Welcome to our All-American small town...historic Ferndale, Washington!

Ferndale, Washington, is a fast-growing community of approximately 10,000 residents, which prides itself on its relaxed, small-town friendliness, award-winning school system and affordable quality of life.

Set amidst lush farmland on a southern crossing of the Nooksack River, Ferndale's convenient location on the I-5 corridor is just minutes away from Bellingham, and within easy driving distance of both Seattle to the south, and Vancouver, B.C., Canada, to the north.

Along with agriculture (Whatcom County grows more than 65 percent of the red raspberries in the U.S.), Ferndale's top industrial employers include aluminum producer, Alcoa Intalco Works, and the BP Cherry Point and Conoco Phillips Ferndale oil refineries.

Downtown, Ferndale's business district has a new look, with upgrades to streets and utilities, including installation of underground power lines.

For sports and outdoor enthusiasts, Ferndale offers close-in lake and river sport fishing, 14 golf courses in the surrounding area, skiing, snowboarding, hiking, climbing and camping at Mount Baker, and nearby boating opportunities in all forms, from sailing to kayaking. Just northwest of Ferndale are swimming and clamming beaches at Birch Bay.

The Ferndale City, and nearby Whatcom County Park systems, include extensive recreational facilities. Some of Ferndale's must-see public spaces include early-settlers' cabins at Pioneer Park, the Tennant Lake Interpretive Center and Fragrance Garden, and the preserved, historic farm at Hovander Homestead Park. 

Fun Historical Facts About Ferndale (source: www.ferndale.net) Ferndale was originally called "Jam," due to its proximity to a major two-mile log jam on the Nooksack River. Pioneer schoolteacher, Alice Eldridge, who was first teacher on the Nooksack, coined the term, "Ferndale," in letters to her father describing the fern-lush surroundings in which the schoolhouse was situated. Fortunately for future residents, the new name stuck. Alice Eldridge's dale of ferns officially became Ferndale in 1876. Ferndale was once home to a company which sold UFO alarms, reputed to be devices for detecting Unidentified Flying Objects. According to the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce, the company went out of business. Whether they ever found any UFOs remains a mystery. The Lummi Indians called Ferndale "Te-tas-um," meaning "the crossing place above Lummi." Interestingly, pioneer settlers called Ferndale "lower crossing," to distinguish it from what was then the Nooksack River's main crossing, at present-day Everson. The first pioneer family to settle in Ferndale was made up of a Texan, named Billy Clark, his wife, Cecilia Chanique, who was Native American, their two daughters, and a stepson. They built a cabin near the Nooksack River in 1873, and lived there for more than a decade. The Clarks, however, were not the first legal owners of any property in Ferndale. A man named Darius Rogers was. Unfortunately, Billy Clark had given up his American citizenship to work at for the Hudson Bay Company in Fort Langley, Canada. That made him an English citizen, and unable to claim title to the property he'd homesteaded. So Billy's old friend, Daruis, filed claim to the 174 acres. History says that eventually Billy Clark left and built a new homestead at East Sound on Orcas Island. There once was a plan for a steam boat run between Ferndale and Seattle. The endeavor was the brainchild of Billy Clark's old friend, Darius Rogers. Unfortunately for Darius, the venture failed, causing him to lose all of his land holdings in Ferndale. For a while Ferndale was two competing towns, East Ferndale and West Ferndale. After Darius Rogers lost his Ferndale land holdings, he took the Ferndale post office (which was in a cedar log building he had built) and moved it across the river to the west side of the Nooksack. He set up a new West Ferndale post office and convinced East Ferndale merchants to move their establishments to the west side. This set off a struggle for supremacy between the two towns which East Ferndale eventually won. Geographic designations were dropped, and the town's official name became simply Ferndale. Back in 1882 in Whatcom County, Ferndale was big (for 1882!) The town boasted two stores, a hotel, two saloons and a post office. No wonder it vied with Fairhaven (now a part of Bellingham) for county seat.

Click on the website links below to learn more about Ferndale and Whatcom County:

http://whatcom.kulshan.com/Washington/Whatcom_County/Ferndale/default.htm

http://ci.ferndale.wa.us

http://ferndale.net

http://ferndalewashington.com