Larrabee State Park History

Larrabee State Park was Washington’s first state park.

Indigenous Land

The park lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Samish Indian Nation, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Lummi Nation, Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, Nooksack Indian Tribe, and Suquamish Tribe. For thousands of years the lands and waters around today’s Larrabee State Park have supported habitats for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures. Local tribes ceded the land to the US federal government under duress in the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855. After a government survey was completed in 1860, the land was transferred into private ownership by a Coal Land Patent to Peter W Strader on April 23, 1892. It was subsequently purchased by Charles X. Larrabee.

The First State Park

The state park idea gained a foothold when Washington State Governor Ernest Lister sought to “secure, by donation, small tracts of land along State highways” for the “comfort of automobilists and other travelers.” On November 22, 1915, the Washington Board of Park Commissioners met in Governor Lister’s office to accept the donation of 20 acres of land from Charles’ widow, Frances Larrabee, creating Washington’s first state park. The park was originally known as Chuckanut State Park, named for the nearby bay, derived from an Indigenous word purported to mean “long beach far from a narrow entrance,” which accurately describes its situation. The park's name was changed to honor the Larrabee family on February 15, 1923, although Frances insisted that her late husband would not have wanted such recognition.

Charles had been instrumental in the development of Chuckanut Drive, the narrow, winding coastal highway south of Bellingham. In the late 1890s, he began lobbying the state to fund the conversion of a rough logging road that ran along the shores of Bellingham Bay and Samish Bay into a scenic highway. In 1909, the first in a series of legislative appropriations for the route came, and in 1913, the road was designated as part of the Pacific Highway, an early north-south route along the Pacific Coast of the United States. The park was first opened to the public in October 1915, planned to coincide with the dedication of Chuckanut Drive. Unfortunately, the event had to be postponed when a section of the newly completed road was covered by a landslide 15 feet deep. The ceremony was finally held the following spring. The route remains a spectacular approach to Larrabee State Park.

The bedrock traversed by Chuckanut Drive and incorporated into Larrabee State Park (the Chuckanut Formation) is made of many alternating layers of siltstone, sandstone and conglomerate. It formed from sediments carried by rivers from the Rocky Mountains 40 to 50 million years ago and preserves large fossil palm fronds, coal seams and tracks of crocodiles, turtles and extinct rhinoceros-like plant eaters. Later folded into tight ridges and valleys by the forces of plate tectonics, the Chuckanut Formation is now seen in steeply sloping layers along the park’s many miles of hiking and mountain biking trails. Much of the land the trails wind through was added to the park in another donation from the Larrabee family in 1937.

Growing with the State Park Vision

In its early years, the park had limited facilities but quickly grew popular. During the Great Depression, emergency work relief funding from the Public Works Administration was used to construct amenities at the park, including a pair of restrooms still in use in the park’s day-use area. Soon after the park was established, discussions began about constructing an underpass below the railroad tracks to allow safe pedestrian access to the waterfront from Chuckanut Drive. The project was finally completed in 1935. In 1944, a distinctive bandshell designed by architect Earl E. MacCannell was built.

The protection and enjoyment of this landscape has been enhanced through the years with additional acquisitions, including more than 100 acres in 1988 encompassing the sandy shore and sculptured cliffs of Clayton Beach. In 2023, an improved trail and overpass over the BNSF Railway provided a long-awaited safe access to Clayton Beach.

Larrabee State Park’s growth and development has mirrored the broader transformation of state parks in Washington. In the first years, state parks were small roadside stops for motorists. Over time, the vision for state parks has expanded to include broader goals like habitat conservation, historic preservation, and a wide variety of recreational opportunities. Larrabee State Park, too, has evolved to encompass these functions.