Dirty Dan Harris

This is a statue of Dan Harris which sits and watches over Fairhaven. (Part of Bellingham Washington) Dan settled in Fairhaven in 1854 and was an optimistic man who made a tremendous contribution to Bellingham Bay's early history. During his first years on the bay, he was a smuggler. This did not really carry a stigma in those days, and he regularly rowed over to Victoria( A two hour trip in a modern 200 hp boat today) -- the region's big city in the 1850s -- to exchange cargoes of vegetables and smoked salmon for dry goods, rice, flour, and lots of alcohol. Business grew, and he eventually graduated from smaller rowboats to larger sailing sloops and later became a leader of Fairhaven. The double-decker bus in the background during non covid times is a courtyard where people stop by for signature fish & chips in the sunshine...