Currently Washington is covered by 23 million acres of forest. In the 1890's almost the whole western half of Washington was covered by trees that were 10 to 20 feet in diameter and up to 200 feet tall! These huge trees made loggers rush from all parts of America to the Fairhaven and Bellingham area.
Another important natural resource to the area was water. Lake Whatcom was very important to Bellingham. It supplied water and was a place where mills were built to take care of all the trees that were cut down. Whatcom Creek was also important as it was an easy way to transport logs to mills on the bay.
Washington had the leading coal deposit in the Pacific Northwest. The original towns of Whatcom and Sehome had
several very productive mines. One mine in the Sehome township actually ran under Bellingham Bay.
Most of the miners were Chinese immigrants. Horses that lived their entire lives in the mines without ever seeing
the light of day, were used to haul the coal out of the mines. An eventual cave-in killed many of the miners and
horses. In the 1960's, environmental regulations caused the closure of the coal mines.
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