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Bellingham Bay Improvement Company Records, 1856-1986

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Bellingham Bay Improvement Company.
Title
Bellingham Bay Improvement Company Records
Dates
1856-1986 (inclusive)
1883-1930 (bulk)
Quantity
120 linear ft., (156 boxes)
180 oversize volumes
22 oversize folders
Collection Number
XOE_CPNWS0002bbic
Summary
The collection documents the interests and activities of Belllingham Bay Improvement Company and its predecessor, subsidiary and successor companies, including the Bellingham Bay Coal Company, Bellingham Bay Water Company, Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad Company, Bellingham Bay Lumber Company, and the Bellingham Securities Syndicate Incorporated. Records span the period 1855-1986 (1883-1930), and document the companies' involvement in extractive industries, real estate and railroad speculation in Bellingham and Whatcom County, WA. The collection includes administrative and corporate, financial, property and survey records, correspondence and maps.
Repository
Western Washington University, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies
Goltz-Murray Archives Building
808 25th St.
Bellingham, WA
98225
Telephone: (360) 650-7534
cpnws@wwu.edu
Access Restrictions

Collection is open to the public.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for preparing this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Funding for encoding the finding aid was awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Historical Note

Founded in 1889, the Bellingham Bay Improvement Company (BBIC) operated as a speculative real estate venture, also actively involved in resource extraction and railroad development in Bellingham and Whatcom County, Washington. BBIC's predecessor's were the Bellingham Bay Coal Company, Bellingham Bay Water Company, and the Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad Company. In 1854, San Francisco investors established Bellingham Bay Coal Company to extract coal previously discovered by Henry Roeder in hills off the northeastern shore of Bellingham Bay. In 1866, Darius Ogden Mills purchased and reorganized the company as the Black Diamond Coal Company. Under the management of Pierre B. Cornwall, the mines operated profitably until their closure in 1878. By this time, Black Diamond had acquired considerable land around Bellingham Bay, and for the next several years, Cornwall concentrated the company's efforts on the sale of real estate.

In 1883, Mills and Cornwall were involved in establishing two further Bellingham Bay enterprises: Bellingham Bay Water Company and the Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad (BB&BCRC). BB&BCRC was established to construct a small railroad between Bellingham Bay and Sumas, a village on the British Columbia border. Cornwall and Mills, anticipating the arrival of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway in Vancouver in 1887, hoped that their railroad would provide a strong incentive for an American transcontinental railroad to choose Bellingham Bay as its terminus. When construction of the railroad began in 1889, BB&BCRC transferred all real estate assets to the newly formed Bellingham Bay Improvement Company. Besides developing and selling property, BBIC engaged in logging and lumber manufacture, forming the subsidiary Bellingham Bay Lumber Company in 1906, and also producing and selling electricity to the surrounding community. Another BBIC subsidiary, Bellingham Terminals and Railroad Company, provided rail connections to local industries.

By the turn of the twentieth century, BBIC was entrenched in every aspect of the Bellingham economy. During the first decade of the twentieth century, and following P.B. Cornwall's death in 1904, control of the company began to shift from San Francisco investors to interests in the Pacific Northwest. G. C. Hyatt, first employed by BBIC as a land agent in the 1890s, became one of the key figures in the new company leadership. Hyatt became president of BBIC in 1910, and in 1912 formed Bellingham Securities Syndicate with investors from Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellingham. The Syndicate soon purchased control of BBIC's holdings and those of the lumber mills and railroad company. Hyatt and his associates sold off the lumber and railroad interests to concentrate on real estate and capital investments. The depression of the 1930s heavily affected the Syndicate's holdings, and the final remnants of BBIC ceased operations on the eve of World War II.

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Content Description

The BBIC Records document the existence and activities of Bellingham Bay Coal Company, Bellingham Bay Water Company, Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad Company, Bellingham Bay Improvement Company, Bellingham Bay Lumber Company, and the Bellingham Securities Syndicate Incorporated. The collection spans the period 1855 to 1986, with the bulk of material dated around 1883 to 1930.

While records for Bellingham Bay Coal Company and the Bellingham Bay Water Company comprise only two administrative and financial ledgers, the collection contains a more substantial body of corporate, financial and other materials documenting each of the remaining "BBIC" companies. Records for the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad Company include property records documenting the company's ownership and transfer of real estate in Sehome and New Whatcom between 1883 and 1910. Company records also contain correspondence, maps and field and survey records relating to railroad development in the early twentieth century, including J.J. Donovan's efforts to locate a viable rail route from the Glacier area across the Cascade Mountains to Spokane.

Records of the Bellingham Bay Improvement Company (BBIC) include corporate and administrative material and also a substantial amount of correspondence spanning the period 1889-1917. Correspondence documents the general business dealings between BBIC and local organizations, businesses and individuals, and G.C. Hyatt's activities in the activities of the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad Company, Bellingham Bay Lumber Company, Bellingham Terminals Company and the Bellingham Securities Syndicate. The collection also contains correspondence between company officials including P.B. Cornwall, H.H. Taylor and G.C. Hyatt regarding the operations, fortunes and objectives of BBIC and its related companies. Financial and property records document corporate involvement in the development, rental and transfer of real estate in New Whatcom. Project Files and materials relating specifically to the 1911-1914 Tideland Fill project on Bellingham's waterfront also reflect BBIC's role in the industrial and urban development of early Bellingham and Whatcom County.

Bellingham Bay Lumber Company records document logging and lumber operations from 1906 onwards, and also include correspondence and agreements pertaining to the sale of the Bellingham lumber mill to Bloedel-Donovan in 1912. Lumber Company materials contain a small number of papers from its subsidiary, Bay City Sash and Door Factory, as well as correspondence, agreements and minutes produced by the Whatcom County Lumber Manufacturers' Retail Association. Bellingham Bay Securities Syndicate records include corporate and financial materials and correspondence documenting the corporation's 1912 acquisition of BBIC, BB&BCRC and Bellingham Bay Lumber Company holdings and their subsequent divestment. Company records also contain legal papers and notes pertaining to 1984-1986 title dispute between the Roeder Company and Burlington Northern over former company land.

Researchers should note that the collection's maps also contain valuable information about company holdings in Bellingham and Whatcom County, the physical restructuring of Bellingham's streets and landscape, as well as extractive industries and rail development in Washington and British Columbia from the late nineteenth century through around 1912.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Bellingham Bay Improvement Company Records, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Archives & Special Collections, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA 98225-9123.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Boxed material, oversize volumes and maps are described in one comprehensive inventory, in accordance with the following series and sub-series arrangement:

  • Series I: Bellingham Bay Coal Company and Bellingham Bay Water Company 1866-1894
  • Series II: Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad Company 1858-1912 (1883 – 1912)
    • Subseries 1. Corporate and Administrative
    • Subseries 2. Financial
    • Subseries 3. Property
    • Subseries 4. Field and Survey
  • Series III: Bellingham Bay Improvement Company 1855-1943 (1883-1939)
    • Subseries 1. Corporate and Administrative
    • Subseries 2. Correspondence
    • Subseries 3. Financial
    • Subseries 4. Property
    • Subseries 5. Project Files
    • Subseries 6. Tideland Fill Project
    • Subseries 7. BBIC Electric Light Department
  • Series IV: Bellingham Bay Lumber Company 1904 - 1917
    • Subseries 1. Corporate and Administrative
    • Subseries 2. Correspondence
    • Subseries 3. Financial
    • Subseries 4. Sale of Lumber Mill
    • Subseries 5. Bay City Sash & Door Company
    • Subseries 6. Whatcom County Lumber Manufacturers' Retail Association
  • Series V: Bellingham Securities Syndicate, Inc. 1889-1986 (1912-1948)
    • Subseries 1. Corporate and Administrative
    • Subseries 2. Correspondence
    • Subseries 3. Financial
    • Subseries 4. Property
    • Subseries 5. Legal
  • Series VI: Bellingham Publicity Company 1904-1907
  • Series VII: Maps circa 1856 – 1912

Acquisition Information

Dick Johnson donated the collection to the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies on September 23, 1975.

Processing Note

Cheryl Rudert and Michael Saunders carried out initial arrangement and description of the Bellingham Bay Improvement Company records for the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies. In 1976, the Center published their preliminary finding aid as an informational paper, edited by James W. Scott. In 2003, Ruth Steele re-engineered the collection and its finding aid, with assistance from Amber Raney. In April 2006 Rozlind Koester merged additional material into the collection.

Processing Note

To learn more about problematic content in our collections, collection description and teaching tools (including how to provide feedback or request dialogue on this topic), see the following Statement About Potentially Harmful Language and Content.

Bibliography

Kraig, Beth. A Slow Game: The Bellingham Bay Improvement Company and the Economic Development of Bellingham, 1900-1912 Masters Thesis, Western Washington University, 1981.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Corporations--Investor relations--California--San Francisco--History--Sources.
  • Logging--Washington (State)--Whatcom County--History--Sources.
  • Lumber trade--Washington (State)--Whatcom County--History--Maps.
  • Lumber trade--Washington (State)--Whatcom County--History--Sources.
  • Mines and mineral resources--Washington (State)--Whatcom County--History--Maps.
  • Mines and mineral resources--Washington (State)--Whatcom County--History--Sources.
  • Railroads--Northwest, Pacific--History--Maps.
  • Railroads--Northwest, Pacific--History--Sources.
  • Railroads--Washington (State)--Whatcom County--History--Maps.
  • Railroads--Washington (State)--Whatcom County--History--Sources.
  • Real estate development--Washington (State)--Bellingham--History--Maps.
  • Real estate development--Washington (State)--Bellingham--History--Sources.
  • Real estate development--Washington (State)--Whatcom County--History--Maps.
  • Real estate development--Washington (State)--Whatcom County--History--Sources.

Corporate Names

  • Bellingham Bay Coal Company.
  • Bellingham Bay Improvement Company--Archives.
  • Bellingham Bay Lumber Company.
  • Bellingham Bay Water Company.
  • Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad Company.
  • Bellingham Securities Syndicate, Inc.

Geographical Names

  • Bellingham (Wash.)--History--Maps.
  • Bellingham (Wash.)--History--Sources.
  • Whatcom County (Wash.)--History--Maps.
  • Whatcom County (Wash.)--History--Sources.

Form or Genre Terms

  • Maps.
  • Records (Documents)

Finding aid prepared by Ruth Steele
2003

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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