Teddy Bear Cove is a cozy beach on the rocky shore beneath Chuckanut Drive, where locals go for a night swim with the dazzling bioluminescent creatures or to hammock on the cliffside. Older locals might remember when it was the spot to sport a birthday suit.
With no cuddly teddy bears present at the beach, the reason for the name is a bit of a quandary and might be lost to history (or erosion?). Rumor has it, a rock formation on the beach looks like a teddy bear. (If you find it, please, let us know.)
Whatcom Historian Jeff Jewell could not draw a source for the origin of the name.
“The earliest use of the name that I’ve found is in the [Bellingham] Herald from 1961, when a 19-year-old crashed his car at the Fairhaven rose garden after drinking beer at a party at Teddy Bear Cove,” Jewell said in an email.
He said the beach has also sported the name “Brickyard Beach” due to an excess of bricks left behind by the Coast Clay Company — a brick factory that operated on and off in the 1910s and 1920s.
The park is managed by Whatcom County Parks and Recreation.
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Hailey Hoffman is a CDN visual journalist; reach her at haileyhoffman@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 103.
