This series highlights locations in Skagit County. This particular community is different from others we've highlighted. The name lasted only a few months perhaps as much as a year.
The following excerpt from the August 1890 edition of the Washington Magazine and is the earliest reference to the town name controversy
Cook might have been pulling the writer's leg a bit — since there is no record that he ever submitted the Bug name to the U.S. Post Office — but it made good copy.
Mortimer Cook, being a man of ingenious and original turn of mind, determined to give this future town a name which would be at once unique and without duplicate. Mr. Cook spent several days, so tradition tells us, earnestly scrutinizing the names of the various post offices of the United States, together with the "Blue Book," but among them all he is reported to have found no name in the universe which had not been chosen, and some times, for the hundredth time, with the exception of one, which, on account of its originality, its concise and euphonious spelling he adopted directly. That was Bug. (Referencing mosquitoes that bedeviled loggers)
The post office superintendent wrote Mr. Cook congratulating him, and approving his choice; and things might have gone serenely on for an indefinite period had not an unforeseen contingency arisen which might have resulted disastrously, but was happily averted. Letters began to arrive addressed thus: Mrs. Jno. Jones Bug, Washington. When in one or two cases the name of the town occupied the place of an affix to the name of the individual, the delicate spirit of Western propriety could stand the unintended slur no longer. One Sunday afternoon an indignation meeting was held, during which a formal interview with the postmaster took place. Said a man to Mr. Cook: "Do you spell the name of this town with two 'g's'?"
"No." replied Mr. Cook, "I spell it B-U-G and one "g" is enough. This was the climax. The people assembled, then and there resolved that the name of the town should be changed, and accordingly the town was called Sedro, paraphrased from the Spanish cedro or cedar.
Although Cook changed the town name from Bug to Sedro informally in May 1885, the town was not incorporated and the official name of Sedro was actually granted by the U.S. Post Office on Dec. 7, 1885.
Information found in the Skagit River Journal (Skagitriverjournal.com).