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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1890 | 67 |
67 stories
- Vigilante Sentiment Grows After Sunday Violence
A wave of fights and assaults by 'tramps and toughs' on Harris Street leaves the town calling for better policing.
- The Four Cities of the Bay: A Failed Marriage
Delegates from four separate municipalities on Bellingham Bay meet to debate the dream—and the logistical nightmare—of merging into a single metropolis.
- The Great Boundary Brawl of 1890
Fairhaven and Bellingham citizens mobilize to challenge New Whatcom's aggressive land-grab tactics before the county board.
- Street Blasting Terrifies Fairhaven Neighbors
A massive stump removal operation inside city limits wreaks havoc on local storefronts and rattles the nerves of residents.
- A Railroad Feud in Whatcom
Citizens of Whatcom are up in arms after a railway company performs a bare-minimum, last-minute track laying to save their franchise.
- The Stench of the Fairhaven Mudflats
Citizens demand immediate action to address the foul refuse dumping ground north of Harris Street.
- The Mystery of the Ferndale Road Victim
After months of anonymity, the murder victim discovered on the Ferndale Diagonal road has been identified as Samuel McCauley, a family man and Mason from Barniston Island.
- Fairhaven Businesses Rally Behind City Incorporation
Citizens gather to fund city services and strategize for the upcoming municipal incorporation battle.
- The Battle for the Bellingham Waterfront
Fairhaven and New Whatcom are locked in a bitter struggle to claim the developing city of Bellingham for their own booming municipal territory.
- Fairhaven Celebrates Its Official Birth
After a long and bitter boundary fight with neighboring towns, the new city of Fairhaven secures its incorporation and throws a massive party.
- The Magic City of Puget Sound
A booster’s portrait of 1890 Fairhaven, capturing a boom town fueled by speculation, deep-water access, and massive infrastructure projects.
- Fairhaven Fights for Its Own Steamship Line
Local merchants move to break the shipping monopoly of Seattle and Tacoma by courting a direct San Francisco steamship connection.
- State Legislature Grants Cities Local Control
A landmark bill passes in Olympia, allowing smaller towns to incorporate and manage their own debts, fueling the boom of the 1890s.
- The Strange Attempt to 'Disincorporate' Sehome
Citizens and property owners are in an uproar over mysterious, potentially illegal efforts to redraw city boundaries and effectively end the existence of Sehome as a municipality.
- Fairhaven Objects to Whatcom Annexation Over Debt
Booster leaders argue that merging with Whatcom would be 'death' to Fairhaven’s budding identity and prosperity.
- The Great Northern Rail Boom
Fairhaven residents are buzzing over rumors that their local rail line has been absorbed by the Great Northern, promising a future as a major Pacific terminal.
- A Gift for a Growing City
Prominent developer Nelson Bennett pledges a steam fire engine to Fairhaven, sparking a massive community fundraising effort.
- Fairhaven Organizes for Fire
Twenty-five citizens meet to fund hose, carts, and a bucket brigade ahead of the city's formal incorporation.
- The Capitulation of Captain Stone
A domestic dispute over custody ends with an arrest and a forced surrender of a child in Fairhaven.
- Fairhaven Pushes for City Status
Citizens rally to establish a formal municipal government to manage growth, improve infrastructure, and address the presence of transients.
- The Con Artist of Fairhaven
A smooth-talking accountant gambles away his reputation and his wife's dignity with a string of bad checks and a faked suicide attempt.
- The Lonely Death on Harris Street
A worker for the Fairhaven Land Company is found dead after a final, downward spiral triggered by isolation and heavy drinking.
- The Tacoma of the North: Selling the Future of Fairhaven
Boosterism was the engine of Fairhaven’s birth, with developers painting a vision of a transcontinental metropolis on the shores of Bellingham Bay.
- Boomtown Hype Meets a National Hero
General Russell A. Alger visits the booming city of Fairhaven, promising to lobby for a port of entry as speculators dream of rising land values.
- Selling the 'Magic City': Fairhaven’s 1890 Development Boom
Boosterism was at its peak in Fairhaven as the Fairhaven Land Company touted steel furnaces, electric lights, and an inexhaustible connection to Skagit coal.