The Island County Historical Society will hold its 2025 annual meeting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, in the Coupeville Library.

In addition to annual membership business, this year the meeting features a guest speaker from Skagit County who will be of interest to the wider community, especially for anyone interested in programs for young people.

Michael Boss of Skagit County will address the future of history as it relates to us all, but with a special focus on high school students. He enlivens our region’s local history through “Tales of the Magic Skagit,” a program consisting of numerous historical interviews that are readily available online. His current focus is to grow our ability to preserve and tell local history stories by awarding high school students paid internships.

As a regular part of the year’s museum business, Executive Director Dalva Church will review events and milestones of 2024 and talk about what the society looks forward to in the new year.

Society staff and volunteers will extend sincere thanks and fair-wind wishes to the outgoing board President, Michael Ferri, for his many years of service. In new business, society members will vote to elect several new prospective board members.

Church would like to preface Boss’ talk by saying the museum wishes to acknowledge the significant history that we have in association with nearby counties in the state. Boss very much appreciates and leverages rich crossovers in local history between Island and Skagit counties.

As an example of crossover history, the first non-native family to settle today’s Skagit County came from Crescent Harbor. Interestingly, members of the same Wallace-Cornelius family were also the first to settle Island County. The Wallaces targeted Whidbey Island through the enthusiastic urging of Isaac Ebey who was the first to apply for a donation land grant in today’s Island County.

All are welcome. For more information, call Church at 360-678-3310, Boss at 360-293-1915 or Lee James at 360-672-8347.