Faculty city. County seat. Pure wonderland. These are only a few descriptors that set Bellingham’s identification aside. Named for its bay, which George Vancouver dubbed after Sir William Bellingham in 1792, it’s the most important “Bellingham” within the nation — earlier than Massachusetts and Minnesota namesakes.
Bellingham’s tradition repeatedly evokes artists similar to Bradley Lockhart of Lariat Inventive and Northwest Nook Items. Lockhart designed Bellingham’s official flag in 2015 in response to a nationwide motion.
“Roman Mars did a TED Discuss in 2015 that obtained hundreds of thousands of views,” says Lockhart. “And it impressed completely different cities across the nation to revamp their flags or to design new ones. Since then, there have been 320 new or redesigned metropolis flags, however Bellingham was truthfully on the very first wave of that.”
Many different nicknames and symbols characterize this metropolis that over 90,000 individuals name residence.
rewrite this title How Bellingham Earned Its Nicknames and Symbols of Native Id
Summarize this content material to 100 phrases
Faculty city. County seat. Pure wonderland. These are only a few descriptors that set Bellingham’s identification aside. Named for its bay, which George Vancouver dubbed after Sir William Bellingham in 1792, it’s the most important “Bellingham” within the nation — earlier than Massachusetts and Minnesota namesakes.
Bellingham’s tradition repeatedly evokes artists similar to Bradley Lockhart of Lariat Inventive and Northwest Nook Items. Lockhart designed Bellingham’s official flag in 2015 in response to a nationwide motion.
“Roman Mars did a TED Discuss in 2015 that obtained hundreds of thousands of views,” says Lockhart. “And it impressed completely different cities across the nation to revamp their flags or to design new ones. Since then, there have been 320 new or redesigned metropolis flags, however Bellingham was truthfully on the very first wave of that.”
Many different nicknames and symbols characterize this metropolis that over 90,000 individuals name residence.
The four-sided star on the Bellingham flag has inadvertently develop into a logo in its personal proper. “In America, traditionally, we use a five-sided star due to the American flag,” says Lockhart. He provides that the waves are “the hieroglyph of the Bellingham flag.” Picture courtesy Bradley Lockhart
Nicknames
Lelah Jackson Edson’s 1951 historical past textual content The Fourth Nook originated one among Bellingham’s lasting nicknames. Ross Kraig from the Bellingham Public Library advisable the title — designating Bellingham the ultimate “nook” settled within the contiguous United States.
The identify now options in The Fourth Nook Information, Fourth Nook Nurseries, Fourth Nook Neurological Associates, WEA Fourth Nook, Fourth Nook Elites Automobile Membership, and T.A. Warger’s Homicide within the Fourth Nook true crime books.
Bellingham’s “Metropolis of Subdued Pleasure” nickname derives from Stephen Stimson’s 1995 mural at 109 Prospect Road. Stimson owned the constructing subsequent to Whatcom Museum as Lone Wolf Antiques and painted the mural to welcome guests. In the present day, the unofficial slogan displays Bellingham’s status as a hidden gem of Northwest tradition.
Stephen Stimson painted “Ye Olde Metropolis of Subdued Pleasure” for its alliteration, inadvertently coining a motto that has subsequently appeared for years all through vacationer literature. Picture credit score: Anna Diehl
“Our artwork scene, our music scene, have all the time been fairly unimaginable for the scale of metropolis that we’re,” Lockhart says. “Some artists I do know listed here are sort of world-famous. And if they simply determine to stay right here, they may stay in New York or L.A., however they’ve carved out a reasonably good life for themselves out right here.”
The Bellingham Herald estimates that “Bellinghamster” has been a contentious nickname for locals because the Eighties. Some discover it endearing, whereas others want “Bellinghamer” or “Bellinghamite.” An City Dictionary entry from 2005 deadpans, “Life is Bellingham is very like life on a hamster wheel — you’re shifting, however you’re not going wherever.” The Bellingham Bells have embraced the town’s fluffier facet with hamster mascot Dinger.
Bellingham can also be generally referred to as “the ’Ham” or “Bham” — sharing the latter with Birmingham, Alabama. One other outdated slogan, “Sea to Ski in Sixty Minutes,” impressed the Ski to Sea Race’s identify within the 1966 letter that first proposed the occasion. Different neologisms extra narrowly describe native tradition, as in “Brewingham,” for the craft brewery scene.
Symbols
A ubiquitous image inside lower than a decade, the Bellingham flag represents the unique cities — Bellingham, Whatcom, Sehome, and Fairhaven — with 4 inexperienced stripes. Its blue semicircle represents Bellingham Bay, with two stars for the Lummi and Nooksack tribes and waves for the phrase origin of “Whatcom” (or “noisy water”).
Bellingham’s metropolis seal is featured on “Coming into Bellingham” indicators, metropolis automobiles, and different areas for official branding. Picture courtesy Bradley Lockhart
“I speak at colleges, [and] I speak to a child who’s like seven years outdated they usually’re, like, ‘I do know the Bellingham flag; I’ve identified the Bellingham flag my entire life,’” says Lockhart. “I’m, like, ‘Wow, you even have, as a result of it’s been round so long as you’ve been alive.’ So, for sure individuals, it feels prefer it’s all the time been there. However for individuals like me or older, it does nonetheless really feel sort of new.”
Lockhart used the identical colours in 2016 for the Bellingham metropolis seal, which depicts Mount Baker and Bellingham Bay.
Neighborhood indicators have just lately arisen to replicate the native character. As an example, the Sunnyland neighborhood signal attracts inspiration from residents being allowed to personal chickens. Picture credit score: Anna Diehl
Bellingham neighborhoods have additionally commissioned welcome indicators. “That’s like a microcosm of branding: neighborhood, metropolis, county, state, nation, world,” says Lockhart, who designed the Roosevelt neighborhood’s check in 2019.
“The rooster has develop into a logo of Sunnyland as a result of they’d rooster races on the Sunnyland Stomp,” says Lockhart. “After which the Homeskillet rooster, Velveeta Jones, she’s in Sunnyland — in order that’s one other strengthened rooster image.”
Landmarks
As domestically themed design corporations present, Bellingham landmarks have additionally develop into iconic. These embrace constructed environments such because the Bellingham Herald signal, the Lions Membership “Welcome to Bellingham” signal, Previous Metropolis Corridor, and the waterfront “acid ball.” Well-liked surroundings consists of Mount Baker, Whatcom Falls Park, Boulevard Park, Lummi Island, and Lake Whatcom.
“Velveeta Jones,” the rooster sculpture that impressed Northwest Nook Items designs, has outlived the Homeskillet restaurant, which closed in 2019. Picture credit score: Anna Diehl
“Our geographical location is clearly distinctive in that we’re proper on the sting of water and mountains, so that pulls lots of people,” says Lockhart. “We’re a school city, so we all the time really feel sort of younger; an enormous share of our inhabitants is below 25. In order that’s sort of cool as a result of we’re all the time getting new blood pumped in right here, like hopeful, starry-eyed individuals.”
Past civic delight, Lockhart says, symbols of native identification encourage accountability to 1’s neighbors, group, and atmosphere.
“It’s nearly like a logo of: You care about this place,” says Lockhart. “And this place isn’t an summary thought like freedom or liberty — it’s actually a spot the place you reside. So, you’ve obtained to scrub it up, you’ve obtained to be good to it, and also you’ve obtained to do what you’ll be able to to speculate again into it.”
