- Blaine (Whatcom County) is located in extreme Northwestern Washington; the northern edge of its city limit is the Canadian border. The area was originally inhabited by a band of Native Americans known as the Semiahmoo. Caucasian settlers first arrived in 1858 during the Fraser River Gold Rush, when not one, but two communities named Semiahmoo were briefly established. Permanent settlement came in 1870, and eventually the two Semiahmoos became one Blaine. In the early twentieth century, Blaine was known for its canneries, including one of the largest in the country, the Alaska Packers Association, located on Semiahmoo Spit. Today (2009) the four-star Semiahmoo Resort sits on the spit, and on the northern outskirts of Blaine the Peace Arch and Peace Arch Park provide a unique and attractive gateway for those entering or leaving the United States. In 2008, the U.S. Census estimated Blaine’s population at 4,975.
- Muliphein (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
MULIPHEIN (Gamma Canis Majoris). The names Wezen and Hadar (in Arabic form) were once applied to a pair of stars. Though there are candidates, no one knows which pair. The uncertainty was in older times expressed as an Arabic word that in part referred to a pair of things that caused contention. The word itself was then taken as the pair, much mangled to Muliphein (sometimes seen as Muliphen), and then for no good reason given to the little star that Bayer later tagged as Gamma of Canis Major (while Wezen was given to our modern Delta, and Hadar to modern Beta Centauri).