A detailed account of the building of the first railroads in Washington Territory located in the Pacific Northwest boarded by Canada to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The author spent years collecting newspaper articles of the time and the story is told through the eyes and in the words of those who lived through this period. The focus is on the settlements along the shores of Bellingham Bay. In some ways it is not an easy story to tell. Newspaper accounts of the time were often speculative. In some cases they were used to mislead the public as well as inform them. Rumors abounded; large amounts of money were at stake. Real-estate risk-takers could make and lose fortunes overnight. At the same time editors and reporters of the time tried to second guess just where the railroads would go and what might become the so called "terminus city" for each of the national transcontinental lines building westward, the Northern Pacific, the Canadian Pacific and the Great Northern.