The Whatcom Million-Dollar Bet
Citizens of Bellingham Bay pledge their own wealth to lure the railroad, hoping to transform their sleepy coastal town into a Pacific terminus.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A public meeting was held at the Council rooms today in Whatcom to discuss railroad and other enterprises. The citizens of Whatcom, New Whatcom, Bellingham, and Fairhaven jointly—including Henry Roeder, Mrs. Utter, the Pettibones, Edward Eldridge, Dan Harris, and other townsite proprietors—pledged twenty-five percent in cash of their appraised valuation as a bonus to any railroad that would build from Bellingham Bay to the Big Bend country, and fifty percent to the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba to make their terminus on Bellingham Bay. The first proposition amounts to about $150,000, and the second to double that amount. The meeting was the most harmonious ever held in Whatcom; everybody was in high spirits.
“The citizens of Whatcom... pledged twenty-five percent in cash of their appraised valuation as a bonus to any railroad.”
In 1887, Bellingham's founders were so desperate for a railroad connection that they essentially offered to pay the corporation for the privilege of being included on the map. This era of 'boosterism' echoes today’s municipal scramble to lure tech giants and heavy industry with massive tax breaks, reminding us that Washington’s urban hierarchy was often decided by whoever held the deepest checkbook rather than just geographical advantage.
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