Location of the
“Jerns Shingle Mill” in 1900
Location of the Jerns Shingle Mill:
The Jerns Shingle Mill was located in
the community of Silver Beach, on Lake Whatcom. The mill stood on the spot
where Alabama Hill meets the lake. It was about 3 ˝ miles away from the town of
New Whatcom and Bellingham Bay.
Silver Beach also had a hotel, a
sawmill, 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.
Some
Other Shingle Mills in Whatcom County:
There were many other important shingle mills in Whatcom
County. The
Jerns Shingle Mill and the Cook Shingle Mill were two of six
shingle mills located at Silver Beach.
The
Geneva community had a school, 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.
Fairhaven had the
largest red cedar shingle mill in existence.
Photos of the Jerns Shingle Mill are the
personal property of Thomas Jerns, grandson of the mill’s proprietor. Permission to pubish this photo on this page
was granted to the Bellingham School District by Thomas Jerns. The other photos
on this page are the copyright of Galen Biery Collection,
and may not be copied without express written permission. Written permission to
publish these photos on our museum page was granted by the Whatcom Museum of History and Art.