Larrabee State Park on Samish Bay, south of Bellingham on the west side of Chuckanut Mountain, became Washington’s first state park in 1915 after Governor Ernest Lister proposed a park along Chuckanut Drive and Charles and Frances Larrabee helped provide the land. Renamed from Chuckanut State Park in 1923, it struggled during the Depression but revived in the mid-1930s through new management, community backing, federal improvements, and major land additions from the Larrabee family and neighbors. The park remains important as the origin of Washington’s state park system and as a gateway to shoreline recreation, trails, lakes, and mountain scenery in the Chuckanut area.