Bellingham History

The name of Bellingham is derived from the bay which the city is situated on. George Vancouver, who visited the area in June 1792, named the bay for Sir William Bellingham, the controller of the storekeeper's account of the Royal Navy.

The first white settlers reached the area in 1854. The original settlement was named Whatcom, located where Whatcom Creek empties into the bay. In 1858, the Fraser River Gold Rush caused thousands of miners, storekeepers, and scalawags to head north from California. Whatcom grew overnight from a sleepy northwest village to a bustling seaport. The first brick building in Washington was built at this time, the T.G. Richards brick warehouse. The first newspaper in Whatcom County, the Northern Light, was published by William Bausman during the boom. Just as soon as it started, the boom went bust with the miners being forced to stop at Victoria, B.C. for a permit before heading to the mining fields. Whatcom's population dropped almost as quickly as it had grown, and the sleepy little town on the bay returned.

Coal mining was commonplace near town, with the Blue Canyon mine at Lake Whatcom being the site of Washington's worst industrial accident, which occurred April 8, 1895. In time the mines were closed down and sealed off.

Bellingham was officially incorporated on November 4, 1903. It was the result of the consolidation of four towns initially situated around Bellingham Bay: Whatcom, Sehome, Bellingham, and Fairhaven. A fictionalized account of the history of Bellingham in this era is "The Living" by Annie Dillard.

In the early 1890s, three railroad lines arrived, connecting the bay cities to a nationwide market of builders. The foothills around Bellingham were clearcut after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to help provide the lumber for the rebuilding of San Francisco. In time, lumber and shingle mills sprang up all over the county to accommodate the byproduct of their work.

The Bellingham Riots occurred on September 5, 1907. A group of 400-500 white men with intentions to exclude East Indian immigrants from the local work force mobbed waterfront barracks.

Fishing has also played an important part in the development of the region. By 1925, eight salmon canneries were doing business in Whatcom County - two on Bellingham Bay, the rest at Lummi Island, Semiahmoo and Chuckanut Bay. Together, they packed nearly a half-million cases of salmon one year.

Increased efficiency in the canneries, combined with the cold efficiency of the fish traps, decimated the state's salmon runs. Traps were banned in the 1930s, prompting canneries to move their fish-catching operations to Alaska, where salmon were still abundant and traps were still legal.

Bellingham's proximity to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and to the Inland Passage to Alaska helped keep some cannery operations here. P.A.F., for example, shipped empty cans to Alaska, where they were packed with fish and shipped back for storage.

On June 10, 1999, the Olympic Pipeline ruptured in Whatcom Falls Park near Whatcom Creek, leaking 237,000 US gallons (897 m³) of gasoline into the creek. The pipeline carries gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries near Ferndale to locations as far south as Portland, including all the fuel for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The vapor layer from the spill overcame an 18 year old man who was fishing in the creek. An explosion was somehow set off and burned over a mile (1.6 km) of the creek bed and sent a black smoke cloud over 30,000 feet (10 km) into the air. Two younger boys died the next day due to extensive burns from proximity to the blast. Although some buildings were destroyed, due to road closures and evacuations around the creek, there were no further fatalities. The explosion resulted in over $45 million in property damage. Several years later, the families of the pipeline victims sued Olympic Pipeline Company and settled for around $100 million in damages, which they pledged would help support pipeline safety and provide legal representation for pipeline accident victims.

Fairhaven, Washington was founded in the late 1880s and is now part of the City of Bellingham. It is the southernmost neighborhood of Bellingham, and borders Puget Sound on the west and Western Washington University on the south. Central is the Fairhaven business district which features a seasonal farmer's market.

It is the southernmost terminus of the Alaska Ferry and part of the Alaska Marine Highway System. Nearby is the Amtrak station as well as the Greyhound depot. Fairhaven is also served by the Whatcom Transit Authority.

Fairhaven was officially incorporated on May 13, 1890, but was disincorporated on November 4, 1910 and became part of Bellingham, Washington.

Visit the "History of Bellingham" page at WhatcomMuseum.org for more about Bellingham's history.