BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Bellingham’s Graffiti Rock has to roll, but where it will land, no one knows.

A project to improve a fish passage through Chuckanut Creek will displace the iconic rock that for decades has greeted northbound I-5 traffic near the North Lake Samish exit.

People have celebrated graduations and birthdays, sent get-well messages, even memorialized loved ones on the rock since it was first tagged in 1969.

Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Cultural Resources Specialist and Archaeologist Jason Cooper says the department has determined it is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

But a complication in its preservation is that the rock is coated with layers upon layers of paint, some of which is toxic.

A new site for the rock also has to be found away from the freeway for safety reasons.

WSDOT has reached out to Bellingham, WTA, local tribes and other interested parties including the founders of a Facebook page devoted to the rock.

There is time as the fish passage project won’t get under way until 2026 at the earliest, and Cooper says they’ll begin to convene meetings on the rock’s future after the first of the year.