Northwest Indian College’s recent acquisition of a Legoe Bay property on Lummi Island will give students and faculty a permanent place for classes, research and community gatherings at the site where the college’s story began more than 50 years ago.
The college announced Monday that the property, adjacent to the original Lummi Indian School of Aquaculture site, will become the Legoe Bay Educational Center. It will include classrooms, meeting spaces, two kitchens, outdoor gathering areas and gardens overlooking the water. The ADA-accessible property will support teaching, retreats, research and community events.
NWIC traces its roots to the Lummi Indian School of Aquaculture, or LISA, founded at Legoe Bay in 1973 to train Tribal members to operate fish and shellfish hatcheries. The program later evolved into Lummi Community College in 1983 and became Northwest Indian College in 1989.
“The acquisition of this property in Legoe Bay, Lummi Island, is one way for Northwest Indian College to honor our past,” NWIC President Lexie Tom said in a statement.
Tom said the site holds lessons in self-determination, tribal leadership, economic development, strategic planning and culturally-rooted programming.
“These lessons will all continue to be taught at Northwest Indian College, in the place where these lessons happened, for generations to come,” she said.
The property became available in August 2025, prompting plans for a permanent educational center next to the historic LISA site. Previous owners Richard and Julia Lowe had cared for the property for eight years.
The center’s boathouse may also support NWIC’s fleet of traditional canoes and teaching vessels, including a new 42-foot shore-landing vessel designed to reach locations without docks.
For NWIC, the acquisition turns a place long visited for field trips and historical connection into a permanent classroom — bringing students back to Legoe Bay, not just to remember the college’s beginnings but to continue building from them.
