The “ Bellingham rock ” is dead. Time of death: Wednesday, May 6, 2026, afternoon. It’s no Frankenstein’s monster that can be reanimated from disparate pieces, not after Washington State Department of Transportation crews busted the painted landmark along Interstate 5 into dozens of chunks. Frank Youngblood, a private landowner, visited the behemoth boulder with WSDOT personnel and reluctant “voice of the rock” Keith Cook, to see if the pieces could be reassembled on Youngblood’s property so Bellinghamsters could continue their decades-old tradition of painting messages on its surface.  WSDOT said it needed to remove what’s known as the Bellingham rock, which sits on northbound I-5 just past Lake Samish, to make way for a fish passage restoration project. The agency said it couldn’t leave the rock or return it to its place , so Cook found a landowner who might be able to take it.  Cook, 58, has run a Facebook page dedicated to the Bellingham rock for about 20 years, memorializing its messages .…