In Part 2 of “Sanitarium Insanity” our two-part series on sanitariums in Bellingham, Washington, we discuss the “Yoghurt Sanitarium” in Fairhaven, Bellingham's historic south side neighborhood.  More wacky electrical devices, dubious doctors and YOGURT, or as they spelled it, “yoghurt.”  Buckle up your bacilli, it’s a wild ride!

This episode is about spring festivals in Bellingham. 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the annual Ski to Sea Race here in Bellingham. The race officially started in 1973 as part of Bellingham’s Blossomtime Festival. That festival traces its roots to Bellingham’s first spring fling - The Tulip Festival - born out of bulb cultivation in Whatcom County. We dive into Bellingham’s days as “Tulip Town” and the evolution of spring festivals and events through the years. Find out why the Tulips took off to Skagit County and the Tulip Festival turned into Blossomtime and then Ski to Sea. It’s a surprisingly wild ride.

Fall has certainly fallen and we are here for it. We’ve launched or seasonal Gore and Lore Tours, and now we are very excited to bring you tours involving another sort of spirits… boooooo-ooze! Corny jokes aside, we are super excited to partner once again with the fabulous folks at Chuckanut Bay Distillery to bring you tours of their amazing facility.

In this week’s episode, we get into one of our favorite Bellingham true-crime stories, an unsolved mystery and murder of a local butcher. The victim was Frederick Dames, a civil war veteran who opened a meat market on Elk Street (now State Street) where he was found brutally murdered in 1905… Content warning for extremely gruesome descriptions of this particularly heinous murder.

We’re having a party to celebrate the kickoff of our 2019 Summer Tour Season, and the premier of BELLINGHAM CRIBS EPISODE 2! THURSDAY JUNE 20th from 7-9 PM in the MOUNTAIN ROOM AT BOUNDARY BAY

We’re excited to announce this opportunity to get outside and get some FREE Belling-history this summer with three guided historical tours in partnership with the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department.

Good Time Girl guides will lead three different historical walking tours based around Maritime Heritage Park and Whatcom Creek!

We wanted to share a fun little piece of boozy Belling-history from our collection – a little booklet from 1953: “Hints for the Home Bar” from the Pastime restaurant and lounge… 

Given that much of the subject matter on our tours involves lawbreaking folks, we have always been particularly interested in the jail, and in particular the experiences of women in the legal system. On our Downtown Sin and Gin Tours, we discuss the creation of the women’s ward in the jail, and the hiring of female wardens. In case you can’t get enough jail fun facts, here’s a sampler of some jail history from our notes.

The find of a locally made vintage fur coat sparked research into historic furriers and fur fashion trends here in Bellingham, Washington! 

Pickford's stage debut coincides with a cultural shift in post-Victorian America. The idea of female purity in the Victorian Era (1830s-1900s) was inextricably connected with domesticity and the home; women who lived a public or nomadic life were by their very nature suspect. But after Queen Victoria's death in 1901 a gradual relaxation of rules about where women should be seen and heard took place.