HOW WICKERSHAM GOT IT'S NAME

Years ago, in the early 80's, two boys, Noah and Will WICKERSHAM, living in Kansas, got the western fever. They started out, as so many of the young people did in those days, to find a home in the as yet unsettled regions of the West Coast. After some months of travel they reached the town of Whatcom (now Bellingham). Noah had the longing for a ranch and not content with conditions as he found them in the town of Whatcom and he, like Noah of old, decided to build a craft and launch it upon the waters. Instead of an ark, he and a companion named RATHVUN built a raft and launched it upon Lake Whatcom, near what is now Geneva. They drifted or propelled their craft by help of a small sail until they reached the extreme southern end of the lake near what is now a small settlement called Park. They forged ahead going farther inland until they reached the point where the North Fork valley and the Samish valley meet. Here the land forms a three-way water shed between the head waters of the South Fork of the Nooksack, the Samish river and a little stream flowing into Mirror Lake, thence to Lake Whatcom. Here Noah staked a claim and built a cabin. He was later joined by his brother Will.

Other settlers soon followed them in and took up claims. In the year 1892-93 the Northern Pacific railway came through and built a depot there. The WICKERSHAM brothers each gave 40 acres to the railroad company for a townsite. The railroad company turned it over to the Virginia Townsite Co. who laid it off in lots and blocks, and named the settlement Wickersham.

The valley is a dairy section. A large number of men who now live here are railroad men and loggers in the lumber industry.