under fire from local environmentalists, who claim the advisory panel isn’t following the terms of its own management plan for the 2,300-acre woodland.

Members of Friends of the Forest contend that the current policy — paying for woodland management by logging up to 20 acres a year — violates guidelines set down in the 1980 management plan.
— From the archives of the Anacortes American