BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Work is underway to remove the beloved Bellingham Rock – the landmark people have painted and used as a message board for decades along I-5.
“I was always curious what people were painting on the rock,” said Keith Cook, who organized the Bellingham Rock Facebook page.
Cook started the page nearly 20 years ago – showing the messages people have painted in good times and bad.
“Each story is pretty near and dear to whoever’s taking the energy to go paint it,” said Cook.
But WSDOT says the rock must go because of the Chuckanut Creek Project to replace culverts, allowing fish to freely move upstream.
“The rock would be in the way of part of the structure that we have to build and also we’re building a bypass road so we can keep two lanes of northbound I-5 open while we’re installing that structure,” said WSDOT spokesperson David Rasbach.
WSDOT plans to remove any soil contaminated by paint and break the rock into several pieces before hauling it off.
Bellingham resident Frank Youngblood says he’s made a deal with WSDOT to move the rock to his property near Western Washington University and put it on public display.
“We’re hoping we can put together a package where they deliver all four or five pieces to this new site and we kind of glue it back together,” said Youngblood.
Youngblood has the right to refuse the deal and if that happens…
“We’ll plan for a limited opportunity for people to come out and get pieces of the rock and we’ll announce details about that if we need to go that route,” said Rasbach. “We understand the importance of the rock.”
The entire process of removing the rock will likely be completed sometime in May.
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