This image of the Bellingham Coal Company’s mine was taken July 18, 1927 and is part of the Whatcom Museum’s J. Wilbur Sandison Collection, No. 5609.
Photos of this same operation, sometimes called the Birchwood mine due to its location on Birchwood Avenue, were featured in this column over the past two weeks. The gabled house in the left foreground is the Bellingham Coal Company’s office.
The largest building in the furthest background is the mine tipple, which contained the steam engines used to hoist coal cars into and out of the mine.
It also housed the facility where coal cars were weighed, the coal washed, then sorted by size for market.
The biggest customer for this mine’s product were cement plants in the town of Concrete.
This photo comes courtesy of George Mostoe of Western Washington University, with research assistance provided by Jeff Jewell of the Whatcom Museum.
