Kemmerich said that, in the winter months when the woods and mills were shut down, the logger friends explored the areas around Seattle for possible homestead sites. Birdsey Minkler, who had worked with them while they logged on the Olympic Peninsula the two years before, located land on the north shore of the river where the town would later be named for him. We know from the biography of his neighbor August Kemmerich that they arrived here together on Valentine's day, 1878. John Grandy is still a phantom figure from the upper river for us.

After searching for information about Frank for seven years, I got goose bumps in 2001 when Patricia sent me this particular story, because I knew that to reach Grandy Lake, Frank might have crossed my childhood farm near Minkler lake. This story was transcribed from the New York Times by Patricia McAndrew, a scholar and author from Pennsylvania who is about to publish a book on Frank Wilkeson and his fishing columns, The Old Soldier Goes Fishing. Frank Wilkeson especially loved this lake while living here in the 1880s and '90s and spent a lot of time fishing it with his son Samuel. Like many folks who grew up in the Skagit valley, my family spent a lot of time on those lakes during the summer and showed them off to our relatives from out of town. Grandy Lake is a very small body of water to the southwest of Baker lake and Lake Shannon and north of old Birdsview and west of Concrete. Bourasaw, publisher, Skagit River Journalĭoes anyone have a photo of fishing or hunting in the old days here that we can use to illustrate these articles? Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bugīy Noel V. Bourasaw, editor 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284 An evolving history dedicated to the principle of committing random acts of historical kindness Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan. The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit.Ĭovers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Please pass on this website link to your family, relatives, friends and clients. We need donations or subscriptions/gifts for students, military and family.

These home pages remain free of any charge. Wilkeson 3 Fishing on Grandy Lake Site founded September 1, 2000, we will pass 3/4 million page views near New Year's Day 2006

Turned Inside Out by Frank Wilkeson