Sedro-Woolley is a city in Skagit County, Washington, set in the Skagit Valley in the northwestern part of the state, with a 2020 population of about 12,400. It is part of the Mount Vernon–Anacortes metropolitan area and is best known as the gateway to the North Cascades, hosting the headquarters of North Cascades National Park. The city's unusual hyphenated name records its origins. Sedro-Woolley was formed in 1898 by merging two rival towns: Sedro, a riverfront settlement founded by prospector Mortimer Cook, and Woolley, a coal-mining community founded by Phillip A. Woolley. The arrival of three railroads — the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and Fairhaven and Southern — made the area a timber and transportation hub, and the competing communities united as one city. Logging, shingle milling, and coal processing shaped its early economy, and the city became the head of navigation on the Skagit River. Today Sedro-Woolley is a small, largely owner-occupied city with a sparse suburban feel and a strong sense of its pioneer and timber heritage, reflected in public art and wood carvings around its historic downtown. The Sedro-Woolley School District serves the community with about 12 schools and roughly 4,500 students. The city's defining role is as a launch point for the outdoors. The North Cascades Highway (State Route 20) climbs east from the city into North Cascades National Park, and the Skagit River and surrounding valley offer fishing, boating, and trails. Its location east of Interstate 5 keeps Seattle and the Puget Sound corridor within commuting distance for those seeking a slower pace. Sedro-Woolley suits households seeking a small, history-rich town with direct access to the mountains, and its growth reflects the broader Skagit Valley's appeal as an outdoors-oriented corner of western Washington.