The Boomtown That Almost Ate Bellingham
A look back at the competitive, high-stakes frenzy of 1890s Fairhaven, a once-separate industrial powerhouse racing to become the 'New York of the Pacific' before merging into modern-day Bellingham.
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.
Fairhaven stands today as a railroad center and the growing metropolis of the bay and the lower Sound. Boasting rapid development and significant capital investment, the town is positioning itself to be the premier hub of the region. With its strategic access to both timber resources and shipping lanes, the city has rapidly outpaced its neighbors in industrial expansion. Business leaders expect the completion of local rail connections to cement Fairhaven’s status as a primary Pacific gateway, with developers actively courting investors for new mills and maritime infrastructure.
“Fairhaven stands today as a railroad center and the growing metropolis of the bay and the lower Sound.”
In the 1890s, Fairhaven was locked in a bitter and frenetic rivalry with neighboring Sehome and Whatcom to become the dominant city on Bellingham Bay. Today, those competing 'boomtowns' have long since consolidated into the single city of Bellingham, yet the spirit of civic rivalry and the focus on waterfront development remain central to the city's modern identity.
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