Yellow Pages
Big industries dominated the county when the Skagit Valley Herald first began publishing 125 years ago.
In the early 1900s, dairy, logging and fish canning were part of the area’s growing business landscape. Most of those trades were located in the county’s major cities and towns — Anacortes, Burlington, Mount Vernon, Sedro-Woolley and Concrete.
The dairy industry was a thriving business dating back to the turn of the century.
Pacific Coast Condensed Milk Co.’s milk condensing plant in Mount Vernon was the largest such plant on the West Coast, according to a 1909 statistical booklet entitled “Skagit County: The Industrial Triumph of Washington.”
In Burlington, the Skagit County Dairymen’s Association had a $250,000 milk processing plant in the early 1920s. At the time, more than 7,000 dairy cows were milked in the Skagit County area, according to Polk’s 1923-24 Skagit County Directory.
The 1909 booklet, which was put together by the Skagit County Commissioners, said the plant employed between 60 and 140 people, depending on the time of year, and could process 350,000 pounds (as it was measured in the booklet) of condensed milk per day.
In addition to the dairy industry, logging and woodworking trades became a huge part of Skagit County’s economy after the turn of the century.
By 1908, the county had 67 shingle mills and 28 sawmills, employing more than 2,000 residents — a substantial portion of the entire county population.
Wood products were in high demand, creating a need for large woodworking companies within the valley. Companies such as Sedro Veneer Co. and Anacortes Lumber and Box Co. became industrial giants to help satisfy the growing demand.
While the timber and logging industry grew, so did the number of fish canneries in the area.
Robinson Fisheries Co. in Anacortes, one of the largest cod processing plants in the world, employed more than 1,500 people.
According to the 1923-24 directory, canning salmon was also big business. During the canning season, more than 700,000 cases of salmon were processed, with a market value of more than $3 million at the time.
The seed industry, advanced forward by harvesting companies such as the Charles H. Lily Co. in the 1930s, also played a role in the growing agricultural landscape in Skagit County.
A research essay written by Janet Oakley, Skagit County Museum curator of education, said the county at one point grew 95 percent of the cabbage seeds produced in the United States.
Other agricultural endeavors, such as producing tulip bulbs and vegetables, also became profitable.
Oakley’s essay said that by the late 1920s, farmers were growing vegetables for large-scale packing companies, which would freeze or supply them around the United States. Two such companies — the Skagit Valley Packing Corp. and MacMillian Canning Co. — were based in the county.
But harvesting natural resources was not the only profitable business venture in Skagit County.
In modern-day Concrete, the Superior Portland Cement Co. plant was constructed in 1908. The company not only brought jobs, but also helped merge two nearby towns — Baker and Cement City — into what is now known as Concrete.
The 1923-24 directory said the cement plant was the largest of its kind in the United States, and had the capacity to produce 5,000 barrels of concrete per day. The plant shut down in 1967 and was given to the town for a park.
* This report is part of a special section celebrating 125 years of news coverage by the Skagit Valley Herald. To see others, click on the headlines below:
Newspapers have become a multiplatform business
Family’s newspaper lineage dates back to E.W. Scripps in 1878
Longtime carrier learned about dependability
Company ‘lifer’ never planned to stay long
Readers share opinions of the newspaper, positive and otherwise
Newspapers provide link to past, present and future for local woman
