The Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad and its Successors

Description

The Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad Company (BB&BC) was incorporated in Sacramento, California on June 21, 1883 by Pierre B. Cornwall and his associates to operate in Whatcom County, Washington Territory. By 1904, the BB&BC had become one of the busiest railroad lines of Whatcom County. The BB&BC tapped the very heart of the Mt. Baker timber, mining and rich agricultural communities of the Nooksack Valley.  On January 1, 1913, the Bellingham & Northern, an independent subsidiary of the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railroad, took over the BB&BC. In 1917, the railroad was fully integrated into the Milwaukee system. The Milwaukee maintained much of the rail service of the BB&BC, so in many ways the BB&BC continued as Whatcom County’s own railroad serving northwest Washington State until the Milwaukee went bankrupt in 1980.