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    Bellingham
    Bellingham
    Bellingham
    Ebook159 pages52 minutes

    Bellingham

    By Cecil W. Jentges

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Bellingham is known as the city of subdued excitement, but it was not always this way. From its discovery by a British naval captain to its coal, lumber, and fish industries and to its riots and social movements, Bellingham has had quite a rich and sometimes controversial past. Starting out as four separate towns, it took the leadership of a few and the work of many to bring a community together and create one of Washington's secret masterpieces.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMar 30, 2015
    ISBN9781439650554
    Bellingham
    Author

    Cecil W. Jentges

    Cecil W. Jentges was born in the Portland, Oregon, area and traveled before finding and falling in love with Bellingham in 2004. Since then, Cecil has enjoyed rock climbing, kayaking, and many of the other pastimes that make Bellingham so unique. Cecil is also involved in the community as a business owner and as the president of the Historical Fairhaven Association (HFA), an organization dedicated to preserving its district and providing festivities to Bellingham as a whole.

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      Book preview

      Bellingham - Cecil W. Jentges

      collection.

      INTRODUCTION

      Bellingham’s history was molded in the hands of dreamers, on the backs of the fortune-seekers, and in the heart of adventurers. Guided by the kindness of the area’s first inhabitants, the Lummi tribe, as well as the surrounding Samish, Nooksack, Semiahmoo, and Skagit tribes, Bellingham Bay was able to come together and become Washington State’s secret masterpiece of the north.

      Bellingham’s story starts with a quest to find Marco Polo’s mystical land of Cathay (China), or more specifically, the legendary Strait of Anián. Over 200 years later, these stories still influenced many explorations leading to the discovery of the Americas, and in 1592, Juan de Fuca came up the West Coast from California still seeking the Strait of Anián. When he arrived at Victoria Island, he believed he had found the strait, but this was later discovered to be wrong. Still, his efforts were not without reward, and the strait he discovered was later named after him. It was not until 200 years later that the first Europeans entered the strait and the bay in 1791. Spanish explorer Manuel Quimper sent a sloop into the Strait of San Juan de Fuca and discovered Mount Baker. He named it La Gran Montana del Carmelo. Not long after, Francisco de Eliza, who served under him, entered Bellingham Bay. He named the bay Bahia de Gaston. However, after the Spanish-British Nootka Conventions in the 1790s, Spain’s exclusive ownership of the area ended and Russia, England, and the United States started making their own claims. George Vancouver entered the area while on his own exploration in 1792, and he renamed many of the areas landmarks, including Bellingham Bay for Sir William Bellingham, Vancouver’s British Navy provisioner. After the War of 1812, the 49th parallel (US-Canadian border) was established with joint occupation, and in 1824, Russia signed an agreement that it had no claims to the area. It was not until June 15, 1846, that Britain ceded completely to its side of the border. In 1853, the Washington Territory was formed.

      Even before Washington was its own territory, Bellingham was already in the beginning stages of becoming established. In 1849, while trading with the Lummi natives, Samuel Hancock was told that they had seen coal in Bellingham Bay, but he was forbidden to mine it. In 1852, Capt. William R. Pattle could be found in the San Juan Islands working on cutting and delivering lumber for San Francisco to help rebuild it after the fire. While working, he received word from different local natives that there was coal in Bellingham Bay. Pattle investigated and found that there was indeed coal. He established his claim, which would become the Unionville settlement and later become the towns of Bellingham and Fairhaven. He headed back to San Francisco to get some companions to help him set up claims, but at the same time, down in Olympia, Capt. Henry Roeder and Russell V. Peabody were speaking to Lummi chief Chow’it’sut about a water source they called what-coom, meaning noisy rumbling water, that was ideal for the waterpower they needed for a mill. They decided to hire a few Lummi Indian guides and entered Bellingham Bay by canoe on December 14, 1852. After a little searching, they found Whatcom Creek and struck their claim in what would become the town of Whatcom. They then returned to Olympia to pick up a Mr. Brown, who was a millwright, and went down to San Francisco to get the machinery and supplies necessary to start the mill. Upon their return, Captain Pattle, as well as a Mr. Morgan and a Mr. Thomas, were already located on their claims, thus making them the first Europeans to settle in the area. As time progressed, more and more people came to the area to work the coal mine and lumber mill as well stake their own claims. In the summer of 1853, in an area of land owned by Roeder and Peabody, an uprooted tree exposed a vein of coal. This led to an examination of the area that became the Bellingham Coal mine. It was purchased by Captain Fauntleroy and associates to add to their property just north of the discovery, which would later become the start of the town of Sehome. Two years later in December 1855, under the donation law, 18 people laid claim to Whatcom County, even though there were many other people living in the area at the time. In the same year, the Indian War broke out in the Northwest, creating the need to establish Fort Bellingham. Aside from an issue with the natives from Vancouver, it was relatively peaceful. There were still conflicts over landownership of the San Juan Islands, creating tension between the British and the United States. After the Pig War confrontation in 1859, the troops in Fort Bellingham were ordered to relocate to the San Juan Islands.

      During this time, the Gold Rush hit the area, especially in 1858. During three to four months at the height of the Gold Rush, there were more people in Whatcom County than all the surrounding territories put together, encouraging the belief that it would be the San Francisco of the North. However, this boom

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