Our challenge category this year is called "A Bug's Life" but the bug theme is in honor of the origins of our town - Sedro-Woolley. We might have been called "Bug" or, horrors, "Bug-Woolley" except for the good sense of the WOMEN who didn't want to live in a town that could be called "HUMBUG"!
SEDROIn 1884, Mortimer Cook brought his family to the Skagit Valley from California. He bought and cleared 34 acres along the Skagit River, near what is now Riverfront Park. He ran a general store there, opened a shingle mill, and was the town’s first postmaster. Mortimer Cook wanted to name the town after himself, but learned that Washington Territory already had a town named “Cook”. He then proposed the name “Bug,” in honor of the bat-sized mosquitoes that bedeviled the loggers, but his wife didn’t care for it, nor did fellow settlers. The women suggested the use of “Cedra,” a Spanish word for cedar, but the spelling wasn’t certain and the name became distorted into “Sedro,” which stuck. On December 7, 1885, they christened the post office Sedro.
WOOLLEY
In 1890, Philip A Woolley purchased 84 acres just north of
Sedro, where he founded the town of Woolley;
he died there and is buried in Sedro-Woolley’s Union Cemetery. The two towns developed a rivalry and did not
merge until 1898. The town of Woolley
was flourishing, with a growing population, and many businesses, including a
coal processing plant employing approximately 2000 people. 
SEDRO-WOOLLEY
In 1891 and 1893, Woolley suffered two major fires, which
severely curtailed its growth. Both towns
were struggling through the economic woes of the time and it became clear that
both of their interests would best be served by a merger. However, neither town was willing to give up
its name. After much spirited debate, “Sedro-Woolley”
became the official name of the newly-merged town, which was incorporated on
December 19, 1898.
History courtesy of the Sedro-Woolley Chamber of Commerce.
