File:Cabin belonging to William Thompson, near Mount Baker, August 14, 1894 (WAITE 73).jpeg

English: Notes in inventory: Wm. Thompson's Ranch. Wm. Thompson's cabin and surroundings, 10 miles north of Mount Baker, 28 miles east of Sumas .

A 10,778-foot peak twenty-seven miles east of Bellingham at the headwaters of the Nooksack and Baker rivers in central Whatcom County is named Mount Baker. The mountain supports a dozen glaciers and forty-four square miles of ice fields. The name was chosen by Capt. George Vancouver on April 30, 1792 for one of his officers who discovered the peak, 3rd Lieut. Joseph Baker. A number of other names have been used by Indians and explorers. Nooksack Indians called it Kollia-Kulshan meaning "White, shining, steep mountain." Clallam Indians used the name " P-kowitz", meaning "White mountain." In 1790, Manuel Quimper charted it as Gran Montana Carmelita for a resemblance to the white robes of Carmelite monks. Other names were Ko-ma-el, used by Skagit Indians, White Friar, Great White Watcher, and the suggested names of Presidents James K. Polk and John Tyler.

Sumas is a town on the British Columbia border twenty-three miles northeast of Bellingham in north central Whatcom County. Once a boom town in the Fraser River gold rush, it is now the location of a U.S. Customs and Immigration Service station. Like many other pioneer towns, it once attached City to its name.

William Thompson was born in Scotland in 1859. In the 1900 U.S. Census, he was living in the Kendall Precinct of Whatcom County with his wife Christina, son Arthur, and daughter Ruth. His occupation was listed as farmer .

PH Coll 291.152

• Subjects (LCTGM): Cabins--Washington (State); Fences--Washington (State)
• Subjects (LCSH): Baker, Mount (Wash.); Thompson, William, b. 1859--Homes and haunts--Washington (State)--Whatcom County