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POSTED: Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009

Transplanted resident digs into Silver Beach history

The route to local history takes many twists and turns. Consider the case of Alfred Arkley.

A retired university professor - he taught at Western Washington University for five years in the early 1970s - his specialty was political science and management, not history.

He retired in 2001 after teaching for 24 years at the University of Illinois in Springfield. He and his wife, Harriet, liked Springfield, but their three grown sons had settled in the Pacific Northwest - two in Seattle, one in Portland.

Arkley, 72, and his wife were familiar with the Northwest; both were natives of Bellevue, back when Bellevue was a small town. And they had shared those five years in Bellingham, when Arkley taught political science at Western.

So, attracted by the city's university presence and by the city's outdoor amenities - he's a biker; she's a hiker - they became Bellingham transplants.

Through a friendship with a fellow bicyclist, Arkley joined Silver Beach Neighborhood Association a few years ago. The group was being revived to update the neighborhood's comprehensive plan. Arkley became association secretary, and helped revise the plan's overview of the neighborhood, including its early years.

"It became my job to do a history," he said.

The first history question was obvious: Where did the name Silver Beach come from? (Arkley is still seeking the answer.)

His interest in neighborhood groups cooled when Silver Beach residents bitterly debated proposals to protect Lake Whatcom, but his interest in Silver Beach history remains strong. He continues to research the topic, and he plans to present an illustrated talk this April at Whatcom Museum.

As elsewhere in Whatcom County, the abundance of natural resources sparked early development. In Silver Beach's case, that meant giant trees near the lake that could be cut and floated to mills along the shore. Later, it meant coal from the Blue Canyon mine at the south end of the lake. The coal was barged to Silver Beach and hauled to Bellingham Bay for shipment.

By the late 1880s, a plank road had been built to the lake from Bellingham, and a trolley line soon followed.

In 1890, Edward Carlyon and Reginald Jones platted 300 acres, called the area Silver Beach. They built a hotel the following year.

By the turn of the century, the area was dotted with lumber and shingle mills, and with modest housing for mill workers, sprinkled with lake cottages for big-city folks from down by the bay.

"It's what Bellevue was, originally," Arkley said.

The year 1908 proved pivotal. That's when Bellingham annexed Silver Beach, and when the Silver Beach school joined Bellingham's school district. The same year, a civic group bought 40 acres to create nearby Whatcom Falls Park.

For a small community, Silver Beach had several early claims to fame. The Bloedel Donovan lumber mills grew to become one of the largest operations in the Northwest, some say one of the largest in the world.

The Blue Canyon mine made history of a sad sort in 1895, when an explosion killed 23 workers. It was one of the worst industrial accidents in Washington history.

And for a decade in the early 1900s, White City charmed residents with its amusement rides, dance halls and other attractions at the north end of the lake.

Of course, the trees and the coal weren't limitless. The mine closed, then the mills. Silver Beach evolved into a residential haven of natural beauty, even as environmental concerns about the lake live on.

"It's a microcosm of Bellingham, in many ways," Arkley said.

Contact Dean Kahn at dean.kahn@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2291. Read his Now and Then blog at TheBellinghamHerald.com/blogs.