Whatcom County

Whatcom County (click image for detailed view)

County History1

Long before it was "discovered" by Europeans, Whatcom County was home to Northwest Coast Indians, the Lummi, Nooksack, Samish, and Semiahmoo. The Spanish claimed the area in 1775 and it was claimed later by Russia, England, and the United States. Bellingham Bay was named by Captain George Vancouver of the British Navy during his expedition into the waters of Puget Sound in 1792. Fur trappers and traders were the first non-Indian residents to settle in the area and Hudson's Bay Company set up shop from 1825 to 1846. In the early 1850s, a tremendous amount of building took place in California (after the San Francisco fire), and lumber became scarce. Word of dense stands of Douglas fir brought California miners Roeder and Peabody north, to Bellingham Bay. An impressive and strategically located waterfall, referred to by the Lummi Indians as "What-Coom," meaning "noisy, rumbling water" provided Roeder and Peabody with an ideal lumber mill site, and a name for the area's first permanent town. In 1854, its rapid settlement prompted the territorial legislature to create the County of Whatcom, an area that, at the time, took in all of present-day Skagit, Island, and San Juan Counties. Whatcom County was created March 9, 1854 from Island County, Washington Territory. San Juan County was part of Whatcom County until 1873, and Skagit County was part of Whatcom County until 1883.

In its early years, Whatcom County experienced many economic ups and downs. When coal was discovered in 1853, another bay town, called Sehome, sprang up by the mineshafts, and the Bellingham Bay Coal Company became the area's largest employer. Gold fever made a brief though dramatic imprint on the county. In the summer of 1858, the Fraser River gold rush brought over 75,000 people through Whatcom County. Roeder and Peabody's lumber mill burned in 1873. Five years later, after many cave-ins, fires and floods, the mine closed.

Speculators vying to host the Northern Pacific Railroad's West Coast terminal brought communities on Bellingham Bay into rapid prosperity. Educational opportunities grew as well. Northwest Normal School, the predecessor to present day's Western Washington University, was established in Lynden in 1886. The northwest's first high school was built in Whatcom County in 1890.

In 1893, after dramatic growth, the county's boom stopped. A national depression and unyielding mountains pushed local economy into hard times. The railroad went elsewhere and population on the bay dropped to less than fifty. By the turn of the century, though, Whatcom County was growing again. New lumber and shingle mills, salmon canneries, shipyards, and agriculture brought stability to the area. In 1903, the county's four bayside towns, Whatcom, Sehome, Bellingham, and Fairhaven consolidated into the present day county seat, Bellingham. Today, valuable natural resources continue to play an important role in Whatcom County's economy.

The cities and towns in Whatcom County today are Bellingham, Blaine, Nooksack, Deming, Everson, Ferndale, Lynden, Sumas, as well as numerous unincorporated communities.

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Historical Population

Historical Population Counts for Whatcom County, Washington from 1900 to 1990. [Based on data that was compiled and edited by Richard L. Forstall of the U.S. Census Bureau, 3/27/95. Available at <http://www.census.gov/population/cencounts/wa190090.txt>]

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Census Data

The following table contains current census data from the U.S. Census Bureau for Whatcom County.2

(a) Includes persons reporting only one race.
(b) Hispanics may be of any race, so also are included in applicable race categories.

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Cities

City of Bellingham
A city on the bay of the same name in Whatcom County. The first white man to enter the bay was the Spaniard Eliza, 1791, who named it Swno de Gaston or Gulf of Gaston. On June 11, 1792, the bay was surveyed by Joseph Whidbey in a boat excursion under Vancouver. The latter, on receiving his officer's report, charted the name Bellingham Bay. He does not say for whom the name was given, but he frequently associated the surnames and Christian names of those honored by giving them to nearby or related geographic features. He gave the name of Point William to the prominent point south of the entrance to the bay. In studying up his contemporaries, it was found that Sir William Bellingham checked over Vancouver's supplies and accounts as he was leaving England. There is very little doubt that Sir William Bellingham was the man thus honored. In that same year, 1792, the Spaniards of the "Sutil y Mexicana" Expedition again charted the bay and sought to retain a form of the Spanish name by calling it Bahia de Gaston. The Spanish charts were not published for years, while the British charts appeared promptly and fixed the name permanently. David Thompson of the North-West Company of Montreal referred to the bay as "Ballsam Bay." The United States Coast Survey in 1854 showed the northern portion of the bay as "Gaston Bay," a partial recognition of the older Spanish name. The first town on the bay was given the Indian name Whatcom. Later there were established the towns of Sehome and Fairhaven. There were several combinations of rival settlements, all of which later joined in the one city of Bellingham. Mrs. Ella Higginson, the poet, says she has had the distinction of having lived in three cities of Washington--Sehome, New Whatcom, and Bellingham--without having moved out of her house.3

City of Blaine
A city in Whatcom County at the Canadian boundary. It was named by the Cain Brothers on April 23, 1885, in honor of James Blaine, Republican nominee for President the year before. (J.W. Sheets, Names MSS, Letter 349.)3

White settlers first located at the present townsite of Blaine in 1870. Miners, however, on the way to the Cariboo gold excitement, occupied the site earlier as a temporary camping ground. American soldiers engaged in the survey of the international boundary camped at Semiahmoo Bay, now known as Drayton Harbor, in 1857-58, but it was not until 1870 when two white men with Indian wives made permanent settlement and established homes. Later other white families arrived and the nucleus was formed for what is now the City of Blaine.4

The City of Blaine was incorporated in 1891. Assuming the garb of a municipality, it began to spring into prominence, marked by the establishment of salmon canneries and lumber and sawmills.4

City of Nooksack
An Indian word used as the name of a river and a town in Whatcom county. The Handbook of American Indians, Part 2, page 81, shows many spellings in use, but all are evident efforts to express the same sounds. The same work declares that those Indians were mountain men living in small bands on the river of the same name. Dr. Charles M. Buchanan is quoted as saying that Nook or Nooh means people and sa-ak means the edible root of bracken or fern. (J. H. Williams' edition of Winthrop's The Canoe and the Saddle, note on page 280.) In the same region is the town of Ferndale, whose name may be thought of as a sort of synonym of the Indian name of Nooksack. One of the early appearances of the river's name was on the map by the Surveyor General of Washington Territory for 1857. (United States Public Documents serial number 877, Senate Executive Doc. No. 5)3

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Towns

Town of Deming
A town in Whatcom County, named in honor of George Deming, the first postmaster. (Postmaster at Deming, in NAES MSS, Letter 522.)3

Town of Everson
A town in the northern part of Whatcom County. It was named in honor of Ever Everson, the first white settler north of the Nooksack River. (Lydia M. Rouls, in Names MSS, Letter 146.)3

Town of Ferndale
A town on the Nooksack River in Whatcom County. In 1872, about fifteen families settled in the locality. Miss Eldridge from Bellingham Bay was the first teacher. She and a Mrs. Tawes went over to see the little log schoolhouse in a fern patch. They decided to call it Ferndale. (Fred L. Whiting, in Names MSS, Letter 156.)3

In June, 1873, C. M. McComb, of Quincy, Illinois, took up the first claim in what is known as the Mountain View settlement, built a shanty and prepared to make a home several miles from any white settler. In 1889 it had a population of about one hundred and fifty and steps were being taken to open a road across the reservation to intersect the mail road at Marietta.5

Town of Lynden
A town in the northern part of Whatcom County. It was named in 1870 by Mrs. Phoebe N. Judson, the first white woman living in Whatcom County north of Bellingham. She liked the name in the old poem, "On Linden when the sun was low" and changed the "i" to "y" as she thought it made a prettier name. (Phoebe Newton Judson, in Names MSS, Letter 187.)3

Fifteen miles east of Blaine, at the head of navigation on the Nooksack river, is located the best known and best advertised town in Whatcom County.6

Mr. H. A. Judson came to Lynden, and, in fact, started Lynden, by locating there with his family in 1870. When he came up the river he found only two white men located there, both married to Indian women of the Nooksack tribe. James McClanahan and Joseph Emerling were the men. Mrs. Judson for some time was the only white woman on the upper Nooksack, but about two or three years after their arrival, Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Coupe came and settled there.6

In 1889, Lynden had one of the finest public school buildings in Whatcom County. It contained rooms for four departments and housed the famous Northwest Normal School, which offered a thorough college course of study.6

Town of Sumas
The name of a stream, of mountains, and a town, in the northern part of Whatcom County at the international boundary. The name is derived from that of a Cowichan tribe of Indians who lived in that vicinity, but who are now limited to the Lower Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada. (Bureau of American Ethnology, Handbook of American Indians, Vol. II, page 649.)3

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Unincorporated Areas

Birch Bay
Located in Whatcom County, near the Canadian boundary. In June, 1792, Vancouver made this bay an anchorage from which he sent out exploring parties in small boats. When describing the trees found on shore, he said: "and black birch; which latter grew in such abundance that it obtained the name of Birch Bay." Spaniards, Galiano and Valdes, of the "Sutil y Mexicana" expedition had already named it Ensenada de Garzon as they record meeting the Vancouver ships there on the evening of June 12, 1792. George Davidson (Pacific Coast Pilot, page 575) says the Indian name for the place was "Tsan-wuch."3

Chuckanut Bay
A part of Bellingham Bay in Whatcom County. It was named by Henry Roeder on December 1, 1852. It was supposed to be an old Indian name (Hugh Eldridge, in Names MSS, Letter 136.). A valuable quarry of building stone would ordinarily have supported an independent community. As it is, it is counted a part of Bellingham. On the Spanish charts of Eliza, 1791, and Galiano and Valdes, 1792, the bay is shown as "Puerto del Socorro."3

Mount Baker

Mount Baker, with an elevation of 10,750 feet, is in the central part of Whatcom County. The name is Indian and is said to be "Kulshan." The Spaniards called it "Montana del Carmelo." The explorer, Vancouver, wrote on April 30, 1792: "The high distant land formed, as already observed, like detached islands, amongst which the lofty mountain, discovered in the afternoon by the third lieutenant, and in compliment to him called Mount Baker, rose a very conspicuous object." (Captain George Vancouver: A Voyage of Discovery, second edition, Vol. II, page 56.) The third lieutenant was Joseph Baker, for a biography of whom see Edmond S. Meany's Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound, pages 82-3.3

Point Roberts
Named by Captain George Vancouver on June 12, 1792 "after my esteemed friend and predecessor in the Discovery." That entry points directly to Captain Henry Roberts of the British Navy. (Meany's Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound, page 182 & note.) Its location gives it peculiar prominence, lying at the end of a peninsula across which runs the international boundary. The point thus becomes the northwestern extremity of Whatcom County. The point attracted the attention of the Spanish explorers. Captain Eliza, in 1791, thought it an island and called it "Isla de Zepeda," and Captains Galliano and Valdes, in 1792, called it "Punta Cepeda." (U.S. Public Doc, Serial No. 1557, charts K & L and Pacific Railroad Reports, Vol. XII, Part I, chapter XV, page 305.)3

Sehome
Now a part of Bellingham, Whatcom County, the original town of Sehome was laid off by E.C. Fitzhugh, James Tilton, and C. Vail in 1858 on the land claim of Vail & De Lancy. The name was from that of a chief of the Samish tribe. (H. H. Bancroft: Works, Vol. XXXI, page 367.)3

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References Cited

1. Whatcom County Government. <http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/Region/history/history.htm> LINK NO LONGER EXISTS

2. U.S. Census Bureau. State and County QuickFacts: Whatcom County, Washington. <http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/53/53073.html> Last Revised: Wednesday, 07-May-2003 16:50:08 EDT.

3. Whatcom County,Washington USGenWeb Project. Geographic Background of Whatcom County. <http://www.rootsweb.com/~wawhatco/geog.htm>. [Original Source: Meany, Edmond S. Origin of Washington Geographic Names. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1923. (Republished: Detroit: Gale, 1968) (Original sources are in parentheses within text.)]

4. Whatcom County,Washington USGenWeb Project. A Short History of Blaine, WA <http://www.rootsweb.com/~wawhatco/townhistories/blaine.htm>

5. Whatcom County,Washington USGenWeb Project. A Short History of Mountain View, WA <http://www.rootsweb.com/~wawhatco/townhistories/mtview.htm>

6. Whatcom County,Washington USGenWeb Project. Lynden: The Queen of the Nooksack Valley <http://www.rootsweb.com/~wawhatco/townhistories/lynden.htm>

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