Tillinghast arrived at La Conner and later established the first seed company in Washington Territory. Conner, a cousin of John, operating a little trading vessel, the True Blue, with headquarters at the village. Conner and family, keeping a store and post office in their residence building which stood on the spot now occupied by the Gaches brick block Archibald Siegfried and family, conducting a boarding house in a building on the site of the Corner saloon J. It has remained so ever since, although there is very little agreement as to whether the name should be written "LaConner" without a space, as Conner did, or "La Conner" with a space, as the legislature did in the 1883 act of incorporation, and as the town government continued to do.īy either spelling, the town continued to grow, and at first it had the appearance of a family operation. Then known as Swinomish, the nascent community became LaConner when Conner combined his wife's first two initials with their last name. Connor bought an existing trading post and post office started by another early settler, Thomas Hayes. Conner and his wife Louisa Anne (Siegfreid) Connor arrived. In 1867 Alonzo Low (sometimes spelled "Lowe"), who at age six had arrived with his parents at Seattle's Alki Point in 1851 as part of the original Denny Party, opened the fledgling community's first commercial enterprise, a trading post. A few homesteaders arrived in the mid-1850s, but it was not until 1863 that farming began in earnest after the first dike holding back the Skagit River was built on the nearby "flats" to reclaim tidal marshlands. The first non-Natives to venture into the Skagit region were Spanish, British, and Russian explorers and fur traders. La Conner is situated on the east bank of the Swinomish Slough a few miles north of where the Skagit River flows into Puget Sound. As these legacy industries fade, the picturesque town will find new life as a tourist destination and as a home to prominent Northwest artists and writers. Over the decades following incorporation, La Conner's economy will rely largely on agriculture and on the timber and fishing industries. Although classified as a "city" in its early incorporations, La Conner will in the twentieth century be classified as a town under state law, with a mayor-council form of government. La Conner's citizens will decide to disincorporate in 1886, but in 1890 the town will reincorporate, this time for good. La Conner serves briefly as the first seat of the new county, but in 1884 voters will select Mount Vernon as the permanent seat of government. On November 20, 1883, the town of La Conner in Washington Territory incorporates, a mere eight days before the Territorial Legislature creates Skagit County from the southern portion of Whatcom County.
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