Program: The Stillaguamish, A Short River with a Long History

October Lecture Series Program

Sunday afternoon, October 20th, 4 pm
October Lecture Series Program featuring Tug Buse who will present “The Stillaguamish, A Short River with a Long History”
The program will feature his research discoveries long buried in places like the Hudson Bay journals and British Library. It will include both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous History.

Tug (Michael) Buse is a teacher at the Insight School of Washington in Tacoma and has been working on several history research projects in his spare time.

Important !
Sunday afternoon, October 20th, 3 pm – 4 pm
The program will be preceeded at 3 pm by the SAHS Annual Meeting to Elect new Officers and Trustees whose positions are expiring in December 2023 followed by short report on activities in the past year.  Members and potential members are strongly encouraged to join the meeting for a short review of last year’s projects and help plan for next year.

This program will be preceeded by the Annual Meeting of Stanwood Area Historical Society at 3 pm.

FAQ – Odd Fellows Halls

We often are asked who were the Odd Fellows? and why did they own a hall?

Our Floyd Norgaard Cultural Center was built in 1902 as a fraternal hall of local Stanwood businessmen known as the Stanwood Fraternal Association. They quickly sold the building to Anton Anderson who eventually sold the hall to the newly formed Stanwood Odd Fellows #249 in 1909.  They used it for community music, meetings, events, performances and other events until the 1930s when it was sold to be a storage building for the local Bryant Hardware.  In 2000, the Stanwood Area Historical Society purchased and named it after our major donor, Floyd Norgaard, a local resident who wanted to see it saved.
Scroll down to check out a random list of Odd Fellows Halls throughout the country and some contemporary organizations websites to learn more about their history and how widespread they once were.  Note the amazing variety! Many are on the Historic Register, local and National.

Please also search on your own for your own home town, many of the buildings exist throughout the country.

Edmonds, WA

Tacoma, WA

Redmond, WA

Carnation, WA

Orcas Island, WA

Alexandria, Virginia

Casper Wyoming

Rosendale WI

Fulton County, Georgia

Santa Rosa, CA

Arroyo Grande, CA 

Fairbanks, AK

Rosedale ID

New Orleans Louisiana

Polo, Illinois

New York City, NY

Building improvement projects step by step

Thank you to the busy Tom Templeton of 2AT Construction and Justin Heichel of J Heichel Construction for replacing our timber board entryway to the Floyd Norgaard Cultural Center.

Lumber used replicated the dimensions of the previous platform porch from the local Beck Mill Company. Also completed were the repairs of the ramp from the parking lot to the west of the Floyd (FNCC). 

Thanks to Coastal Bank for funds towards completion of the entryway project!

Demise of the old Railroad depot

Painting from a recent gift to SAHS. 2023.07

The Stanwood railroad depot was built in about 1891 when the Great Northern Railroad was connected the Puget Sound with the midwestern section of the United States.

The painting on the right captures the details of the siding. The initials of the painter are not familiar but was  certainly done before 1973 when the depot was finally destroyed after the last passenger run in 1971 when Amtrak (National Railroad Passenger Corporation) took over the run. Amtrak regulations at that time did not allow service to any point outside of the United States.

Last train carrying passengers from Stanwood depot was April 30, 1971. Photo by Howard Hansen of the Stanwood News

The depot was demolished two years later in April 1973.  The Stanwood Station now provides passenger service  using Amtrak and connect with Vancouver B. C. and the Empire Builder from Everett.

Visit the Eldridge Center (formerly called the Stanwood Camano museum) to see more photographs and maps of the community.

March 18th Clara Stanwood Pearson Day

Among Clara Stanwood’s many accomplishments was the construction and building of public school building on North Street which she lived to see become a high school. At the time this school was thought of, Mrs. Pearson was elected director and against a large opposition she led the fight for the school and won.

For Women’s History Month, we once again honor Clara Stanwood Pearson whose influence in Stanwood deserves more recognition.

In 1877, D. O. Pearson and his wife, Clara and young children had recently arrived to establish a general merchandise store. D.O. also took over as Postmaster – he was the 7th in 7 years at this outpost. He submitted his wife’s maiden name, Stanwood, and it was made official.
Clara Jane Stanwood was born in Lowell Massachusetts and raised by her grandmother because her mother died when she was only 4 years old. Her father left to serve in the Union Army in the Civil War and never returned. She must have formed an attachment to D. O. Pearson and his family because she followed them out to Whidbey Island in 1868 on her own at the age of 19. They married and farmed for seven years until D. O. invested in the mercantile at the mouth of the Stillaguamish River and brought his family there to live.

In 2001 the Stanwood City Council proclaimed March 18th as the town’s Clara Stanwood Day. In September 2003 an honorary marker was placed at the D. O. Pearson House in her honor by the Ann Washington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.