Prohibition is in full force.
An earthquake early on Jan. 29 sends Anacortes residents to the streets in scant attire.
At the New Wilson
Hotel, tenants said the building swayed six inches.
"Finis" written in the construction of woodships in Anacortes. School district population is 1,595.
Wages go up six cents an
hour at mills. Census count reveals that Anacortes has a population of 5,284, still ahead of Mount Vernon at 3,341.
Patience Priscilla Collins of Anacortes moves to California to work as an
actress for Goldwyn Moving Picture Co. Train service to Seattle improves.
1921
Crab industry is growing as is the canning of local fruit.
Civic league charges City Council does its
work in committee instead of in public.
Wooden sidewalks need to be replaced.
Cranberry Lake dam breaks and huge body of water crashes down the hills to the beach.
Wage disputes continue at lumber mills.
Arcata federal revenue boat (and later the Coast Guard) regularly stops booze boats to confiscate Canadian alcohol. One summer day, Boy Scouts witness
the Arcata capture a fleeing booze boat and cheer from the beach.
Floods on the Skagit flats leave Anacortes without rail service.
1922
Doctors in the city join together to take
over Anacortes Hospital. Business community urges city to go ahead with the dredging and construction of what is called the Cap Sante Waterway, which will be 33,400 feet long, 12 feet deep, 25
feet wide from T Avenue to the deep water.
Deception Pass State Park is established and dedicated on July 20. Paving in the city continues.
An auto ferry from Sidney, British Columbia, to
Anacortes is planned.
Clean Up Week is annual big event run by the Women's Improvement Club, which later in the year helps purchase for $2,500 Green Point for the city's Washington Park.
A
man unhappy with his divorce settlement tries to gun down Judge George Joiner.
Anacortes High School graduates 34 in 1922. Tourism is big.
On one Sunday in June 400 autos cross Deception
Pass on the ferry. Anacortes prepares to entertain convention of 10,000 Elks.
The remodeled Elks lodge is finished in August at Sixth and Q (later to become City Hall.) Rotary Club forms. Dr.
S.G. Brooks elected mayor.
1923
There's not a vacant house in town and 30 new residences were recently built at a cost of $52,000.
The E. K. Wood Mill cuts 200,000 feet of lumber
in one eight-hour shift.
Consolidated Paper Co. pulp mill opens.
A gravel road from Oakes to Burrows Bay and Sunset Beach opens.
Old Columbian School holds both junior and senior
high schools.
Five canneries packed 225,000 cases worth $1.5 million.
City proud of its parks -- Washington and Cap Sante summit.
Ferry to Sidney is very successful and attracts
thousands of visitors. Puget Sound Navigation plans further development of ferry runs into the San Juan Islands.
1924
Anacortes is 35 years old and beginning to suffer a slight
downturn in lumber industry market. But E.K. Wood Mill still employs 150 men. Pacific Highway is extended with a spur into the city.
Forty new homes are built with an average cost of $3,000
each.
The new pulp mill turns out 20 tons of pulp daily and uses scrap from box factories.
Puget Sound Power and Light runs a transmission line from Burlington providing "an unlimited
supply of electric power."
Mill companies contribute to the purchase of a new pumper for city fire department Salmon cannery production is down.
1925
Reclamation of Padilla
Bay is proposed with 10,00 acres of submerged tideland to be diked, drained and filled.
Modern street lights are installed. Tourism promoted.
Auto ferry traffic gains 15 percent. Capacity
crowds travel to Sidney on July 9.
177 million board feet of lumber cut. Shipments go to California, the Atlantic coast, South American and Japan.
Codfish schooners Alice and Wawona bring in
367,000 codfish to town form Bering Sea.
Library has circulation of 27,000 books.
W.T. Morrison house at 34th and Commercial (now the Nantucket Inn) is completed in October.
1926
Building is booming. The new Bank of Commerce at Fifth and Commercial, an annex to New Wilson Hotel and new stage depot, Congregational Church at 28th and Commercial, new Whitney School, Van
Buren Building at Ninth and Commercial are just some of the projects.
A 12-foot wide, 75-pound devil fish (skate) is found in a fishing net.
Three ferries operate during season on
Anacortes to Sidney run.
School census is 1,954, with 48 graduating.
Goldenseal and ginseng crop, primarily from a farm on 33rd, nets a crop worth $12,000.
E.K. Wood mill ships 2.5
million feet of lumber in one week.
The Gilkey Bros. Tug Bahada sinks Nov. 21 near Guemes, taking seven lives
1927
The Port of Anacortes is formed.
Tuberculosis cases number 146 in the county.
Seahawks debate team wins district title and basketball team wins county basketball championship.
Gilkey Bros. sell $200,000 worth of boats.
Codfish schooner Alice, a fixture in Anacortes for many years, is sold to a movie studio in California.
Capt. F.V. Hogan, Anacortes' first mayor, dies at age 90.
1928
The Rose
Theater burns, resulting in a loss of $6,000.
J.C. Penney building opens at Sixth and Commercial.
Northern Canneries process Skagit valley fruit, berries and vegetables, including cabbage,
and sauerkraut juice is lauded as a "healthful morning-after beverage."
Betty Lowman, 14, swims the Guemes Channel.
Airport opens and an Anacortes couple celebrate by being
married in the air.
First edition of the high school newspaper, the SeaHawk, goes to press.
Fund-raising effort begins for new hospital.
1929
Business still booming. Codfish
processed in three plants that handle 1,106 tons of fish from three vessels sent to Alaska. Salmon canneries pack 300,000 cases worth $2 million.
Nine timber-related mills employ more than
1,000 and produce 170 million feet of lumber, boxes, shingles and slabs for pulp.
Poultry farms number 150 on Fidalgo and Guemes producing 6 million eggs in 1929.
More than 500 400-pound
barrels of sugar-packed fresh strawberries are marketed out of Anacortes.
The Deception Pass bridge is in the planning stages as is the new city water system being developed at Avon on the
Skagit River.
Anacopper Copper Co. builds 40-foot mine shaft.
"Modern" hospital to open at a cost of $25,000 between Ninth and 10th and M and N streets.
Cargo from Anacortes is
shipped to South America, Mexico, Alaska, Italy, Hawaii.
