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‘Bellingham’ is a county seat of Whatcom County in Washington. It is the largest city in Whatcom and eleventh largest in Washington. This city is situated on the Bellingham Bay at the confluence of Lummi Island, Portage Island and the Lummi Peninsula.

It is surrounded by former towns of Fairhaven and New Whatcom. Its name has been derived from the bay on which this city is located. Its original settlement was named Whatcom with its first white settler in 1854. Whatcom grew overnight from a small northwest mill town to a bustling seaport and the base town for Whatcom Trail. William Bausman published the first newspaper of Whatcom County, the Northern Light during that boom.

This city had its main industrial development in coal mining from the mid 19th to the mid 20th centuries. Henry Roeder discovered coal at the northeastern shore of Bellingham Bay. A group of San Francisco investors established Bellingham Bay Coal Company in 1854. Cornwall and an association of investors formed Bellingham Bay Improvement Company (BBIC) in 1889. This company made an immense contribution to the economic development of Bellingham.

Bellingham was officially incorporated on November 4, 1903 as a result of the consolidation of four towns situated around Bellingham Bay at Whatcom. The US Census Bureau describes that this city has a total area of 31.7 square miles, of which 25.6 square miles is land and 6.1 square miles is water. According to the census estimate of 2003, this city has 71,289 inhabitants and 27,999 households. 13,999 families reside in this city. Its population density is 2,619.3 people per square mile and it has 29,474 housing units at an average density of 1,149.3/sq mi.

The racial makeup of this city is 87.88% Whites, 0.98% Blacks or African Americans, 1.48% Native Americans, 4.25% Asians, 0.17% Pacific Islanders, 2.16% from other races and 3.08% from two or more races. 4.63% of its population is Hispanic or Latino. For every 100 females this city has 92.6 males, whereas for every 100 females aged 18 and above, it has 90.6 males.