Behind the Sign

Christopher Columbus has long remained at the heart of the American origin story. But if you really want to get the historical record straight as to who "discovered" our country, you have to travel back many millennia to "time immemorial" and the original inhabitants and stewards of the land we call America.

As we head into the third year of our Tales of the Magic Skagit series, we want to pause and express our appreciation for all that our readers have brought to the table through their own recollections and knowledge. A couple of recent stories are a great example of just what "crowd sourced history" can bring to our understanding of who we are as Skagitonians.

It was the fundamental relationship with the land more than trade goods and missionaries that defined the growing cultural divide between the First People and the New People over the ensuing decades following first contact. As one of the Swedebs Park displays states, with considerable restraint, “Our way was to live with the land and care for it, but not to ‘work it’ the way traders, missionaries, and the white government thought we should. With the coming of white men, our ancient relationship to land and water changed abruptly. The newcomers curtailed our traditional pursuits — our fishing, hunting, and gathering.”

The current of the Skagit River has long carried a strong creative energy in its unending flow. In fact, I would argue that the Skagit Valley boasts an amazingly high per capita of artists. There's an event this weekend that strongly supports my case.

I think it was my love of “Legends of the Fall” that resonated with me when I first beheld the statue of a diminutive matron in Victorian dress in downtown Lynden, Washington. A nearby sign with a photograph that may have served as the model for the statue identified the woman as “Phoebe Goodell Judson (October 25, 1831 - January 16, 1926). First woman settler who gave Lynden its name, and considered to be the “Mother of Lynden” for the care and love she showed for all those who called Lynden home.”

To call the accomplishment of The Corps of Discovery a game changer would be an understatement. Short of the American space program and our human journey beyond our planet, no story of exploration comes close to the significance of Lewis & Clark’s in terms of how we see see ourselves as Americans — and most especially, as people of the American West. Meyer Sign would like to take you with us on a discovery of the Lewis & Clark story through what will ultimately become a book entitled, “The Core of Discovery: A Lewis & Clark Traveling Companion.”

Meyer Sign has participated with Skagit Publishing in sponsoring stories about local no-profits that are making our Magic Skagit a better place to live. The story we chose to tell, which is being published on Thanksgiving Day 2021 by Skagit Publishing in a special Giving Guide, is about Underground Ministries -- an organization that partners throughout our community with individuals, faith groups, and the correctional system to ensure the successful return co community of those who have been imprisoned for having offended it. The opportunity for healing and transformation this process creates is something for which we can all be thankful.

Every now and again a sign project comes along that elevates the story of its evolution to “must read” status — not simply because of how the sign was made and installed, but because of how it came into being in the first place. Such is the case with our recent signage project on behalf of the Port of Skagit and Heritage Flight Museum.

If Cleveland Street ever considers changing its name, I think it should be called Rhododendron Way. While there are magnificent rhodies to be seen all over the Valley, the concentration of epic blooms along Cleveland Street — especially between Hazel and Kincaid — is worth a slow ride on a sunny day. Or better yet, park the car and head north. You are in for some jaw dropping floral displays

In vino veritas — in wine is truth — and the truth is that Pasek Cellars is yet another example of a local agricultural enterprise whose reputation, like that of our world famous blooms, has grown well beyond the Magic Skagit. I’ll drink to that.

The Skagit River has been a critical artery of transportation for Skagit Valley people going back thousands of years. What has changed over time has been how we've crossed it.

August is Fair Month, which makes it a cherished four weeks on my calendar. Take the Fair out of August and what you’re left with is parched grass, wilted gardens, dust, grasshoppers, and sticky nights without A/C. Thanks, but no thanks.