The Whatcom County seat and home of Western Washington University is located on Bellingham Bay between Mount Baker and the San Juans.

Our featured town also had lots of names before it was finally called Bellingham. What is now Bellingham Bay was called Gulf of Gaston in 1791. A year later, Joseph Whidbey, a member of George Vancouver’s expedition, surveyed the bay. It was soon given the English name of Bellingham after Sir William Bellingham, controller of the British Navy’s storekeeper account.  

In the years after settlement began there, there were several adjacent communities along the bay. At one time or another, these towns were known as Whatcom, Sehome, New Whatcom, Pattle’s Point, Unionville, (Old) Bellingham and Fairhaven. In 1904, they consolidated under the Bellingham city charter and became the county seat.          

To learn more about Bellingham, go here or here . (Photo courtesy of  Jon Brunk.)