La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

By Maggie Wilder

Not many of La Conner’s unique features were ever the result of a conscious effort to attract visitors, much in the same way a person does not add to their character by attempting to be noteworthy.

I first came to La Conner in the fall of 1966, playing hooky with my high school art teacher, who used to spend summers at the Planter Hotel for a dollar a day. He thought creativity was an ever-present opportunity and paying attention was far more important that how you put paint on canvas.

Every fall he told us stories about his time in La Conner, including installments a...