The Monster of Whatcom Creek
A massive devilfish caught in a dredging machine causes a stir among mill workers and local Indigenous paddlers.
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 huge devilfish was caught in the chopping machine of the dredge that is now operating on the Whatcom Creek waterway. The large octopus was dissected instantly and the fragments of the body were carried through the flume and deposited in the bulkhead of the Loggie Brothers' mill site, which is being filled in with sand and gravel from the waterway. The men who saw the devilfish say that it was one of the largest type of its kind ever seen on Puget Sound. The arms of the monster were about fifteen feet in length. Two years ago, two Indians, while paddling their canoe from Lummi to Whatcom, ran into a large devilfish that was floating in the water, and it showed fight by throwing both its arms around the frail canoe and almost capsizing it. The Indians fought it fiercely and finally succeeded in killing the slimy creature.
“The arms of the monster were about fifteen feet in length.”
While giant Pacific octopuses are local legends, they rarely make the news today unless spotted by scuba divers. This account captures the industrial transformation of Bellingham's waterfront—now reclaimed—by showing how infrastructure work often unearthed the 'monsters' of the deep.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.