Introduction
Welcome to the Concrete Wa Research Center
I got started on documenting the Historic Town of Concrete Washington in Sept of 2007. I figured a town with a name like Concrete must have some story, and.. I've discovered a rich history that is quickly being lost by neglect.
The Town of Concrete started as Washington Portland Cement Co. in 1905 on the east side of the Baker River, in what was then called "Cement City." Three years later, the Superior Portland Cement Co. completed a second plant across the river in what was called Baker. The two towns merged under the name Concrete in 1909, and Superior bought out Washington in 1918.
All three schools are concrete, Most of the buildings on Main Street were built in concrete after they burned down over the years.
The Henry Thompson Bridge, built between 1916 and 1918, was in its day the longest single-span cement bridge in the world. The lower Baker River Dam, built in the '20s, was the tallest dam in the world at the time.
Concrete Wa History
Content to Come
Concrete Wa Resources
BC Explorer Resources
Websites:
Books:
- So, They Called the Town Concrete
The Concrete Herald Newspaper
Introduction
I started reading the Concrete Herald back in December of 2007 thanks in part to the generious time provided by members of the Concrete Town Hall and Library.
After reading what I thought were some colourful and entertaining articles written by Mr Dwelley I felt that The Herald would be a good place to start a research project
I spent just over 1 month Scanning 4852 ft of microfilm using a Canon Ms-300 Microfilm/Microfiche Reader/Scanner/Copier. From this I created 3098 Hi-Res Tiff Images, which were subsequently converted to PDF and posted to the BC Explorer website.
I began indexing the newspapers using opensource software from The University of Wisconsin. This process will take somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 months to 1 year to complete.
History
Through his 41 years as the Owner and Editor of the Concrete Herald Mr. Dwelley captured every passing political, social, and economic event that occured within and surrounding the town of Concrete Wa.
Charles M. Dwelley
By Noel V. Bourasaw, Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore ©2005
Chuck built the almost bankrupt Herald up during the Depression years of the 1930s until it became the voice of upper Skagit Valley. He became famous for his short-and-sweet editorials. His old friends and foes both noted that he had very strong opinions and was not afraid to speak out about any subject, locally or nationally. Larry and Jacob Kunzler recently combed through back the existing volumes of back issues of the Herald to find articles in their fourth volume of books about floods on the Skagit. We plan to share some of the history articles that they found. Chuck's 50th Anniversary edition of the Herald in 1951 still stands as one of the most important issues of newspapers in the county and has provided background for several of our Journal features.
Those of you who are young and did not experience the country-weekly newspapers of old, really missed something so different from their modern counterparts. The vast majority of weeklies have become "fish wrappers," owned by a conglomerate and stuffed full of inserts every week that often outweigh the newspaper itself by two-or-more to one. Weekly editors back then were masters of their own domain and were often feared by local bigwigs and politicos, and either hated or loved by their readers. Regardless of the affection or lack of it, people would sometimes line up outside the office on Wednesday or Thursday, publication days, and patiently await the pearls of wisdom inside the paper, either editorials or advertisements or both.
Anne Bussiere recalls one story about Chuck and the rival upriver town of Lyman. In those days, the highway — such as it was, two narrow lanes designed in the Model-T days, ran right through town, bisecting Lyman between the residential area between the highway and the river, and the mill area and log pond to the north. Chuck raced in either to or fro through Lyman and was caught speeding and was given a ticket.
In those days each town had its own court, presided over by the local Justice of the Peace or sometimes the mayor. Anne recalls that the long arm of the law was one of the Jake Koops family, but Chuck fought the ticket and won.
"His headline was in something like 80-point bold, bigger than after World War II ended — WE WON!"
Concrete Herald Links
