San Juan Island

A few weeks ago, (as in before it started raining), we headed up the San Juan Island with some good friends of ours for the weekend. E is super pregnant at this point, so we weren't exactly doing insane hikes, but we had a beautiful campground and checked out some of the interesting historical sites up there.

San Juan Island has two National Historic Sites, American Camp and English Camp (http://www.nps.gov/sajh/index.htm). They were both established in 1859 as a result of the death of a pig. Because of confusion over the wording of the Treaty of Oregon, there was some dispute as to whether the Americans or the British were the rightful owners of the San Juan Island. As such, there were both American farmers and British members of the Hudson's Bay Company living and working on the island. The problems came about when an American farmer shot and killed a HBC pig. The British threatened to have him arrested and have all the American farmers evicted from the island as trespassers. The Americans sought and gained the protection of American armed forces, which prompted the British to send their own military force to the island. Both sides ended up establishing camps on the island, though no battles were ever fought, and both garrisons left the island some 20 years later.

On our trip up to the island, we visited both the American camp and the English camp. The Americans were situated on high grassy hills overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca to the south of the island, and the British were in a well protected "harbor" tucked into the north of the island. It definitely seemed like the British had the better end of the deal, but both sites were beautiful to visit on a late summer weekend.

American Camp

English Camp