Harry Everett Smith was neither born nor died in Anacortes, but he did live there for about 10 years as a youth before and during the Great Depression. Salmon canneries brought his family, and his father, R.J. Smith, to Anacortes and cannery work took the Smith family to Bellingham, where Harry Smith graduated from high school. After living in Seattle, he left the Puget Sound area, never to return.

As a high school student Harry Smith studied Salish Sea traditions, recording and collecting tribal songs on 78 rpm shellac records. He went on to collect thousands of records focused on blues and h...