The road to Artist Point (the final section of SR 542) and Highway 20 (starting at Ross Dam Trailhead) are both closed for the season.

Good Time Girls Walking Tour in Bellingham

If 2020 has you wishing you could step back in time, then grab your mask and head to downtown Bellingham for some Belling-history with the Good Time Girls.

The Good Time Girls began bringing guided historical walking tours to Bellingham in 2011. Dressed in period costume based on “scandalous” postcards from the 1890s and 1900s, the Good Time Girls deliver their tours with a touch of sass and humor. It’s certainly nothing like history class!



The Good Time Girls original tour offering was the “Sin and Gin” tour, regaling tourists and locals alike with stories from the brothels and saloons of days gone by.

My teens and I took the tour on a warm fall evening with tour guide Kolby LaBree sharing tales of sin and gin from Bellingham’s early days before four small towns incorporated in the city we know today. Like many western frontier towns, Bellingham’s population grew as men came north for the Alaska Gold Rush.

Some went north and came back, some never made it out of Bellingham; the result was a lot of men away from their homes, families and churches. So perhaps it’s not surprising brothels and saloons became big business for these little boom towns. 



As we wound our way around downtown, LaBree pointed out some of the many locations these businesses called home over the years, along with sharing the stories of the well-meaning citizens who sought to put an end to the sin and gin. We learned where Bellingham’s “red light district” was located and what those red lights signified. (I won’t give it away here; take the tour to find out!)


        We acknowledge that Whatcom County is located on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples. They cared for the lands that included what we’d call the Puget Sound region, Vancouver Island and British Columbia since time immemorial. This gives us the great obligation and opportunity to learn how to care for our surrounding areas and all the natural and human resources we require to live. We express our deepest respect and gratitude for our indigenous neighbors, the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe, for their enduring care and protection of our shared lands and waterways.
Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism
Visitor Center Located at I-5 Exit 253 - Check Hours
904 Potter Street, Bellingham, WA 98229
Phone: 360-671-3990
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