The Telegraph of 1864
By Curt Cunningham

In 1864, Secretary of State William Seward approved a project and appropriated the initial funds to extend the telegraph line from Sam Francisco to New Westminster, BC. That year Perry McDonough Collins and his California State Telegraph Co. joined with the Western Union Telegraph Co. to organize the Western Union Extension Company for the purpose of building the line to Canada. The wires reached Olympia in September of 1864 and over the ensuing months the line was strung northward through Seattle, Mukilteo, Port Gardner, Port Susan, La Conner, Bellingham Bay, Birch Bay and Semiahmoo before crossing the border to New Westminster. The line reached its destination in the spring of 1865 and the first message received in New Westminster was on April 4, 1865.

In 1864 John H. Fravel was hired by the California State Telegraph Co. as the foreman for the construction crew and later served as repairman for the line. In 1870 the telegraph company had Fravel restring the wire where it had been damaged and a new line was built from Bellingham to Sumas which followed the Whatcom gold rush trail of 1858. The old trail would then become Telegraph Road. Daniel "Dirty Dan" Harris of Fairhaven was hired as the packer to bring in supplies for the construction which was completed in 1871.

Fravel

After the line was completed to Sumas in 1871 Fravel traveled south and preempted a 160-acre homestead near the mouth of what was then called McElroy slough, today it is called Colony creek. This is about 12 miles northwest of Mount Vernon a half mile north of Blanchard. Upon arriving in this locality Fravel found the Samish valley a wild and unpopulated district. Not long after he laid out a village near the slough which took his name. The little village of Fravel remained very small while most settlement and development at that time was on Samish island and at Edison which are about 4 miles southwest of Blanchard. The residents of Fravel had to travel to Samish island to get their mail.

The little hamlet was never officially platted and would eventually fade as Blanchard took over.

Blanchard

In 1885 George Blanchard, homesteaded on land about a half mile south of Fravel. He then began logging operations. Blanchard was an ideal place to start a town. The Chuckanut Mountains were heavily forested with prime timber, while the Samish Flats south of Blanchard were extremely fertile for farming. The post office was established on July 20, 1886 and was named Blanchard. George Blanchard became its post master.

In 1891 the Blanchard logging works, which was now owned by William Knight & Co. of Tacoma had in operation a standard gauge railroad 6 miles long, which ran from Samish Bay into a large body of timber near by, which was owned by Russell A. Alger and E. K. Hawley. They were hauling to the water about 90,000 feet of timber per day, which was shipped to different points on the Sound.

By 1891 there was no road or means of communication between Blanchard and Fairhaven the nearest important city. So in the spring of 1891 the Fairhaven Steam Navigation Co. had their steamer the Quickstep make weekly trips from Fairhaven to Blanchard. This opened a new avenue of trade for Fairhaven and provided a means of communication for the residents of Blanchard and vicinity.

On April 17, 1891 the Quickstep made her 3rd trip to Blanchard and intermediate points. The Quickstep carried a cargo of 10 tons consisting mainly of groceries and supplies purchased from the merchants of Fairhaven. There were also 8 passengers aboard the vessel. The experiment by the steamship company had already proven to be a success. The water at Blanchard is shallow and the steamers had to wait for high tide before they could make their landing.

In the summer of 1891 the Blanchard post office was discontinued and all mail for that point was being received at Edison. 

In the 1890's Ravand K. Hawley established the Blanchard Logging Company and it remained in operation until 1900 when Hawley died thus forcing the sale of some of the company's assets. This is when the Blanchard family left town.

By the early 1900's, the population of Blanchard had exceeded 1,000 souls. There were stores, saloons, meat markets, a pool hall, barber shop, Methodist Church, and large boarding houses for the mill workers. 

In 1901, John Fravel moved his family back to Blanchard and he reopened the post office and named it Fravel. In 1903 Fravel build a new family home at Bellingham. John H. Fravel would pass away on March 17, 1905. The town's post office was named Fravel but the Great Northern railroad depot was named Blanchard causing a bit of confusion. The double names would continue for the next 10 years and in 1913 the post office would be renamed Blanchard.

In 1911 the Blanchard Chapel was built as a Methodist country church. The chapel still stands today and is a venue for weddings and receptions.

In 1912 the Stone & Webber Electric Co. completed the interurban trolley line between Mount Vernon and Bellingham. The tracks ran through Blanchard and from there the line was built on a trestle over the tideflats northward for 4.5 miles before climbing up the hill to Fairhaven. The trolley service would be discontinued in 1930.

On October 1, 1917, bids were opened for clearing, grading, bridging and surfacing 1.11 miles of Chuckanut Drive. The contract for the improvement was awarded to J. R. Wood of Seattle, Washington. This project included the construction of an overhead crossing with the Great Northern Railway Company's track and the waterway to the Blanchard Mill, which required a Howe Truss bridge with span of 88 feet 8 inches. This grade separation was on an entirely new location and it diverted all through traffic on the Pacific Highway from the grade crossing in the near vicinity. The Great Northern Railway contributed $2,500.00 toward the cost of this improvement in addition to the right-of-way across the company's property. The work under this contract was completed on September 12, 1918. The final estimate amounted to $40,614.68.

In 1919 the Pacific Highway was continuously paved with concrete from Mount Vernon to Blanchard.

By 1925 the logging activity began to diminish and the town began to fade. Then came a new enterprise, oysters. The Rock Point Oyster Company was establish under the direction of an E. N. Steele, who was a state senator. The oyster business flourished and the operation stayed in the hands of the Steele family until 1991, when it was sold to Taylor United, Inc. of Shelton, Washington.

In 1931 the Pacific Highway was routed over the Old Samish Road and Chuckanut Drive became U. S. Highway 99 Alternate. That year Chuckanut Drive was improved with new alignments and a widened roadway. At Blanchard a new concrete trestle over the railroad tracks and Colony creek was built. The bridge is almost 900 feet long and continues to carry traffic over the tracks and creek. The largest span is 66 feet and the roadway is 26 feet wide.

Today Blanchard is a quiet little residential village at the beginning of the famous and scenic Chuckanut Drive..