History of Whatcom County Shingle Mills
Shingle mills around Lake Whatcom:
The first settlers in Whatcom County
built their roofs out of mud, sod, and stone.
They
found that their roofs were not lasting very long in the wet weather
conditions.
Between
1850 and 1894, a series of huge forest fires swept the Northwest. There were
burned and dead cedar trees, logs and stumps left standing everywhere. Even though the outer bark of the burned
trees was destroyed, the inner wood was still good.
The settlers
discovered that those cedar stumps could be used for making a superior roofing material called “shingles”.
The shingles were thin, light, strong, and lasted a very long time. They shed
the rain and snow that was so common in the Pacific Northwest.
When
hard times hit Whatcom County in 1893, the little “Cross road shingle mill”
came to the rescue. Settlers who could find no other employment were able to
earn an income for their families by clearing their land, pulling up the
stumps, and turning the stumps into shingles. Cross road shingle mills sprang
up all over Whatcom County.
There were many important shingle mills around the lower
(west) end of the lake. There
were 6 shingle mills at Silver
Beach.
The
Jerns Shingle Mill and the Cook Shingle Mill were two of the six at
Silver Beach. Silver Beach was located
3 ½ miles east of the City of New Whatcom.
Silver
Beach had a hotel, recreational fishing, and a summer resort. It also
had a post office.
Electric streetcars
ran between Silver Beach and the City of New Whatcom. There
were three steamboats running from Silver Beach to Park, at the opposite end of
the lake, every day.
The
Geneva community had a sawmill, a shingle mill, and a post office. The Geneva
community was located on the northwest shores of Lake Whatcom. Geneva was four miles away from the City of
New Whatcom. Most of the people in the Geneva
community lived there because someone in the family worked in the mills. The Geneva
Sawmill was owned by the Geneva Lumber Company. In 1901, 51 men living in Geneva worked
in lumber mills.
Shingle Mills in Fairhaven:
The
town of Fairhaven had the
biggest red cedar shingle mill in existence.
Image Credit: Microsoft
ClipArt Gallery
Photos and linked photos on this page are
courtesy of the Galen Biery Historical Collection and Tom Jerns, grandson of
Nicholas Jerns who owned the Jerns Shingle Mill. Permission was granted by
Galen Biery’s granddaughter and by Tom Jerns for the Bellingham School District
to use these photos on our website.