50 Fun Facts About Bellingham

Bellingham lies between which two big cities, 52 miles from one and 90 from the other?

It is 21 miles from the Canadian border, so the city looks both ways.

Who named Bellingham Bay in 1792, honoring Sir William Bellingham?

Bellingham was the Royal Navy storekeeper who had provisioned Vancouver's expedition; he never saw the bay.

Bellingham was incorporated in 1903 by consolidating how many settlements?

Whatcom, Sehome, Fairhaven and the tiny original Bellingham; the merger vote passed 2,163 to 596.

On what date was Bellingham officially incorporated?

Whatcom and Sehome had already merged in 1891 as New Whatcom; the 'New' was dropped by the legislature in 1903.

Which of the four founding towns is today's 'Old Town', begun with Roeder's mill in 1852?

Henry Roeder and Russel Peabody set up the lumber mill there; Fairhaven was platted by Dan Harris in 1883.

Who platted the town of Fairhaven in 1883 around his homestead on Padden Creek?

'Dirty Dan' sold lots; boosters then grew the town from about 150 people in 1889 to 8,000 by the end of 1890 chasing the Great Northern terminus, which went to Seattle.

What resource was discovered at Sehome in 1854, driving the area's early economy?

San Francisco investors formed the Bellingham Bay Coal Company; mining lasted until the mid-20th century.

Which 1858 event caused a short-lived population boom in the Bellingham Bay settlements?

Whatcom County briefly swelled past 10,000 people before the bubble burst.

Which Native nation's reservation lies directly west of Bellingham, formed after the Treaty of Point Elliott?

The Nooksack were pressured to move there too but resisted and stayed in the Nooksack Valley.

Bellingham is the county seat of which Washington county?

The county name comes from a Lummi word thought to mean 'noisy water', referring to a waterfall.

What was Bellingham's population at the 2020 census?

That makes it the northernmost US city over 90,000 people outside Alaska.

Bellingham holds which geographic distinction among cities of more than 90,000 people?

It sits at roughly 48.75 degrees north, above Seattle, Portland and every big city in the Lower 48.

Which school sits on 215 acres overlooking Bellingham Bay?

It began in 1893 as the New Whatcom Normal School, a teachers' college, and became a university in 1977.

The university on Sehome Hill started life in 1893 as what kind of institution?

It was the state-funded New Normal School, succeeding a private teachers' school founded in 1886.

What is the nickname of Bellingham's university sports teams?

They compete in NCAA Division II; the women's rowing team won Western's first NCAA title in 2005.

Which Western school, opened in 1969, was the first US school devoted to environmental studies?

The 'Huxley' name was dropped in 2021 over Thomas Henry Huxley's racial views.

Which indie rock band formed in Bellingham in 1997 while its singer was studying at Western?

Ben Gibbard's first lineup with Chris Walla played a house show at the Pacer House in November 1997.

Which two-time Oscar winner grew up near Lake Samish and attended Sehome High School until she was 16?

She performed in Bellingham theatre before moving to Los Angeles, and won Oscars for Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby.

Which Whose Line Is It Anyway? star founded Bellingham's Upfront Theatre improv venue?

He also played Lewis on The Drew Carey Show and Herb on Two and a Half Men.

Which volcano, also called Kulshan, towers over Bellingham at 10,778 feet, just 31 miles from the bay?

It carries more snow and ice than every other Cascade volcano combined except Rainier.

What world record did Mt. Baker Ski Area set in the 1998-99 ski year?

1,140 inches, or 95 feet, fell that winter; the resort averages 641 inches a year.

How many inches of snow fell at Mt. Baker Ski Area in the record 1998-99 season?

That is 95 feet, more than enough to bury an eight-storey building.

Which snowboard race through a natural halfpipe has been held at Mt. Baker since 1985?

Pros and amateurs of all ages ride the same course over the same days.

Which highway runs east from Bellingham to the Mt. Baker Ski Area?

Route 11 is the scenic Chuckanut Drive and Route 539 heads north to Lynden and the border.

Bellingham's Ski to Sea race has how many legs?

Cross-country ski, downhill, run, road bike, canoe, cyclocross and kayak, over 93 miles from Mount Baker to Bellingham Bay.

Where does the Ski to Sea race finish?

It starts on the slopes of Mt. Baker Ski Area and is held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

In what year did the first official Ski to Sea race take place?

It revived the spirit of the Mount Baker Marathons of 1911 to 1913 and began as a side event to Blossom Time.

Bellingham's Fairhaven district has been the southern terminus of which ferry system since 1989?

Alaska's state-run ferries moved their southern end from Seattle to the Bellingham Cruise Terminal on a 20-year lease.

Which Amtrak service stops at Fairhaven Station in Bellingham?

It links the city to Seattle and Vancouver, and the cruise terminal sits right next door.

What is Bellingham's tongue-in-cheek nickname?

It appears on the city's Wikipedia infobox and on plenty of local T-shirts.

Bellingham gets its drinking water from which body of water?

It supplies about 85,000 people and drains to the bay via Whatcom Creek; the name comes from a Lummi word for 'loud water'.

What disaster struck a Bellingham creek-side park on June 10, 1999?

The Olympic pipeline leaked fuel that turned the creeks pink before it ignited, killing three boys.

Which Civil War general built Fort Bellingham in 1856 and left behind the city's oldest house?

Pickett House is the oldest house on its original foundation in the Pacific Northwest; he married a Haida woman while posted there.

Pickett was sent in 1859 to garrison San Juan Island in which bloodless standoff with Britain?

An American farmer shot a Hudson's Bay Company pig that kept raiding his garden.

Which company ran a pulp mill on Bellingham's downtown waterfront from 1963 to 2001?

It bought Puget Sound Pulp and Timber; the site is now being redeveloped as a mixed-use waterfront district.

Bellingham's county museum occupies a three-building campus. Which glass-walled building opened in 2009?

Designed by Olson Kundig, it is named for a translucent wall 37 feet high and 180 feet long; Old City Hall and Old Fire Station No. 1 are the other two buildings.

Bellingham's Old City Hall, now a museum, was built from red brick and which local stone?

Local architect Alfred Lee designed it in Late Victorian style.

What is the name of Bellingham's collegiate summer baseball team, founded in 1999?

They won 19 straight to open their first season and play at Joe Martin Field in the West Coast League.

Bellingham International Airport draws an estimated 65 percent of its passengers from where?

It markets itself as a low-fare alternative to Vancouver's airport, just up Interstate 5.

Bellingham's main shopping mall, which draws Canadian shoppers, opened in 1988 under what name?

Its BoltBus stop connected shoppers to Seattle and Vancouver.

Bellingham's downtown theatre named after the local volcano holds what distinction?

It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Which Bellingham museum, once the American Museum of Radio and Electricity, has a replica of Tesla's 'Egg of Columbus'?

It took its current name in 2012; a retired Microsoft executive became co-curator when it moved in 2001.

Sehome Hill Arboretum, next to the WWU campus, has a tunnel hand-cut into rock in which year?

Cars once drove through it; now it is part of a hiking trail below the wooden observation tower.

About how much rain does Bellingham get a year?

Slightly less than Seattle, thanks to the Olympic Mountains' rain shadow; November is the wettest month.

Which Japanese city has been Bellingham's sister city since 1958, and regularly sends a Ski to Sea team?

Port Stephens in Australia, Punta Arenas in Chile and Cheongju in South Korea are among the others.

Which 1921 monument at Blaine, Washington marks the western end of the US–Canada border?

American lawyer Sam Hill built it to commemorate the 1814 Treaty of Ghent; visitors can wander the park without a passport.

Which part of Bellingham's county can only be reached by land through British Columbia?

It hangs off the Tsawwassen Peninsula, cut off by the 49th parallel.

What was the population of Bellingham's county at the 2020 census?

The county is coterminous with the Bellingham metropolitan area.

Which Hillside Strangler killer was arrested in Bellingham in 1979 after murdering two Western students?

He had moved north from Los Angeles; the Bellingham arrest cracked the LA case against him and his cousin Buono.

Which free software conference draws over a thousand people to Bellingham Technical College each spring?

The weekend event in late April or early May is devoted to Linux and other free-software projects.