Whatcom Heritage

by James Williamson

Original - Sold

Price

Not Specified

Dimensions

26.000 x 20.000 inches

Title

Whatcom Heritage

Artist

James Williamson

Medium

Painting - Mixed Media

Description

Pacific Northwest Maritime History, Whatcom County, Washington State, Pacific Northwest, United States
Whatcom Heritage, pen and ink, watercolor, colored pencil on archival paper,

Artist James Williamson, ASMA
Signature Member of the American Society of Marine Artists

Celebrate Our Heritage. Whatcom Heritage features important natural and man-made aspects of our life in Whatcom County. A three masted tall ship and sternwheeler recall our maritime history. The Whatcom Museum of History and Art stands as a symbol of our enterprise and culture. Mount Baker, the forests and Bellingham Bay reflect the beauty of our natural environment.

Whatcom The Lummi Indian word Whatcom was applied to the falls at the mouth of Whatcom Creek located in Bellingham, Washington. Whatcom translates to noisy water, rumbling water or in the place of noisy water. Whatcom Falls was a favorite winter resort of the Lummi tribe. The word Heritage is defined as property that can be inherited; something handed down from one's ancestors or the past as a characteristic, culture, tradition, et.; passed to a later generation.

Whatcom County The territorial legislature on March 9, 1854, established the County of Whatcom, fixed the boundaries therefore, named a temporary set of county officers, provided that election of permanent officers take place in September, 1854, and designated the residence of R. V. Peabody, near the mouth of Whatcom Creek, as the County Seat.

Bellingham City Hall: In 1891, local architect Alfred Lee (1843-1933) designed the Whatcom City Hall in the Second Empire Style. The structure is a tall, visually impressive three-dimensional building with a mansard roof and a dramatic clock tower. (The clocks themselves did not tell time at first. The depression of 1893 meant that there was no money to complete the interior of the building or to buy working clock parts, so the city simply fixed the clock hands at 7:00.) In 1939 Bellingham built a larger, more modern city hall on Lottie Street. Since then, the Old City Hall building has housed the Whatcom Museum of History & Art.
Formerly the New Whatcom City Hall), Constructed 1892-93, the building has been restored beginning in 1965-74 and is ongoing. One of the state's finest late nineteenth century institutional structures built in an austere Second Empire Style with overtones of Romanesque Revival. The massive brick structure which builds up from four corner towers to a high central cupola is still our city's major landmark and symbol of authority despite its use since 1940 as the Museum of History and Art. When the structure was damaged in a 1962 fire that destroyed the roof and central tower, a masterful campaign by the Whatcom Museum Society raised funds to restore the building and refurbish the interior. Now a major, multipurpose cultural center, the museum has received national recognition for its community-sponsored restoration.
The Daily Reveille, January 16,1892 described the new structure: a beacon to all vessels coming into our harbor, and a sure index to all comers, tourists, and travelers, of our taste, thrift, enterprise and intelligence.

An account of the City of New Whatcom given in Polk's 1892 Gazetteer of Oregon, Washington and Idaho: The city is admirably situated on Bellingham Bay. It is claimed that a sailing vessel can make New Whatcom wharves from the Ocean by only three courses of the wind. Here is one of the finest harbors on the Sound, capable of accommodating ships of the largest tonnage. These facts coupled with the railroad facilities, developed and in prospect, will make this city a formidable rival of the great cities farther up the sound. The city has street electric railway connecting with Fairhaven, gas works, an admirable volunteer fire department, six prosperous banks, and two daily newspapers: the Reveille (Rep) and Exponent (Dem)

Bellingham Bay The Lummi Indians called the bay Whulum - Anatchtle - Whong - Ah - Chich and claimed ownership. Captain Francisco Eliza, Spanish explorer, was the first recorded European visitor in 1791. His name for the bay was Seno-de-Gaston. Captain George Vancouver arrived with the ships Discovery and Chatham in 1792. He named it Bellingham Bay in honor of Sir William Bellingham, controller of the British Navy storekeeper's accounts, who personally checked Vancouver's supplies before he sailed from England.

The Full Rigged Ship, Whatcom County is approximately centered on a historic maritime coast, Alaska to California, where ships, shipping, and the men and women involved were of paramount importance from the beginning of its recorded history to the present. The sea continues to be of supreme importance in economic and material activity in Whatcom County today. Illustrated in this limited-edition print, a three-masted wooden ship of yesteryear is jamming the breeze on Bellingham Bay. Grace personified, this fine example of a bygone age of merchant sail, fully loaded and outbound, sails from the docks of Bellingham, Washington. A windjammer, with characteristics of speed and good cargo capacity, here represents a gallant fleet of sailing vessels engaged in Pacific commerce. From among the ship types that sailed throughout the Pacific Coast in the 19th century, a handful could be classed as most important by virtue of size and the number of sails carried. At the head of any such list must come the full rigged ship, a high-masted beauty of surpassing grace. She has three principal masts, all square rigged, and each bearing five or more sails. Full-rigged ships undertook all kinds of duties transporting people and trade goods throughout the world.

Great Steamship Days. One of the most colorful eras in Pacific Northwest maritime history was during Puget Sound's great steamship days - the years the graceful stern and sidewheelers churned up and down the waterways. All the Big Wheelers were wood burners at first and consumed many cords of slab-wood every day to maintain sufficient steam pressure to spin their big wheels. Bellowing whistles of these ships echoed along the waterfronts. Imagine these great machines with white foam rolling under the big wheels and clouds of smoke pouring from the stacks. The sternwheeler Fairhaven is illustrated in Whatcom Heritage. A wood burning vessel which existed from 1889 to 1918, 130.2 X 26.5 X 6.2, single cylinder, 196 hp. The Fairhaven was one of Puget Sound's many Mosquito Fleet steamers that made development of the region feasible.

General History of the Mosquito Fleet: Puget Sound's historic "Mosquito Fleet" consisted of thousands of steamships that steamed from port to port around the sound from the 1850s to the 1930s. Steamers departed and arrived from Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, Bremerton, Everett, La Conner, Port Townsend, Victoria B. C., Fairhaven, Bellingham and many other ports around the Inland Sea. They were so numerous that people said they resembled a "swarm of mosquitoes." The heyday of the Mosquito Fleet ended in the 1930s when competition with rail and road transportation put the fleet out of business.
From the days of the earliest tribal canoes to the early 1930s, Puget Sound and the Inside Passage (the sheltered channel of water that runs between the British Columbia/Alaska coasts and the islands) constituted the major transportation corridor of the Northwest. Along this corridor, stretching from its southern reaches near Olympia, north to the Alaskan Panhandle, nearly everything people needed moved by water transport.
Eventually, thousands of steam vessels, large and small, were built to move settlers, troops, farm produce and livestock, machinery, timber, the mail, and everything else needed to build and serve the settlements that sprang up along the coastline. Every settlement, no matter how small, had a pier or float. These "whistle stops" were their link to the greater community. Steam power promised more reliable service -- something that could be scheduled -- than did the sailing ships that were at the mercy of Northwest's fickle winds.
Mount Baker the Lummi and Nooksack Indians regarded the mountain as their own. The Nooksack called it Quck-sman-ik which signified White Rock. The Lummis named it Kushan Koma meaning The Opening of the Wound, or The Place That Was Pierced or Bleeds. This name came down to the Lummis from prehistoric times when the mountain was in eruption. The name being retained because of the great hole or crater near the summit on the Southeast side. First discovered by Europeans in June or July of 1790. Named La Gran Montana del Carmelo after the feast day of Nuestra Senora del Carmen-Our Lady of the Carmelite Order by Ensign Manual Quimper of the Spanish Navy. Observed by Third Lieut. Joseph Baker of Capt. George Vancouver's British expedition, with the ship Discovery and brig Chatham. Baker saw the noble peak from the deck of the Discovery April 30, 1792. Capt. Vancouver named the mountain in his honor. Mt. Baker is located near central Whatcom County and is the second highest peak in Washington State at 10,750 feet. An active volcano of great power, this mountain steams and shakes while at rest. It will erupt again.

Whatcom County Forests: The Lummi Indians Called the trees and forests Ski-La-Lung-hu. When the first Europeans came to Whatcom County, they found the green gold of the forest's trees. Here was visible wealth for all to see and use. Fog shrouded forests line the horizon in front of New Whatcom City Hall. Trees are an important part of our history and note the continuing role of the forest.

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January 27th, 2014

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