In September 2015, the Downtown Bellingham Partnership brought together all the major graphic design studios in their area to donate some of their time and skill ito create a flag that they felt best represented the city of Bellingham. After several months of internal review by the Partnership and a public voting process, a design created by Lariat Creative was chosen as the contest winner for its unique design and representation of different historic, cultural, and geographic aspects of Bellingham.

The two stars on the flag represent the the two coastal Salish tribes: Lummi and Nooksack while the three wavy lines stand for "noisey waters," the translation of "Whatcom" from Chief Whatcom of the Nooksack. When the flag is flown vertically, these wavy lines also become a depiction of Whatcom Falls. The Four green stripes represent the four original towns of Bellingham: Whatcom, Sehome, Bellingham, and Fairhaven. The blue half circle symbolizes Bellingham Bay which unites the four towns.

This post has been edited from it's original version. Thank you very much to Alice and Chet for helping us to correct the errors.