Town in transition: Residents happy to call Marietta home
(cont'd) “The bathtub,” as some residents call the two-block community, sits on the bank of the Nooksack River, on the edge of the Lummi Indian Reservation. Floods threaten the area every fall because of its low-lying location in a flood plain.
“I was actually the guy who was on the local news station in a little boat rowing down the street,” White says, referring to a flood in 2005. “I’ve been here long enough not to even really think about it anymore. It’s just something that happens. It’s the cost of living in paradise.”
A homemade 25-mph sign and numerous neighborhood dogs welcome drivers to the community lined with rundown mobile homes, deserted houses and remodeled buildings. A faded “Baker’s Market” sign is all that remains in the vacant lot that used to have a convenience store, post office and gas pump.
Approximately 40 residents live in this unincorporated area of Whatcom County on the edge of Bellingham Bay. Land values barely reach $3,000, and dip as low as $600, in the area. Marietta residents contend with the physical battles of flooding and the social issues of a town transitioning from decades of drug activity, flood debris and poverty to the quintessential small-town America.
Resident Paul Ridley, 66, said a close-knit atmosphere has developed throughout the years of cleaning up the town.
“If somebody yells here, the whole town shows up,” Ridley said. “This is a good place. We share everything — food, clothes. If someone has a down tree, they’ll call one of our guys who cuts wood to come help them.”
Helping to restore small-town life in Marietta
White says the small-town feeling of Marietta that has replaced its troubled reputation is what keeps him and his family here.
“There aren’t many people who are outside the sphere of Marietta that really want to come here because its had such a bad reputation,” White says. “It’s just that everybody helps each other and we do everything we can for neighbors. Besides that, where else would a lower class working family be able to afford a house?”
When the Whites read an article in The Bellingham Herald that stated that the county was going to buy out the area in 2005, Ken White contemplated his family’s uncertain future.
“The only two options I’ve come up with is buying a trailer and living in a mobile court somewhere,” Ken White says, “or moving out of Whatcom County because the land here is just too expensive.” —>
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