In 1901, John Anderson came to Sedro-Woolley and founded a machine shop and foundry, naming it the Sedro-Woolley Iron Works. In its early years, most of its business was repair work for the mill and logging camps, but the company also manufactured metal parts, expanding to the manufacture of complete machinery in 1908, with the production of hoists and rotary pumps used in Alaska. By 1913, the company was designing and manufacturing machinery, and had purchased a steel furnace; the following year, the expanded plant was renamed Skagit Steel and Iron Works. During World War I, the plant also filled contracts from Seattle’s and Bellingham’s shipbuilding companies, as well as its usual work for logging camps, saw mills and other local industries.
The company grew throughout the 1920s, designing machinery such as the gasoline-powered hoist, which revolutionized the logging industry. Skagit also manufactured gasoline-powered rail cars for the logging industry, and in 1923, the company built its first passenger rail car. By 1929, Skagit had 30 standard models of hoists, donkey engines, speeders, railcars, locomotives and coaches in production.
Business slowed during the years of the Great Depression and as a result of mill strikes, but by the late 1930s, things began to look up. Skagit Steel & Iron Works contributed to war efforts during World War II by producing hoists, winches and cranes for used at the front and on Navy vessels. After the war, Skagit expanded its manufacturing facilities, though production slowed as a result of the postwar economy slump. By the early 1950s, business had picked up, and in 1953 Skagit won a contract to produce rifle shells for the Army, resulting in another expansion of its facility in Sedro-Woolley.
In 1962, the company reorganized and changed its named to Skagit Corporation. The company continued to expand, developing, designing and producing logging, marine deck and construction equipment. In 1969, the long-time family owned business became a subsidiary of the Bendix Corporation.
Bendix/Skagit Steel closed around 1990.
Materials, largely films and photographs (including prints, slides and negatives), related to Skagit Corporation in Sedro Woolley, which developed and manufactured machinery for the logging, construction and other industries.
The collection is open to the public by appointment.
The Museum of History & Industry is the owner of the materials in the Sophie Frye Bass Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from MOHAI before any reproduction use. The museum does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.
Skagit Corporation Records, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle
Gift of Skagit Corporation via McIntyre-Miller Partnership; received in 1991.
Minimally processed.
A complete handwritten inventory of the films is available in the library.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Logging photographs by Darius Kinsey and lightbox transparencies for display
Historical photographs
Mostly G series hoists, circa 1960s; also foundry, pattern shop, Bellingham plant. Includes some negatives.
SJ series equipment, T series equipments, grapple loaders. Includes some negatives.
1954 visit of Brigadier General John Medaris to Skagit plant; miscellaneous equipment including towers, yarders, winches; plant interiors including machine shop and foundry; aerial views of plant. Includes some negatives.
Prints from negatives # 3001-3117 and 10,000-12,124. Miscellaneous logging equipment; construction hoist; “capabilities book.”
Offshore equipments; miscellaneous photos of plant and equipments; trade shows. Includes some negatives.
Contact sheets and corresponding negatives (35mm), mostly labeled with number of equipment depicted. Also foundry, tests, “unclassified machines,” “people pics” and binder “test site.”
Mostly contact sheets; also some prints and negatives. Materials removed from 7 binders and foldered. Binders titled: PR & Adv.; Shop & Newsletter; T-Z; Service Dept. & Sub Cont.; Cranes & Construction Equipment; CE Drill Equip.; Safety & Damage.
Miscellaneous 35 mm. contact sheets and negatives; “drugstore” type photo processing envelopes containing negatives and prints (color).
35 mm slides in sleeves. Logging related images, towing winch, slide show, including 9 folders of slide shows with scripts, plus miscellaneous slide show scripts.
35 mm in trays and boxes. Also includes some transparencies in larger formats.
35 mm negatives in binders: numbered 781201-800627
35 mm negatives in binders: numbered 800701-820226
35 mm negatives in binders: numbered 820301-830618. Also unnumbered personnel photographs.
4x5 negatives numbered 001 through 12,100
5x7 negatives and prints
Two Advertising and publicity scrapbooks: Volume 1, 1924-1927; Volume 2, 1928-1930
Purchased Components list; serial number record; project list; oversize advertisements.
Two “description of manufacture” book for metal parts, October 1957 and February 1969.
Sales brochures, advertisements
Catalogs
Approximately 350 films related to equipment and plant operations. See inventory in library for item level listing.