The Boom, The Bust, and The Fire That Haunted Whatcom
A pioneer chronicles the rise and fall of the Bellingham Bay settlements, from the discovery of coal to the geopolitical ironies that stifled a regional metropolis.
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.
In September 1852, Captain William Pattle visited Bellingham Bay and discovered coal outcroppings, prompting him to stake a claim. Shortly after, Henry Roeder and R.V. Peabody arrived in search of water power for a sawmill. Despite high initial hopes and the construction of the Whatcom mill, the business struggled with water shortages and eventually burned down in 1859. Subsequent coal mining ventures at the bay also faced repeated disasters, including spontaneous combustion of debris in the tunnels and persistent flooding, leading to the eventual abandonment of the mines. The narrative also notes the 1858 Fraser River gold rush, which briefly turned Bellingham Bay into a bustling hub of thousands, only for it to collapse as quickly as it began. The author argues that had the Northern Pacific Railroad land grants been properly managed and local business supervision been more experienced, Bellingham Bay might have become a major city of 100,000 inhabitants instead of the modest outpost it remained through the 1870s.
“The history of Bellingham Bay affords a striking proof of how affairs taking place in one part of the world often have a material influence upon some other remote part where apparently it would seem impossible for any connection to exist.”
This account mirrors modern Seattle's perennial obsession with growth and its vulnerability to regional geopolitical shifts. The author's frustration with 'red tape' and the power of federal officials in Washington D.C. to dictate the fate of Puget Sound towns is a sentiment that remains potent in Pacific Northwest civic discourse today.
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