Skagit County Historical Museum

Your basic county museum but with really nice exhibits. Some items in the cases had tumbled over, and a couple of lights were out, making it feel a bit neglected at times. But the docent was great. She offered to play the Victrola for us, as well as a piano operated by a paper guide (I don’t know what it’s called, but it was really cool). She seemed surprised when we left after an hour (it was a very fun hour but we didn’t see spending more time). I definitely recommend checking it out. The design is very good, with exhibits showing past home life and work life, including a kitchen set up, general store, blacksmith, and barn exhibits. I don’t feel a need to go again but am definitely glad I went. It’s up the hill from the waterfront. We had to stop to ask for directions from a very nice La Connerite (La Conneran?). It was a very nice respite from the sometimes overcrowded, touristy downtown area.

We went in with low expectations but to our surprise we ended up spending a hour and a half. The $ 5 entry fee was worth it.
I liked seeing lot of displays of real objects used by people in their daily lives more than hundred years ago. They have nicely divided the display into sections for clothing, cooking, occupation, medicine, toys, tools etc.
What I’d like to see is more interesting description/​video/​graphic/​stories about how those things were used. Compare it to objects today. Eg. the home safe used in those days must have weighed ten times the ones we use.
There’s also on display one of the first motorcycles produced in Mt. Vernon area and probably in US. It’s worth quarter million dollars. Also a horse drawn carriage and ford car in pristine condition.

Really can’t share my experience with you on this Museum because when we pulled up to the parking lot and saw that it was supposed to be open till 5. I went and parked, started walking up only to see the employee locking the door. After inquiring, she said that she was volunteering for an event and she had to close the museum early today.
There was no notice on the door when we were looking at the operating hours. When the employee drove off to her function… again there was no note left on the door apologizing for the inconvenience of not being open normal hours. I understand this is a small town, but it’s not very business like to arbitrarily close up, leaving the patrons high and dry.
Sad