The start of Fairhaven

On the hills over looking Bellingham Bay sits the city of Bellingham with a population of 55,480. The southwest section of the city of Bellingham known as Fairhaven was once one of the four small communities which merged to form Bellingham. Whatcom, Sehome, Bellingham and Fairhaven are the four original settlements on Bellingham Bay.

May 6, 1890 Old Bellingham incorperated with Fairhaven on Oct 27, 1903 Sehome and Whatcom consolodated with Fairhaven. The city of Bellingham was chartered on July 12,1904.

Fairhaven was settled in January of 1853. The first claim for land was that of John Thomas.

At the end of the 1880's good economic times brought people from the east to our region. A wealthy entrepreneur named Nelson Bennet purchased the small yet booming town of Fairhaven. He advertised it as being the next Chicago which proved to be a leering gimmick for shortly after there was a stampede to get here.

Over 200 teams and wagons were brought in to clear the land, over three hundred people came in each month. Hundreds of them came to build hotels, home office buildings and railroad... in little over a year Fairhaven had 35 new hotels and lodging houses. Until May of 1890 there was no police force, so many of the local business men organized their own protection and used a beached scow for the cities jail house.

<center>Calla Schmidt, age 13</center>