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Whatcom County, Washington

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles

—digitized titles

75historic places

—earliest paper

1854formed

226,847pop. 2020

26cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 75 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1970. Most listings are in or near Bellingham, Newhalem, Hozomeen.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Washington is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Whatcom titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

50 of 75 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

75 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Aftermath Clubhouse	Bellingham	Building	1978
Austin Pass Warming Hut	Glacier	Building	1990
Axtell, Dr. William H. and Frances C., House	Bellingham	Building	2012
B. P. O. E. Building	Bellingham	Building	1992
Bacon, George H., House	Bellingham	Building	1974
Barlow Building	Bellingham	Building	2004
Beaver Pass Shelter	Diablo	Building	1989
Bellingham City Hall	Bellingham	Building	2011
Bellingham Herald Building	Bellingham	Building	2013
Bellingham National Bank Building	Bellingham	Building	1983
Berthusen Barn and Privy	Lynden	Building	2003
Black, Alfred L., House	Bellingham	Building	1980
Boundary Marker No. 1	Point Roberts	Object	1975
Broadway Park Historic District	Bellingham	District	2012
Cissna Cottages Historic District	Bellingham	District	2010
Copper Mountain Fire Lookout	Newhalem	Building	1989
Daylight Building	Bellingham	Building	2004
Deer Lick Cabin	Hozomeen	Building	1989
Desolation Peak Lookout	Hozomeen	Building	1989
Devil's Corner Cliff Walk	Newhalem	Site	1974
Diablo Hydroelectric Power Plant	Newhalem	District	1989
Donovan, J. J., House	Bellingham	Building	1983
Downtown Bellingham Historic District	Bellingham	District	2014
Eldridge Avenue Historic District	Bellingham	District	1979
Eldridge Homesite and Mansion	Bellingham	Building	1983
Fairhaven Historic District	Bellingham	District	1977
Fairhaven Library	Bellingham	Building	1982
Fish and Game-Hozomeen Cabin	Hozomeen	Building	1989
Flatiron Building	Bellingham	Building	1983
Gamwell House	Bellingham	Building	1972
Glacier Ranger Station	Glacier	Building	1980
Gorge Hydroelectric Power Plants	Newhalem	District	1989
Great Northern Passenger Station	Bellingham	Building	1975
Hotel Laube	Bellingham	Building	2003
Hovander Homestead	Ferndale	District	1974
Immanuel School of Industries-Department of Public Welfare	Bellingham	Building	2003
International Boundary US-Canada	Hozomeen	Object	1989
Koma Kulshan Ranger Station	Concrete	Building	1991
Larrabee House	Bellingham	Building	1975
Leopold Hotel	Bellingham	Building	1982
Lynden Department Store	Lynden	Building	2011
MV PLOVER (ferry)	Blaine	Object	1997
Middle Fork Nooksack River Bridge	Acme	Structure	1982
Montague and McHugh Building	Bellingham	Building	1993
Morse Hardware Company Building	Bellingham	Building	2005
Morse, Robert I., House	Bellingham	Building	1977
Mount Baker Theatre	Bellingham	Building	1978
Nooksack Falls Hydroelectric Power Plant	Glacier	District	1988
Oakland Block	Bellingham	Building	1999
Old Main, Western Washington State College	Bellingham	Building	1977
Orchard Terrace Apartments	Bellingham	Building	2015
Park Butte Lookout	Sedro Wooley	Structure	1987
Peace Arch	Blaine	Object	1996
Perry Creek Shelter	Hozomeen	Building	1989
Pickett House	Bellingham	Building	1971
Richards, T.G., and Company Store	Bellingham	Building	2003
Roeder, Victor A., House	Bellingham	Building	1977
Roth, Lottie, Block	Bellingham	Building	1978
Sanitary Meat Market	Bellingham	Building	2005
Sehome Hill Historic District	Sehome	District	2001
Si'ke village with historic area called Tsi'lich	Blaine	Site	2000
Skagit River and Newhalem Creek Hydroelectric Projects	Newhalem	District	1996
Skagit River and Newhalem Creek Hydroelectric Projects (Boundary Increase)	Newhalem	District	2011
Sourdough Mountain Lookout	Diablo	Building	1989
South Hill Historic District	Bellingham	District	2010
U.S. Post Office and Courthouse	Bellingham	Building	1979
US Post Office-Lyden Main	Lyden	Building	1991
Wardner, James F., House	Bellingham	Building	1988
Washington Grocery Company Warehouse	Bellingham	Building	1996
Whatcom Museum of History and Art	Bellingham	Building	1970
Wild Goose Pass Tree	Glacier	Object	1991
Winchester Mountain Lookout	Sedro Wooley	Structure	1987
Woodstock Farm	Bellingham	District	2021
York Historic District	Bellingham	District	2010
Young Women's Christian Association	Bellingham	Building	1977

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Whatcom was formed in 1854 (1854-03-09) from Island.

WHATCOM created by Washington Territory from ISLAND. WHATCOM included the disputed San Juan Islands which were claimed by both the United States and Great Britain.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Whatcom County population from 1860 to 2020 (Census historical series).

1860	1880	1900	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
352	3,137	24,116	50,600	60,355	66,733	70,317	106,701	166,814	226,847

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

National Park Service sites nearby

NPS

Park units within about 40 km of the county centroid (from NPS Public POIs; no API key).

Site	Type	Dist.
North Cascades National Park	Park unit	47.5 km
Ross Lake National Recreation Area	Park unit	53.5 km

Source: NPS National Datasets / Public POIs. The NPS Developer API requires a free key and was not used.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

26 cemeteries and 2 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 26 of 26 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Bayview Cemetery	48.7468	-122.44305
Berthusen Memorial Park	48.96261	-122.51017
Bethany Lutheran Cemetery	48.84384	-122.28635
Blaine Cemetery	48.99324	-122.70819
Case Nooksack Cemetery	48.80387	-122.19656
Enterprise Cemetery	48.89649	-122.62543
Green Acres Memorial Park	48.84872	-122.53932
Greenwood Cemetery	48.90944	-122.45795
Haynie Cemetery	48.96394	-122.66031
Hillsdale Cemetery	48.95377	-122.7254
Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery	48.85358	-122.28786
Jobe Cemetery	48.95899	-122.40717
Kendall Cemetery	48.89398	-122.14796
Kulshan Cemetery	48.83467	-122.13782
Lummi Island Cemetery	48.71401	-122.69439
Lummi Nation Cemetery	48.77899	-122.60905
Lynden Cemetery	48.93817	-122.48377
Memorial Park	48.76685	-122.46271
Monumenta Cemetery	48.93973	-122.48387
Mount Hope Cemetery	48.82467	-122.20517
Nooksack Cemetery	48.92509	-122.30949
Saint Peters Cemetery	48.97928	-122.1418
Saxon Cemetery	48.68851	-122.18102
Sumas Cemetery	48.9815	-122.24859
Van Zandt Cemetery	48.78548	-122.21416
Woodlawn Cemetery	48.85723	-122.54318

Historical populated places — 2 of 2

Name	Lat	Lon
Ruby	48.73735	-121.06234
Washington Colony	48.75316	-122.48322

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Whatcom County, Washington

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.