The Podcast: Halloween Special (2020 Re-release)
The Podcast: Halloween Special
It’s a re-release of our 2020 BAD TOWN Halloween special…
Summary
This one features some spooky seasonal favorites from our Fairhaven Gore and Lore Tours! We discuss why Fairhaven is called Bellingham’s “Haunted Hot-Spot” - hint, maybe it’s the disturbed burial grounds known as Dead Man’s Point? Also we’ll pop into Sycamore Square and discuss the famous Green Lady Ghost and listen to some Electronic Voice Phenomenon recordings believed to be from the spirit realm.
PLUS we’ve got some new ephemera related to this episode below….
We are taking a break to focus on some research and development for the next season, meanwhile we are going to offer up for your listening enjoyment, re-released episodes from the City of Subdued Podcast Season 2 - BAD TOWN - featuring yours truly.
Some of you will have heard these before and if so feel free to revisit or not. For those who haven’t these were recorded back in 2020 during peak pandemic. We were the guest hosts of Annika and Maria on the City of Subdued Podcast, along with Marissa McGrath, founder of the Good Time Girls Tours. We discussed a lot of Bad Bellinghistory - some of our darkest tales, lots of true crime.
Please do give us a shout and tell us what you’d like to hear from us meanwhile. Keep following us on social media and the rest as we have some fun events both in person and virtual planned for the dark months ahead.
We would love to hear from local businesses looking to advertise. We love to support local businesses and we also love support for our labors of love! Win win!
Meanwhile, enjoy this little trip down the recent memory hole.
Listen
Or listen to the episode at …
Ephemera
Photograph taken from the top of the hill known as “Dead Man’s Point” looking up Harris Avenue in Fairhaven. Darius Kinsey photograph.
This photograph was taken looking up from a similar vantage point, achievable only with a drone today, since the hill is no longer there. Photo by Judd Greenwood.
With photo showing side-view of Dead Man’s Point, which covered the area the park sits on today.
Side view of the area formerly the site of Dead Man’s Point. The hill was removed and the area flattened and filled in for industrial purposes.
Marine Park at the foot of Harris Avenue, the former site of “Dead Man’s Point”
At the foot of Harris Avenue. This area was formerly a hill called “Dead Man’s Point.” Now “Commercial Point" and no longer a hill.
Beginning in the 1890s Dead Man’s Hill was gradually removed over the next several decades.
Bodies Found at Dead Man’s Point.
Headline from 1912 discussing the progress on the removal of the hill.
Deadman’s Point now nothing but a memory… This article indicates indigenous remains had also been found at the site.
Historic marker on Interurban Trail near the location where a Spanish chalice was supposedly dug up in a man’s garden.
Named for one of the investors, Tacoma capitalist Allen C Mason. Today called “Sycamore Square.”
Gordon Tweit photo of the Mason building prior to renovation.
The Mason Building as it appears today at 12th and Harris in Fairhaven.
This interesting art depiction of the Blakelys has been removed from the entryway.
The interior lends to feelings of vertigo, due to the design and the slightly slanted floors!
Cause of death = “Disease of the Brain”
In this episode we get into the history of the professional beauty industry in Bellingham, Washington, focusing on hair, mostly… and also mostly women’s hair. We take a look at who was doing hair for a living, and how they were doing it, why they were doing it, and how the profession evolved from the wild west days through the progressive era. We have combed the archives for hair-raising stories to share with you from the bygone days of beauty culture here on Bellingham Bay.
In this episode we explore the history of Bellingham’s beloved Terminal Building, also known as Tony’s Coffee Shop for many years. The oldest building in the Fairhaven Historic District suffered a tragic fire in December of 2023 that included a loss of life. We take a look at the 130+ years of the history of the building including the saloon years, the Busy Corner store, and beloved coffee shop.
In this episode we discuss the story of Ursula Unfug, a sex worker who spent time in brothels around the PNW during the 1890s. Ursula gained notoriety in the 1892 shooting of Thomas Henderson Boyd, editor of the Morning Olympian newspaper and her “secret husband.”
In this episode we discuss the history of tattoos and tattooing in Bellingham and beyond. Find out what the newspapers were reporting about tattoos, who was getting them, who was giving them and who was getting arrested for showing them off!
In this episode we explore the history of taxidermy in Bellingham, tracing the legacy of various practitioners thereof from "curio collectors" to the founders of our modern museum. Content warning for dead critters y'all.
It’s the first real episode of season 2! Bellinghamsters and other Tails - Animal Stories with the Good Time Girls! Oooorrrr… “firefighters are a brave, unruly and maybe a little bit bored, bunch.” We pulled out some of our favorite furry history for this one with wild tales of beloved Bellinghaminals, from hamsters to ant bears.
In this week’s FINAL re-release episode we get into the “vintage” era of the 1970s and 1980s and Bellingham’s dive-y waterfront scene with a discussion of our legendary “Serial Killer Bar” as well as a crazy unsolved mystery of a body found in the former Georgia Pacific mill complex.
In this episode, we introduce the story of the Maple Falls Murder Farm! We discuss the creepy murderer who local papers blamed for the death of Frederick Dames (see previous episode: Bad Butchered Town) … and while this creepy murderer was perhaps Whatcom County’s first serial killer… did he really butcher the butcher? You be the judge!
In this week’s episode, we revisit one of our favorite Bellingham true-crime stories, the murder of a local butcher, Frederick Dames, in 1905. Though declared “solved” a few years later, doubts remain as to whether the supposed perpetrator was actually responsible for this particular crime.
In this episode we discuss the history of the Ku Klux Klan, aka the KKK, here in Bellingham, Whatcom County and the PNW. This episode is a re-release from the 2020 season of “Bad Town” on the City of Subdued Podcast, hosted by Annika Fleming, Maria Dalla Gasperina and yours truly along with Good Time Girls founder Marissa McGrath. Listen with care.
In this episode we get into prohibition era Bad-Town, complete with rum running, bootlegging and speak-easies (aka Blind Pigs). AND a story straight from the LaBree family vaults.
In this week’s episode we discuss the case of Lorena Upper, a so-called "lady barber" accused of violating the “red light statute” here in Bellingham, Washington in 1922 and what it meant to work as a woman in a traditionally male occupation at the time.
This week’s episode we feature stories of women who ran afoul of the law, as well as the women charged with policing them! Murder plots, madams, police matrons and the “high priestess of anarchy.”
Bad Trial Town, aka “For the Love of Moses” is about a sensational murder that occurred on Forest Street, near the Majestic Hall in Bellingham, Washington. It’s about a man who shot his wife and his son-in-law, who was also his wife’s lover. It’s about fancy-talking lawyers with pink toupees. It’s about an acquittal based on patriarchal biblical law. And lastly, it’s about the flaws in our justice system then and NOW.
“Spider Biles, The Fire Bug” is memorialized on a cement marker in the cobblestone alley next to Skylark’s Café in Fairhaven, now a quaint historic shopping district in Bellingham, Washington. In this episode Kolby and Marissa take a deeper dive into the life of Frank “Spider” Biles, arrested for a string of arsons in Fairhaven in the summer of 1892.
This week’s story is about Bad Bud Cox, original Bad Town Bad Boy. We take a deeper look into the life of “Bud Cox” known locally for robbing a saloon in Fairhaven in the early 1900s, and who spent his life addicted and incarcerated.
In this episode Marissa and Kolby discuss the so-called “Chinese Curse” on the town of Bellingham, and the story behind the urban legend. We’ve included some additional discussion on this one.
This one features some spooky seasonal favorites from our Fairhaven Gore and Lore Tours! We discuss why Fairhaven is called Bellingham’s “Haunted Hot-Spot”
And now, for your listening enjoyment, re-released episodes from the City of Subdued Podcast Season 2 - BAD TOWN Recorded back in 2020 during peak pandemic when we were the guest hosts of Annika and Maria, along with Marissa McGrath, founder of the Good Time Girls. We discussed a lot of Bad Bellinghistory - some of our darkest tales, lots of true crime. Enjoy these throwbacks while we take a break!
In this episode we regale you with the saga of the wreck of the Steamer Buckeye, a little steamship of the Mosquito Fleet, that capsized in Bellingham Bay in 1895 between Eliza Island and today’s Larrabee State park with a small crew and several passengers including Will D. Jenkins, local editor and mayor of the town of Whatcom. This episode features one human casualty, and a number of unfortunate livestock. It’s a buck-wild story!
In this episode we visit the story of the wreck of the barque (or bark or barc) Union of 1875 near Lummi Island. This is also a deep dive (pun intended) into deep dives, that is the history of diving and salvage operations both in general and specific to this wreck…
In this episode we continue our exploration of monsters of the deep. We’ll dish on the sea-monster stars of the 20th century, creepy carcasses and cryptids sighted in and around Bellingham Bay and the waters of the Salish Sea.
In this episode we dive in (pun intended) to the seemingly bottomless pool of sea monster stories. Whether they be myth, lore or just a really big fish, “monsters of the deep” have inspired many a whopper of a tale here in Bellingham and the PNW over the years. Release the Kraken!
In this episode we explore bathing beaches at Squalicum Beach and Fort Bellingham, as part two of a two-part series on historical beach resorts of Bellingham, Washington.
In this episode we visit the White City resort built at Silver Beach on Lake Whatcom in Bellingham in the early 1900s, as part one of a two-part series exploring historical “bathing beaches” of Bellingham, Washington. Join us in exploring the history of beach destinations with amenities - Coney Island Style, and some of the places that Bellinghamsters of yesteryear went to cool their heels.
Since June is Pride month and it has an extra week, we made an extra extra episode. Well it’s extra long that’s for sure! We tried to cram in as much BellingQueerstory as we could into one hour plus a few. This is a big gay overview of queer Bellingham history as we know it.
In Part 2 of “Sanitarium Insanity” our two-part series on sanitariums in Bellingham, Washington, we discuss the “Yoghurt Sanitarium” in Fairhaven, Bellingham's historic south side neighborhood. More wacky electrical devices, dubious doctors and YOGURT, or as they spelled it, “yoghurt.” Buckle up your bacilli, it’s a wild ride!
In part one of our two-part series on sanitariums in Bellingham, we introduce the local branch of the Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium, later known straightforwardly as the “Sanitarium Baths.”
In this episode we discuss the early history of Bellingham’s historic Hotel Leo, aka the Leopold Hotel. From its earliest days as the Byron House through its take-over and expansion under PNW beer baron Leopold Schmidt. And since it’s spooky season, we include stories about some “potential ghosts” that might be wandering the halls…