45 Fun Facts About Bellingham

Bellingham lies between which two big cities, about 50 miles from one and 90 from the other?

Vancouver and Seattle: the bay towns once bet on becoming the Great Northern Railway's western terminus, but the railroad chose Seattle instead.

Sir William Bellingham, whose name the city carries, did what for the British voyage that named its bay?

Oversaw its supplies: a Royal Navy stores official, he checked the voyage's provisions and accounts in England; the captain never wrote whom the name honored, but it was almost surely him.

Bellingham's first sawmill, on Whatcom Creek, was built to sell lumber for rebuilding which fire-ravaged city?

San Francisco: fire had gutted parts of the city, but by the time the mill was running, California lumber prices had fallen and its owners' hopes of a fortune faded.

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

Dan Harris: known as 'Dirty Dan', he later sold most of his remaining Fairhaven land and retired to Los Angeles.

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

Coal: the land went to the Bellingham Bay Coal Company, and the mining town that grew up around its Sehome pit became today's downtown Bellingham.

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

The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush: in spring 1858 thousands of miners bound for the Fraser River camped at Whatcom, briefly swelling it to some 10,000 people before the boom collapsed within months.

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

Lummi: the Lummi Reservation on the Lummi Peninsula and Portage Island, just west of Bellingham, was set aside under the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott.

Which interstate highway runs through Bellingham?

Interstate 5: downtown boosters lobbied for a route closer to the city center, but planners swung the freeway around downtown instead.

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

Northernmost in the contiguous US: at about 48.75 degrees north, Bellingham lies north of every other Lower-48 city with more than 90,000 people, including Seattle and Spokane.

Which river, fed by glaciers near Mount Baker, empties into Bellingham Bay?

Nooksack: its floodwaters can spill north through the Sumas River into British Columbia, as when the river overtopped in November 2021 and forced evacuations.

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

A teachers' training school: it prepared teachers for rural classrooms, and as the state demanded more schooling for teachers it began awarding degrees, becoming Western Washington University in 1977.

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

Vikings: Western Washington's teams compete as the Vikings in NCAA Division II; the women's rowing squad won the school's first NCAA team title in 2005.

Until 2021, which name did Western's environmental college, one of the first in the US, carry?

Huxley: a task force cited Thomas Henry Huxley's 'hierarchical views' on race, so in December 2021 the school became simply the College of the Environment.

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

Death Cab for Cutie: the band took its name from a 1967 song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

Which Best Actress Oscar winner grew up near Lake Samish and attended Bellingham's Sehome High School?

Hilary Swank: after her parents split, she and her mother moved to Los Angeles so she could act, and she later 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?

Ryan Stiles, a longtime Bellingham resident, founded the Upfront Theatre downtown; he also played Lewis on The Drew Carey Show and Herb on Two and a Half Men.

By what Indigenous name is Mount Baker, the volcano east of Bellingham, also known?

Kulshan, or Koma Kulshan: the peak's English name honors Lieutenant Joseph Baker, who spotted it in 1792 while serving on the British expedition.

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.

Which Northwest grocery chain was founded in Bellingham?

Haggen: in 2014 it agreed to take over 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores, but the expansion faltered and it filed for bankruptcy the next year.

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 Mount Baker Ski Area?

Route 542: the Mount Baker Highway is kept open all winter for skiers, but its final stretch up to Artist Point opens only in summer.

Where does the Ski to Sea race finish?

Marine Park in Fairhaven: the district's grand Fairhaven Hotel was built in the 1890s to lure railroad tycoons, who never came, and it was torn down in 1953.

Which country's explorers first entered Bellingham Bay, before the British named it?

Spain: a 1791 Spanish expedition gave the bay a Spanish name, but the British name charted the next year is the one that stuck.

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

Alaska Marine Highway: in 1989 Alaska's state ferry system moved its southern terminus from Seattle to the Bellingham Cruise Terminal in Fairhaven.

Which Amtrak service stops at Fairhaven Station in Bellingham?

Cascades: in December 2017, a Cascades train on the first run over a faster new route took a 30 mph curve far too fast near DuPont and derailed, killing three.

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

City of Subdued Excitement: the unofficial motto pokes fun at the town's laid-back pace and appears on local T-shirts, stickers and shop signs.

A 1907 Bellingham mob drove out immigrant lumber mill workers who had come mostly from which country?

India: the mob beat the workers, and within a day it had driven them out of town.

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

A gasoline pipeline explosion: about 277,000 gallons poured into Whatcom Creek; fumes overcame an 18-year-old fly fisherman, and the fireball killed two 10-year-old boys.

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

George Pickett: the U.S. Army captain who built the fort later joined the Confederacy and is remembered for leading the doomed charge at Gettysburg.

Which bloodless 1859 standoff with Britain over San Juan Island drew troops from Fort Bellingham?

The Pig War: an American settler shot a Hudson's Bay Company pig rooting in his garden, and in the standoff that followed, the pig was the only casualty.

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

Georgia-Pacific: after the mill shut, the Port of Bellingham took over the waterfront site with plans to turn it into a mixed-use neighborhood.

Which Whatcom Museum building, designed by Olson Kundig, opened in 2009?

The Lightcatcher is named for its translucent wall, 37 feet high and 180 feet long, which captures daylight and helps the building save energy.

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

Chuckanut sandstone: after a 1962 fire damaged the building, the community raised the money to restore it.

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

Bells: the name revives the original Bellingham Bells, a team that played in the city until 1988.

Which volcano in the same range is the only one holding more snow and ice than Mount Baker?

Mount Rainier: Baker holds more snow and ice than all the others in its range except Rainier combined, and its most destructive, frequent events have been debris flows, not lava.

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

Bellis Fair opened in 1988 on Bellingham's north side, and its closeness to the border made it a magnet for Canadian shoppers whenever the loonie was strong.

Mount Baker Theatre's architect also designed which famous lodge?

Old Faithful Inn: Robert Reamer's Bellingham movie palace was once slated for demolition, but the community rallied to save it, and the city now owns it.

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

SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention: the museum took the SPARK name in 2012 after two radio collections merged in 2001; its MegaZapper Tesla-coil show is the signature attraction.

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

1923: the sandstone tunnel on Sehome Hill was hand-cut in 1923 for a scenic auto road; it later became part of the arboretum's trail network below the wooden observation tower.

Before the towns merged, the tiny original town of Bellingham stood near which present-day waterfront park?

Boulevard Park: that tiny town was bought up by Fairhaven in 1890, more than a decade before the big merger.

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

Tateyama, in Chiba Prefecture, has been paired with Bellingham since 1958; Port Stephens in Australia, Punta Arenas in Chile and Cheongju in South Korea are other sister cities.

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

Point Roberts: when an 1846 treaty made the 49th parallel the border, the line left the tip of a British Columbia peninsula on the US side, cut off by land.

Whatcom, Bellingham's county name, is said to mean what?

Noisy water: accounts differ, and some tie the name to a local chief, but the loud falls on Whatcom Creek did power the area's first sawmill.

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

Kenneth Bianchi: after his arrest he confessed, and to avoid the death penalty he named his cousin Angelo Buono as his partner in the Los Angeles killings.

Which free software conference is held each spring at Bellingham Technical College?

LinuxFest Northwest stays free to attend, kept running by sponsors and donations.