The Harbor Was Crowned by a Forest of Masts

May 21 – October 2, 2011

Tall-masted ships inspire thoughts of adventure, though in their day they were hardworking vessels used to transport our region’s leading commercial export – lumber! The Harbor was Crowned by a Forest of Masts will feature a dozen large photographs of sailing vessels on Bellingham Bay. In the early 1900s, Bellingham’s waterfront, from Fairhaven to Squalicum, was dominated by immense lumber mills. Dimensional lumber, often in widths and lengths no longer possible, was shipped from Bellingham mills to ports as far away as Australia, South America, Asia, and Africa. While the bounty of old-growth fir and cedar lasted, windjammers arrived to load the harvest. The images in this exhibit were selected from the permanent collections of the Whatcom Museum’s Photo Archives.

Exhibition located in the Lightcatcher mezzanine.