Timber
The rise of logging and forest industry along Bellingham Bay was typical of other settlements in the Pacific Northwest. The combination of dense forest, a sheltered bay and the falls at Whatcom Creek attracted the first settlers to the area. In 1852 and 1853 Henry Roeder and his partner J.E. Peabody built a mill near the present site of the Prospect Street Bridge. Water from Whatcom Creek powered the mill, and trees, once so thick that all but the beach was nearly impassible by foot, quickly disappeared from the banks of the stream. Earlier in the decade, Roeder and Peabody had traveled to California in hopes of making their fortunes in the gold fields and when fire destroyed much of San Francisco in the early 1850s, they set out north looking for rich sources of timber to sell to the city. At each of several stops on their northward trek they found others had beaten them to prime spots. Finally, in Bellingham Bay, they found a place far enough off the beaten path of European Americans that they were able to lay first claim to a prime mill site.
In the early years, lumber from this mill was shipped to California and Vancouver Island and also supplied a local market booming during the Fraser River gold rush of 1858. However, the isolation of Bellingham Bay from lucrative markets was a disadvantage the industry could not easily overcome. This disadvantage led to the sporadic operation of Roeder and Peabody's mill for the next fifteen years. The mill burned down in 1873 and was never rebuilt.
The years following the fire and the gold rush were difficult ones for the Bellingham economy, at one point the population of Whatcom dwindled to 20 families. In 1875, Edward Eldridge, in an attempt to stop the drastic population decline, offered the Whatcom Mill site free to anyone who wanted to redevelop it. This did not occur until 1881 when a group of utopian Kansans who referred to themselves as the 'Washington Colony' moved to the area and purchased the mill. At this point the mill became known as the Colony Mill. Members of the Washington Colony rebuilt the sawmill and constructed a wharf into Bellingham Bay, although lack of incoming migrants ultimately led to the colony's closure in 1885.
These early mills were ultimately limited by the difficulty and expense of moving logs from the interior to the waterfront. Lumber mills could only receive logs from short distances supplied by teams of horses or oxen which dragged fallen trees over 'skid' roads made of small logs. By the 1880s, the introduction of steam power allowed small steam engines to be used to power the internal workings of the mills which in turn allowed for the growth of numerous mills in the outlying region, closer to the source of timber. Eventually, steam-powered 'donkeys' replaced the horse and oxen teams and allowed for larger logs to be moved over longer distances, thereby increasing the output of lumber from the county. The rapid rise of the Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mill is directly attributed to the use of these new logging and milling methods. The company purchased large tracts of timber, milled them on site along the shores of Lake Whatcom and saved the expense of shipping it inland to Bellingham Bay.
By 1890, the export of lumber allowed for the growth of seven saw mills and three shingle mills around Bellingham Bay. Yet leading mill owners still faced the economic disadvantage of being forced to transport logs from inland forests to the waterfront for export. The solution to this problem focused on schemes which would attract or build railroads to Bellingham Bay. However, this problem was quickly resolved, and within a year Whatcom County was serviced by three railroads, marking the beginning of the golden age for the areas forest industry. The development of logging railroads into the county and the further use of steam technology allowed many larger logs to be moved over much greater distances which in turn tremendously increased the production of lumber from the interior of Whatcom County. This lumber was used locally and shipped all over the world. By the time of consolidation, timber was a major industry in the region.
