Fairhaven: A History

The complete history of that most southerly community on Bellingham Bay, one of the four original towns that were consolidated in 1904 to become the present City of Bellingham. Fairhaven, Washington-from the glaciers to today-the places, the participants, and the grand possibilities. A new arrival in 1889 said, only crude raw beginnings, the primeval forest of giant firs and cedars barely pushed back to the hillsides, mud streets gouged out, raw with jumbled piles of burning stumps, flames and smoke obscuring the sky. On the beach, tents flap in the breeze and a few unpainted wooden structures suggest civilization is to come. In 2015, what would be recognizable to any of those old-timers would be the enterprising spirit of the latest inhabitants, who have done so much to create Fairhaven’s modern growth and economic strength.