Fort Bellingham

Fort Bellingham (1856–1860) was a U.S. Army fort built to prevent attacks by Indians from Canada and from Russian territory, on the bayside villages of Fairhaven, Sehome and Whatcom.

The site for the new fort was located on a prairie that overlooked Bellingham Bay. It was the only open space on the bay and had a spring. An existing settler, Maria Roberts had to be evicted to build the fort, but she and her husband were later allowed to build a cabin on the beach.

The fort was built by U.S. Army Captain George E. Pickett and Company D of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment sent from Fort Steilacoom and construction started August 26, 1856. The fort was an 80 yards square stockade with three gates. Two blockhouses of two stories lay at opposite corners, flanking the stockade walls loopholed for rifles and mountain howitzers. Within the stockade were wood framed one story buildings including the barracks, storehouses, officers quarters, mess hall, kitchen and bakery.

In July 1859, the Pig War broke out on San Juan Island when an American settler, Lyman Cutlar, shot a Hudson’s Bay Company pig. Brigadier General William S. Harney, Department of Oregon commander, learned that British authorities in Victoria had threatened to arrest Cutlar and dispatched Pickett’s company from Fort Bellingham to the island to protect American interests. In response, the British sent several warships and a detachment of marines. While the opposing forces that summer were facing off at San Juan Island, Pickett’s men returned and dismantled pieces of Fort Bellingham including one of the blockhouses and reassembled them on the island’s southern shore creating "Camp Pickett" later called "Post of San Juan".

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