- Mount Vernon, a city of just over 32,000 residents, is located in Skagit County about 60 miles north of Seattle. The area was home to Upper Skagit Indians long before the first Europeans – mostly fur traders – passed through in the late 1700s. The first settlers came in 1869 or 1870, and the town itself was founded and named in 1877. Two massive logjams that blocked navigation on the Skagit were cleared by 1879, allowing upstream navigation, but the city has carried on a running battle with the oft-flooding river ever since. In 1884 Mount Vernon became the Skagit County seat, and by 1890 its population had grown to nearly 1,000, supported by logging and mining to the east and farming in the fertile bottomlands of the Skagit Valley. In recent years, Mount Vernon’s economy has become more diversified, and major employers now include food processing plants, the Skagit County Hospital, Skagit Valley College, and local and county governments.