While records for Bellingham Bay Coal Company and the Bellingham Bay Water Company comprise only two administrative and financial ledgers, the collection contains a more substantial body of corporate, financial and other materials documenting each of the remaining “BBIC” companies. Records for the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad Company include property records documenting the company’s ownership and transfer of real estate in Sehome and New Whatcom between 1883 and 1910. Company records also contain correspondence, maps and field and survey records relating to railroad development in the early twentieth century, including J.J. Donovan’s efforts to locate a viable rail route from the Glacier area across the Cascade Mountains to Spokane.

Records of the Bellingham Bay Improvement Company (BBIC) include corporate and administrative material and also a substantial amount of correspondence spanning the period 1889-1917. Correspondence documents the general business dealings between BBIC and local organizations, businesses and individuals, and G.C. Hyatt’s activities in the activities of the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad Company, Bellingham Bay Lumber Company, Bellingham Terminals Company and the Bellingham Securities Syndicate. The collection also contains correspondence between company officials including P.B. Cornwall, H.H. Taylor and G.C. Hyatt regarding the operations, fortunes and objectives of BBIC and its related companies. Financial and property records document corporate involvement in the development, rental and transfer of real estate in New Whatcom. Project Files and materials relating specifically to the 1911-1914 Tideland Fill project on Bellingham’s waterfront also reflect BBIC’s role in the industrial and urban development of early Bellingham and Whatcom County.

Bellingham Bay Lumber Company records document logging and lumber operations from 1906 onwards, and also include correspondence and agreements pertaining to the sale of the Bellingham lumber mill to Bloedel-Donovan in 1912. Lumber Company materials contain a small number of papers from its subsidiary, Bay City Sash and Door Factory, as well as correspondence, agreements and minutes produced by the Whatcom County Lumber Manufacturers’ Retail Association. Bellingham Bay Securities Syndicate records include corporate and financial materials and correspondence documenting the corporation’s 1912 acquisition of BBIC, BB&BCRC and Bellingham Bay Lumber Company holdings and their subsequent divestment. Company records also contain legal papers and notes pertaining to 1984-1986 title dispute between the Roeder Company and Burlington Northern over former company land.

Researchers should note that the collection’s maps also contain valuable information about company holdings in Bellingham and Whatcom County, the physical restructuring of Bellingham’s streets and landscape, as well as extractive industries and rail development in Washington and British Columbia from the late nineteenth century through around 1912.