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People Who Helped Shape Bellingham

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Pacific American Fisheries employees processing salmon roe, undated.

 

People of many races and ethnicities have called Bellingham Bay home, and they have all shaped Bellingham by bringing their culture, labor and capital to the community. Hopeful prospectors flooded the area during the Fraser River gold rush and waves of immigrants settled in Whatcom County in response to ready jobs in the lumber and fishing industries. Norwegians, Filipinos, Native Americans and Italians worked side by side on ships and in the fisheries. Chinese and Japanese labor was critical to the salmon canning industry. Despite this rich heritage, and the relative short history of the community (150 years), it can be difficult to find information about the lives of these early residents. It is the stories of the rich and prominent that tends to define history because there is a more extensive existing written record of their lives. 

People Who Helped Shape Bellingham