Mount Vernon, Washington & Mount Vernon, Texas

In a couple hours everyone in this house, including the poodle boys, will be heading north to the Skagit Valley. I moved to Texas from the Washington town called Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon is the Big City in the Skagit Valley.

There is also a Mount Vernon in Texas. There are likely a lot of Mount Vernon's all over the country. The Washington Mount Vernon has about 30,000 people living in it. It's in a very scenic setting with the Skagit River running through town, mountains to the east and farmland to the west. Farmland that can be very colorful in the spring when the valley floor is covered with tulips, daffodils, irises and rhododendrons in bloom.

Mount Vernon these days is a very successful little town. A few years back one of those Best in America type lists named Mount Vernon "The Best Small Town in America." CNN showed up among others. Fort Worth had a city wide celebration when an obscure D.C. lobbying group named Fort Worth one of the nation's top 10 most livable communites. CNN did not show up. Nor did any other legit news entity. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram did cover this bogus award with their patented breathless wonder. Like I said, no legit news entity covered Fort Worth's shining moment.

Back in the early 1970s Mount Vernon was not doing as well as it is now. The town of Leavenworth in eastern Washington had transformed itself into a hugely successful tourist town. Civic leaders in Mount Vernon came up with the goofy idea of turning Mount Vernon into a Colonial America type town, with the only reason being that the town was named after George Washington's house.

Before common sense prevailed a couple businesses remodeled with a Colonial look. And a festival sprung up around George's birthday that including a re-enactment of Washington's famous river crossing at Valley Forge. It was all bizarre. I remember watching a messy cherry pie eating contest. One of the saddest victims of the Mount Vernon Colonial era was the Mount Vernon High School band. They spent a small fortune on very goofy new uniforms that were made to look like Revolutionary War uniforms, including tri-corner hats. They were stuck with those awful uniforms for years.

Mount Vernon, Texas is a bit smaller than the Washington version with only 2,286 people. The Texas Mount Vernon existed long before Washington had even managed to become a state, let alone the Washington Mount Vernon manage to become a town. The Texas Mount Vernon has a bit more historical significance than the Washington version.

The Choctaw Trail runs through the Texas Mount Vernon's town center. The Bankhead Highway, which was the United State's first east/west transcontinental highway, remains Mount Vernon's Main Street. The Cherokee Trace runs along the towns eastern edge.

If you don't know what the Choctaw and Cherokee Trails are, Google it.

There are multiple historical markers in the Texas Mount Vernon. I don't know of any in the Washington version. The Texas Mount Vernon has over 65 homes designated as historic. I don't think the Washington Mount Vernon has any of those either.

So, there you go, the Tale of Two Mount Vernons, one of which I will be seeing in a short while.