Wednesday, August 1, 2012

When Bellingham Had Coal Piles

I was doing some historic research for a project for work and came across this 1950 aerial.

1950 (City of Bellingham)

The aerial was taken a few years before the Bellingham Coal Mine closed. Piles of coal can be seen along the rail spur looping by the mine. The shaft house is in the approximate middle of the picture. The mine was all underground and followed a seam that dipped downward to the southwest over a distance of more than a mile.
Walsh and Logan (1989) showing two of the mines underlying
Bellingham and the extent of the workings 

The residential area to the southeast still exists and has not changed much since the mine was operating. The Bellingham Golf and Country Club is still located to the north. The coal pile areas and mine entrance area are now a shopping center and apartment buildings.

2008 view of same area (Google Earth)

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