Editing Bellingham, Washington (section)

==History==
{{missing information|events after 1907|date=January 2025}}
{{Main|History of Bellingham, Washington}}
[[File:Ship construction at the Pacific American Fisheries yard, Bellingham, Washington, September 1916 (COBB 231).jpeg|thumb|Boatbuilding at Pacific American Fisheries yard in Bellingham, 1916]]
[[File:B'ham Fairhaven 04.jpg|thumb|An old bank building, built in 1900 in the [[Fairhaven, Bellingham|Fairhaven Historic District]]]]

Bellingham has been inhabited by [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous peoples]] for millennia. The city of Bellingham and its surrounding area is the intersection of the territories of many [[Coast Salish languages|Coast Salishan]] peoples. The [[Lummi people|Lummi]], [[Nooksack people|Nooksack]], [[Samish people|Samish]], and [[Nuwhaha]] in particular fished in Bellingham Bay and shared the hunting and gathering grounds in the nearby forests and prairies.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 20, 2023 |title=About Us |url=https://nooksacktribe.org/about/ |access-date=July 20, 2023 |website=Nooksack Indian Tribe |language=en-US}}</ref> Indigenous people continue to live in and around Bellingham, particularly the Lummi, who have a [[Indian reservation|reservation]] directly west of the city.

The modern city of Bellingham, incorporated in 1903, consolidated four settlements: Bellingham, Whatcom, Fairhaven, and Sehome. It takes its name from [[Bellingham Bay]], named by [[George Vancouver]] in 1792, for [[Sir William Bellingham, 1st Baronet|Sir William Bellingham]].

The first European immigrants reached the area about 1852 when Henry Roeder and Russel Peabody set up a lumber mill at Whatcom, now the northern part of Bellingham. Lumber cutting and milling continues to the present in Whatcom county. At about the same time, [[Daniel J. Harris|Dan Harris]] arrived, claiming a homestead along Padden Creek, and after acquiring surrounding properties, platted the town of [[Fairhaven, Bellingham, Washington|Fairhaven]] in 1883. In 1858, the [[Fraser Canyon Gold Rush]] caused a short lived population growth that established the community.

Coal was mined in the Bellingham Bay area from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries starting when Henry Roeder's agents discovered coal south of Whatcom Creek, in an area called Sehome, now downtown Bellingham, in 1854. They sold the coal-bearing land to San Francisco investors who established the Bellingham Bay Coal Company, eventually a subsidiary of the [[Black Diamond Coal Mining Company]]. After a hundred years of extensive mining beneath present-day Bellingham, the last mine closed in 1955.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Southcott|first=Bonnie Hart|title=Mines faced disasters, financial woes|newspaper=The Bellingham Herald|date=October 20, 2003|access-date=March 10, 2008|url=http://www.bellinghamherald.com/special-pub/centennial/160479.shtml|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130110190456/http://www.bellinghamherald.com/special-pub/centennial/160479.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 10, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Stark |first=John |title=Beneath the city of Bellingham lie the memories of the mines |newspaper=The Bellingham Herald |date=March 2, 2008 |access-date=March 10, 2008 |url=http://www.bellinghamherald.com/513/story/336698.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130118041424/http://www.bellinghamherald.com/513/story/336698.html |archive-date=January 18, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Burkhart|first=Brendan|title=Postcards and Dead Fish: The Capitalism and the Construction of Place, Bellingham, Washington, 1918–1927|journal=Occasional Papers|year=2003|access-date=March 10, 2008|url=http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/CPNWS/occasionalpapers/postcardsandfish/titlepage.htm}}. The coal mines are described in [http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/CPNWS/occasionalpapers/postcardsandfish/1%20intro%20templ.htm 1&nbsp;– "Introduction"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902125414/http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/cpnws/occasionalpapers/postcardsandfish/1%20intro%20templ.htm |date=September 2, 2006}} and [http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/CPNWS/occasionalpapers/postcardsandfish/5%20claiminng%20nat%20of%20place.htm 5&nbsp;– "Claiming the Nature of Place"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909175724/http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/cpnws/occasionalpapers/postcardsandfish/5%20claiminng%20nat%20of%20place.htm |date=September 9, 2006}}.</ref>

In the early 1890s, three railroad lines arrived, connecting the bay cities to a nationwide market of builders. In 1889, Pierre Cornwall and an association of investors formed the Bellingham Bay Improvement Company (BBIC). The BBIC invested in several diverse enterprises such as shipping, coal, mining, railroad construction, real estate sales and utilities. Even though their dreams of turning the cities by the bay into a Pacific Northwest metropolis never came to fruition, the BBIC made an immense contribution to the economic development of Bellingham.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=pphhdatapage&fileName=wa/wa0200/wa0227/data/hhdatapage.db&recNum=6&itemLink=D%3Fhh%3A13%3A.%2Ftemp%2F%7Epp_O3rN%3A%3A%40%40%40mdb%3Dfsaall%2Capp%2Cbrum%2Cdetr%2Cswann%2Clook%2Cgottscho%2Cpan%2Choryd%2Cgenthe%2Cvar%2Ccai%2Ccd%2Chh%2Cyan%2Cbbcards%2Clomax%2Cils%2Cprok%2Cbrhc%2Cnclc%2Cmatpc%2Ciucpub%2Ctgmi%2Clamb|title=Library Of Congress Engineering Record|website=loc.gov|access-date=August 11, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704043822/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=pphhdatapage&fileName=wa%2Fwa0200%2Fwa0227%2Fdata%2Fhhdatapage.db&recNum=6&itemLink=D%3Fhh%3A13%3A.%2Ftemp%2F~pp_O3rN%3A%3A%40%40%40mdb%3Dfsaall%2Capp%2Cbrum%2Cdetr%2Cswann%2Clook%2Cgottscho%2Cpan%2Choryd%2Cgenthe%2Cvar%2Ccai%2Ccd%2Chh%2Cyan%2Cbbcards%2Clomax%2Cils%2Cprok%2Cbrhc%2Cnclc%2Cmatpc%2Ciucpub%2Ctgmi%2Clamb|archive-date=July 4, 2014}}</ref>

BBIC was not the only outside firm with an interest in the bay area utilities. The General Electric Company of New York purchased the Fairhaven Line and [[New Whatcom]] street rail line in 1897. In 1898, the utility merged into the Northern Railway and Improvement Company which prompted the Electric Corporation of Boston to purchase a large block of shares.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=pphhdatapage&fileName=wa/wa0200/wa0227/data/hhdatapage.db&recNum=9&itemLink=D%3Fhh%3A13%3A.%2Ftemp%2F%7Epp_O3rN%3A%3A%40%40%40mdb%3Dfsaall%2Capp%2Cbrum%2Cdetr%2Cswann%2Clook%2Cgottscho%2Cpan%2Choryd%2Cgenthe%2Cvar%2Ccai%2Ccd%2Chh%2Cyan%2Cbbcards%2Clomax%2Cils%2Cprok%2Cbrhc%2Cnclc%2Cmatpc%2Ciucpub%2Ctgmi%2Clamb|title=Library Of Congress|website=loc.gov|access-date=August 11, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704021754/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=pphhdatapage&fileName=wa%2Fwa0200%2Fwa0227%2Fdata%2Fhhdatapage.db&recNum=9&itemLink=D%3Fhh%3A13%3A.%2Ftemp%2F~pp_O3rN%3A%3A%40%40%40mdb%3Dfsaall%2Capp%2Cbrum%2Cdetr%2Cswann%2Clook%2Cgottscho%2Cpan%2Choryd%2Cgenthe%2Cvar%2Ccai%2Ccd%2Chh%2Cyan%2Cbbcards%2Clomax%2Cils%2Cprok%2Cbrhc%2Cnclc%2Cmatpc%2Ciucpub%2Ctgmi%2Clamb|archive-date=July 4, 2014}}</ref>

In 1890, Fairhaven developers bought the tiny community of Bellingham. Whatcom and Sehome merged in 1891 to form New Whatcom (1903 act of the State legislature dropped "New" from the name.) At first, attempts to combine Fairhaven and Whatcom failed, and there was controversy over the name of the proposed new city. Whatcom citizens would not support a city named ''Fairhaven'', and Fairhaven residents would not support a city named ''Whatcom''. They eventually settled on the name ''Bellingham'', which remains today. Voting a second time for a final merger of Fairhaven and Whatcom into a single city, the resolution passed with 2163 votes for and 596 against.<ref>{{cite web |last=Vanderway |first=Richard |url=http://www.bellinghamherald.com/510/story/228931.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120729234432/http://www.bellinghamherald.com/510/story/228931.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 29, 2012 |title=Brisk debate preceded consolidation in Whatcom communities &#124; Local History |publisher=The Bellingham Herald |access-date=January 19, 2013}}</ref>

Bellingham was officially incorporated on December 28, 1903,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.bellinghampubliclibrary.org/using-the-library/library-services|title=Library Services|newspaper=The Bellingham Daily Reveille|access-date=November 14, 2018}}</ref> as a result of the incremental consolidation of the four towns initially situated on the east of Bellingham Bay during the final decade of the 19th Century. Whatcom is today's "Old Town" area and was founded with Roeder's Mill in 1852.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bellingham-subdued-excitement.com/history-of-bellingham.html|title=History of Bellingham|publisher=Bellingham-subdued-excitement.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413141411/http://www.bellingham-subdued-excitement.com/history-of-bellingham.html|archive-date=April 13, 2008|url-status=dead|access-date=January 19, 2013}}</ref> Sehome was an area of downtown founded with the Sehome Coal Mine in 1854. Bellingham was further south near Boulevard Park, founded in 1883 and purchased in 1890 by Fairhaven. [[Fairhaven, Washington|Fairhaven]] was a large commercial district with its own harbor, founded in 1883, by [[Daniel J. Harris|Dan Harris]], around his initial homestead on Padden Creek.

Bellingham was the site of the [[Bellingham riots]] against East Indian ([[Sikhism in the United States|Sikh]]) immigrant workers in 1907. A mob of 400–500 white men, predominantly members of the [[Asiatic Exclusion League]], with intentions to exclude [[Non-resident Indian and person of Indian origin|East Indian]] immigrants from the work force of the local lumber mills, attacked the homes of the South Asian Indians. The Indians were mostly [[Sikhs]] but were labeled as [[Hindu]]s by much of the media of the day.<ref>{{cite web |last=Englesberg |first=Paul |title=The 1907 Bellingham Riot and Anti-Asian Hostilities in the Pacific Northwest |year=2015 |website=ScholarWorks |url=https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cel_pubs/62 |access-date=January 11, 2021 |archive-date=January 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115190312/https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cel_pubs/62/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=News Coverage: 1907-2007 - Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project |website=depts.washington.edu  |url=https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/bham_news.htm |access-date=January 11, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Johnson |first=Tim |title=Dark Century: Observing the Anniversary of Anti-Sikh Riots |url=https://www.cascadiaweekly.com/pdfs/issues/200735.pdf#page=8 |newspaper=Cascadia Weekly |location=Bellingham, WA |publisher=Cascadia Newspaper Company |volume=2 |issue=35 |date=August 29, 2007 |pages=8, 10–11 |issn=1931-3292 |oclc=711684947 |access-date=January 11, 2021 |archive-date=March 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301065840/http://www.cascadiaweekly.com/pdfs/issues/200735.pdf#page=8 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Bellingham's proximity to the [[Strait of Juan de Fuca]] and to the [[Inside Passage]] to Alaska helped to retain some cannery operations. Pacific American Fisheries (P.A.F.), for example, shipped empty cans to Alaska, where they were packed with fish and shipped back.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

{{wide image|Bellingham 1909.jpg|1200 px|Bellingham circa 1909}}
{{wide image|Bellingham_Skyline.jpg|1200 px|Bellingham, 2010}}