Daniel Jefferson Harris — Bellingham, WA
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Dunbar Loop
N 48° 43.232 W 122° 30.254
10U E 536464 N 5396508
Daniel Jefferson Harris (1833-1890), the founder of Fairhaven, Washington, who early became known as "Dirty Dan."
Waymark Code: WMNZVA
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 05/31/2015
Views: 4
Fairhaven is one of four cities that merged in the early 20th century to become today's Bellingham, Washington. Out of the four incorporated areas, only what was Fairhaven and Sehome, give any sense of a downtown.
And this leads us to Dirty Dan Harris.
Daniel Jefferson Harris arrived on Bellingham Bay in 1854. By 1855 he filed a Donation Land Claim for 146.44 acres. He was a very entrepreneurial man. Single-handedly he built a road from Bellingham Bay to Lake Whatcom, a distance of over three miles in rough and heavily forested terrain. He took advantage of the Fraser Canyon and Cariboo gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s by being active in mines.
But his biggest accomplishment was in 1883 when he filed the plat for the Town of Fairhaven. It consisted of eighty-five blocks 200 feet square, each divided into eight lots measuring 50 feet by 100 feet.
This was a huge speculation time in real estate all around Puget Sound. Fairhaven was competing with Seattle, Tacoma, and Port Townsend to become the Pacific Ocean terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Tacoma won.
But for Fairhaven many substantial brick buildings were built. Even as late as the 1980s these three story buildings had never been fully occupied. As during the mergers of the Bellingham Bay municipalities Fairhaven lost out to what was Sehome as the centre of town and the Whatcom County seat.
So Fairhaven was a sleepy area of today's Bellingham. It had charm and character. Eventually it become a national historic district. Today it is a popular destination of locals and tourists.
To honour the father of Fairhaven this statue of Daniel Jefferson Harris was created and sits in the Fairhaven Village Green. Dirty Dan is looking out at the community he help establish with an expression of contentment and a satisfied tiredness. He is dressed in a rough work shirt and dungarees. With suspenders holding his pants up and corked soled boots he sits there waiting to talk to a passerby about his accomplishments. The material used for the statue is bronze.
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