‘Bellingham rock' removal along I-5 could begin as soon as Monday

April could mark the end of an era for what's known as Bellingham rock on Interstate 5, a landmark loved with layers of painted messages that have coated the boulder inches thick over decades.

The Washington State Department of Transportation will begin to strip the jawbreaker layers of paint as early as Monday and crack the rock into pieces to make way for a fish passage restoration project.

But this might not yet be goodbye for admirers: a private landowner may give it a new home. Maybe.

Drivers needn't look hard to see the stone, on northbound I-5 just past Lake Samish. The 8-foot, 100-ton Bellingham rock is always wearing spray-painted messages celebrating sports victories, memorializing loved ones, commemorating graduations and birthdays, and more.

It was blasted out of the Chuckanut sandstone when that stretch of I-5 was completed in 1966, The Bellingham Herald reported. According to the Herald, Seattleite Dan McNamara said he and his family were the first to paint the rock in 1969, writing "Sealth ‘70" for his class at Chief Sealth High School.

Several decades and untold layers of paint later, Bellingham rock has found itself in the middle of an active construction site.

WSDOT explored ways to leave the rock be, but it "sits directly within the footprint of work," the agency said. And per WSDOT and Federal Highway Administration rules, the rock can't be put back because it would "encourage unsafe parking or pedestrian access."

Crews began work in 2025 to open nearly three-quarters of a mile of additional habitat for salmon and steelhead in Lake, Friday and Chuckanut creeks, WSDOT said, removing 17 old culverts and replacing them with 10 new structures, and building three new bridges.

Crews are to chip away the likely lead-based paint and other environmentally hazardous materials and dissolve the remaining layers with chemicals, WSDOT said. The rock will then be broken into transportable pieces after it's drilled with holes and cracked with expanding grout.

All lanes of northbound I-5 just reopened on Wednesday after a massive landslide slumped over the roadway. But during this project, north and southbound I-5 traffic will shift to temporary two-lane bypass roads in late spring and summer, WSDOT said. The right lane of northbound I-5 will close periodically west of the North Lake Samish exit while the rock is being moved, too.

Bellinghamsters showed they aren't afraid to take on WSDOT last May, defiantly placing stuffed sloths around the city after the agency took down two giant stuffed sloths from trees near the Bellingham rock on I-5.

They've even petitioned to save the rock. But they won't win this fight.

But that won't be the end. An owner of an unidentified private property in Bellingham expressed interest in rehoming the rock after other public agencies would not, WSDOT said. If the owner still accepts the rock after seeing its postremoval condition, they will put it in a publicly accessible spot.

If the private property owner doesn't take the Frankensteined rock, WSDOT said a limited number of pieces will be given to interested members of the public.

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This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 4:53 PM.