Mount Vernon: Where the Logjam Ended and the Town Began

Mount Vernon occupies the spot where the Skagit River became impassable. In eighteen seventy, the two earliest settlers, Jasper Gates and Joseph Dwelley, stopped here because enormous logjams upstream blocked all further travel by water. In eighteen seventy-seven, Harrison Clothier bought ten acres from Gates for one hundred dollars, built a store, and named his townsite after George Washington's Potomac River estate.

When the logjams were finally breached in eighteen seventy-nine, the river opened for commerce and Mount Vernon became the natural trade center for the upper valley. It won the Skagit County seat in eighteen eighty-three and incorporated in eighteen ninety with about one thousand residents. The city still sits at that same strategic bend, now serving as the commercial and government center for one of Washington's most productive agricultural counties.