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Like most early recorded history there is a degree of uncertainty about the names, dates and stories around the founding of Bow. The following is from a number of sources, sometimes with conflicting information and liberties have been taken in the following for expediency. Ed.

History records that in 1871 a Samish Indian fishing village was long established on the southern bank of the Du-wha-chub-ob, known today as the North fork of the Samish river, or locally as the Edison Slough. In that year, William J. Brown arrived and married a woman from the village; Jennie Tahati. He settled down and the area soon became known as Brownsville.

The Samish flats were covered with enormous fir and cedar trees then and several mills sprang up by the 1890s. A school house was built around this time. A stage coach ran East over Bow Hill to link with the rail line at Belfast, (The town of Belfast, or New Belfast no longer exists. It was near the KOA Campground today).

In 1901, the Great Northern Railroad decided to change the route of the rail line from Mt. Vernon to Bellingham. The line had gone due North out of Burlington on the East side of Bow Hill to Bellingham and the remnants of the line can still be found. But a survey crew in 1899 had mapped out a route along the coast we now call Chuckanut drive. A rail station was built here in Bow to service the loggers and mills in 1902 and William Brown suggested the name Bow after a railway station outside London. The first Bow Post Office was established about the same time. The town of Bow began to boom.

Around 1902 Ben Gardner built the Bow hotel, McDougall & Brown built a saloon and W. Nelson Crenshaw opened a department store. Another store built around this time was the Bow General Store, part of which still stands.

By 1904, William Brown decided to plot out 12 acres of his homestead to create a town proper. In the same year, E. E. Heusted opened a grocery store, George McMillan erected a blacksmith shop and Shadel & Smith opened a meat market.

In 1906 Bow was the only train stop between Burlington and Whatcom County. People came from as far away as Samish Island to shop and meet a train. At this time one mill in Bow reportedly was producing 80,000 cedar shingles a day. This was the Heyday of Bow.

Here is a 'Birds-Eye-View' of Bow from around this time.

By the time of the Great Depression though, all the timber had been cut down and not been allowed to re-grow as farmers discovered the rich fertility of the Samish flats. Loggers and others moved on, mostly up river. Many of the buildings burned or just fell into the ground. Half the town, on the South side of the Samish waterway, simply disappeared into farm land. Even the railway station eventually disappeared.

Bow could have ceased to exist at that time but it did not disappear entirely. Today it is a quiet community where neighbors know their neighbors and like it that way. They also share an appreciation of the history of this once thriving community.

If you have photos or stories of old Bow, you can help us preserve this almost lost past, Email us

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You can also read an Introduction to Bow History at the Skagit River Journal On-Line.