Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad
[3] The company was capitalized for $10,000,000, with its aim to build a line from Bellingham (then known as Sehome) to Burrard Inlet now located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a distance of about 56 miles.
After reaching Whatcom Creek, it headed towards Sumas, Washington, to a connection, also being slowly built in Canada.
Baker highway then crossed the Northern Pacific Railway tracks, through the town of Deming, Washington and ended near the township of Welcome.
The Milwaukee Road pulled out of the Pacific Northwest at the end of 1980 and sold the line to the Burlington Northern.
The Sumas side of the Lynden Branch serves a feed mill, lumber and garbage reloads, and a shingle factory.
On the Lynden side of the line, the BN served a local feed dealer, a cold storage, and a Darigold factory.
The Burlington Northern merged with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway in 1996 making the newly formed BNSF the new owners of the Mine Lead and Lynden Branch.
The Bellingham International Railroad was filed for abandonment in 2009 with crossings at Meridian Street and Birchwood Avenue being removed in 2010.
The operations ran until the end of 2011 when the city of Bellingham purchased the track in order to turn it into a part of the "Bay-to-Baker" rail trail.
Baker Products receives rail service on an as needed basis with boxcars being pushed up to the switch for the mill's industrial lead.
BNSF has not operated any locomotives beyond the lead's switch since the Bellingham International washed out due to poor track conditions.
At the start of the 21st Century, Darigold, Martin's Feed and AmeriCold were the three remaining industries beyond Sumas, all in Lynden.
The last train to Lynden was on September 10, 2019 when the final reefer was picked up from AmeriCold with the line beyond Sumas becoming dormant not too long after.
The BNSF stored autoracks and centerbeams on the line between Hampton and Lynden that couldn't be used due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baker Products, the railroad crossing at Roeder Avenue is still intact with the rails going through the road and a crossbuck still standing guard.
Most of the old Bellingham International is still in place up to just past the Northwest Avenue overpass including the washout that supposedly caused the BNSF to abandon the track.
The track remains intact beyond the trailhead including a trestle that carried the line over Squalicum Creek.
Traces of the feed store's old industrial lead can still be made out even though the track was torn out long ago.
The foot of industrial lead to the Orchard Street Bellingham Cold Storage still exists, but the switchstand was recently removed.
In Sumas, the former mainline into Canada is still in use as the industrial lead for the Pacific Rim Reload with the line cutting off after a trestle near Kneuman Road.
Several trestles that carried the line over Saar Creek are still in place with several being restored for usage as part of the trails of a Christian retreat.
