Bellingham is the county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is situated on Bellingham Bay, which is protected by Lummi Island, Portage Island, and the Lummi Peninsula, and opens onto the Strait of Georgia. It lies west of Mount Baker and Lake Whatcom (from which it gets its drinking water), north of the Chuckanut Mountain and Skagit Valley, and Whatcom Creek runs through the center of the city. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 67,171, although a recent calculation places the city's population at 73,469.
The boundaries of the city have grown to add the former cities of Fairhaven (now home to the southern ocean ferry terminus of the Alaska Marine Highway System), New Whatcom, and several others. Bellingham is also home to Western Washington University, Whatcom Community College and Fairhaven College , an interdisciplinary liberal arts college within Western.
The Bellingham International Airport serves regularly scheduled commuter flights to and from Seattle and, more recently, flights to Las Vegas, Nevada that serve locals but mostly Canadian residents from nearby Vancouver and British Columbia. As of August, 2004, the airport is home of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's first Air and Marine Operations Center, to assist with border surveillance. Amtrak also serves Bellingham, which is the first stop in the United States for southbound trains from Vancouver, British Columbia.
Bellingham is located at 48°45'1" North, 122°28'30" West (48.750178, -122.474975).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 82.2 km2 (31.7 mi2). 66.4 km2 (25.6 mi2) of it is land and 15.8 km2 (6.1 mi2) of it is water. The total area is 19.19% water.
As of the census of 2000, there are 67,171 people, 27,999 households, and 13,999 families residing in the city. The population density is 1,011.5/km2 (2,619.3/mi2). There are 29,474 housing units at an average density of 443.8/km2 (1,149.3/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 87.88% White, 0.98% Black or African American, 1.48% Native American, 4.25% Asian, 0.17% Pacific Islander, 2.16% from other races, and 3.08% from two or more races. 4.63% of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 27,999 households out of which 23.1% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.5% are married couples living together, 9.2% have a female householder with no husband present, and 50.0% are non-families. 33.0% of all households are made up of individuals and 10.3% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.24 and the average family size is 2.83.
In the city the population is spread out with 17.7% under the age of 18, 23.8% from 18 to 24, 26.5% from 25 to 44, 19.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 30 years. For every 100 females there are 92.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 90.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $32,530, and the median income for a family is $47,196. Males have a median income of $35,288 versus $25,971 for females. The per capita income for the city is $19,483. 20.6% of the population and 9.4% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 17.2% of those under the age of 18 and 9.0% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
The name of Bellingham is derived from the bay which the city is situated on. George Vancouver, who visited the area in June 1792, named the bay for Sir William Bellingham, the controller of the storekeeper's account of the Royal Navy.
The first white settlers reached the area in 1854. The original settlement was named Whatcom, located where Whatcom Creek empties into the bay. In 1858, the Fraser River Gold Rush caused thousands of miners, storekeepers, and scalawags to head north from California. Whatcom grew overnight from a sleepy northwest village to a bustling seaport. The first brick building in Washington was built at this time, the T.G. Richards brick warehouse. The first newspaper in Whatcom County, the Northern Light, was published by William Bausman during the boom. Just as soon as it started, the boom went bust with the miners being forced to stop at Victoria, B.C. for a permit before heading to the mining fields. Whatcom's population dropped almost as quickly as it had grown, and the sleepy little town on the bay returned, for a few decades at least.
Bellingham was officially incorporated on November 4, 1903. It was the result of the consolidation of four towns initially situated around Bellingham Bay: Whatcom, Sehome, Bellingham, and Fairhaven. A fictionalized account of the history of Bellingham is "The Living" by Annie Dillard.
The foothills around Bellingham were clearcut after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to provide the lumber for the rebuilding of San Francisco. In time, lumber and shingle mills sprang up all over the county to accommodate the byproduct of their work. In the early 1890s, three railroad lines arrived, connecting the bay cities to a nationwide market of builders.
By 1900, there were 68 shingle mills in Whatcom County, outputting $5 million worth of product in one year alone. Puget Sound Sawmills & Timber Co., in Fairhaven, was the largest shingle mill in the world, producing 135 million shingles in the first year of the new century. Bellingham Bay was a bustling port with huge sailing ships hauling timber, lumber and shingles to places around the world.
In the past, coal mining was commonplace near town, with the Blue Canyon mine at Lake Whatcom being the site of Washington's worst industrial accident, which occurred April 8, 1895. In time the mines were closed down and sealed off.
Fishing has also played an important part in the development of the region. By 1925, eight salmon canneries were doing business in Whatcom County - two on Bellingham Bay, the rest at Lummi Island, Semiahmoo and Chuckanut Bay. Together, they packed nearly a half-million cases of salmon one year.
Increased efficiency in the canneries, combined with the cold efficiency of the fish traps, decimated the state's salmon runs. Traps were banned in the 1930s, prompting canneries to move their fish-catching operations to Alaska, where salmon were still abundant and traps were still legal.
Bellingham's proximity to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and to the Inland Passage to Alaska helped keep some cannery operations here. P.A.F., for example, shipped empty cans to Alaska, where they were packed with fish and shipped back for storage.
Source:
BellinghamWashington.com
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