San Juan Island National Historical Park
The Pig War
 San Juan Island in the summer of 1859 was an international tinderbox as military forces of Great Britain and the United States
stood face to face in a confrontation that could at any moment plunge both nations into war. The cause of the crisis between the American
Camp and the English Camp – the death of a pig!
"It would be a shocking event if…two nations should be precipitated into a war respecting the possession of a small island." From the
instructions of Gen. Winfield Scott, September 16, 1859
The "Pig War," as the confrontation on San Juan Island came to be called, had its origin in the Anglo-American dispute over the possession of
a the Oregon Country, that vase expanse of land comprising today’s states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, parts of Montana and Wyoming, and the
Province of British Columbia.
Joint Occupation Treaty
The Joint Occupation Treaty of 1818 had opened the Oregon Country to both British and American settlers, but by 1845 both parties had grown
discontented with this arrangement. The British, determined to resist the tide of American migration sweeping across the Rocky Mountains, argued
that the Americans were trespassing on land guaranteed to Britain by earlier treaties and explorations and through trading activities of the
long-established Hudson Bay Company. Americans considered the British presence an affront to their "manifest destiny to overspread the continent"
and rejected the idea that the land west of the Rockies should remain under foreign influence. Both nations blustered and threatened, but wiser
counsel eventually prevailed and in June 1846 the Oregon question was resolved peacefully.
 Oregon Treaty of 1846
The Oregon Treaty of 1846 gave the United States undisputed possession of the Pacific Northwest south of the 49th parallel, extending the
boundary "to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver’s Island; and thence southerly through the middle of the said
channel, and of Fuca’s straits to the Pacific Ocean." But while the treaty settled the larger boundary question, it created additional problems
because its wording left unclear who owned San Juan Island.
The difficulty arose over that portion of the boundary described as the "middle of the channel" separating British-owned Vancouver Island from
the mainland. Actually, there were two channels: one, Haro Strait, nearest Vancouver Island, and another, Rosario Strait, nearer the mainland.
San Juan Island lay between the two. Britain insisted that the boundary ran through Rosario Strait; the Americans claimed it lay through Haro
Strait. Thus both sides considered San Juan theirs for settlement under the Oregon Treaty.
Hudson Bay Company
As early as 1845 the Hudson Bay Company had posted a notice of possession on San Juan. In 1851 it established a salmon-curing station there
and, two years later, a sheep ranch called Bellevue Farm. About the same time, the territorial legislature of Oregon (which then included today’s
state of Washington) declared San Juan to be within its territorial limits, and in January 1853, Washington Territory having been created, San
Juan was attached to Whatcom, its northernmost county.
By 1859 there were about 25 Americans on San Juan Island. They were settled on redemption claims which they expected the U.S. Government to
recognize as valid but which the British considered illegal. Neither side recognized the authority of the other. Tempers were short and it would
take little to produce a crisis.
American Camp
 That crisis came on June 15, 1859, when an American settler named Lyman Cutlar shot and killed a pig belonging to the Hudson Bay
Company because it was rooting in his garden in the American Camp. When British authorities threatened to arrest Cutlar, American citizens
drew up a petition requesting U.S. military protection. Brig. Gen. William S. Harney, the commander of the Department of Oregon and
anti-British to boot, responded by sending a company of the 9th U.S. Infantry under Capt. George E. Pickett (of later Civil War
fame) to San Juan. Pickett’s 66-man unit landed on July 27 and occupied a commanding spot near the Hudson’s Bay Company wharf, just north of
Bellevue Farm.
James Douglas, governor of the Crown Colony of British Columbia, was angered at the presence of American soldiers on San Juan. He had three
British warships under Capt. Geoffrey Hornby sent to dislodge Pickett but with instructions to avoid an armed clash if possible. Pickett, though
overwhelmingly outnumbered, refused to withdraw.
Throughout the remaining days of July and well into August, the British force in Griffin Bay (then San Juan Harbor) continued to grow. Captain
Hornby, however, wisely refused to take any action against the Americans until the arrival of Rear Adm. Robert L. Baynes, commander of British
naval forces in the Pacific. Baynes, appalled at the situation, advised Douglas that he would not "involve two great nations in a war over a
squabble about a pig."
Meantime, Pickett had been reinforced on August 10 by 64 men under Lt. Col. Silas Casey, who now assumed active command. This meager force was
still no match for the growing concentration of British vessels and men, so Harney ordered in additional reinforcements. By August 31, 461
Americans, protected by an earthen redoubt and 14 cannons, were opposed by five British warships mounting 167 guns and carrying 2,140 troops,
including Royal Marines, artillery-men, sappers, and miners.
 English Camp
When word of the crisis reached Washington, officials there were shocked that the simple action of an irate farmer had grown into an explosive
international incident. Alarmed by the prospects, President James Buchanan sent Gen. Winfield Scott, commanding general of the U.S. Army, to
investigate and try to contain the affair. Through correspondence with Governor Douglas, Scott managed to secure an agreement whereby a token
force from each nation would occupy San Juan until a final settlement could be reached. Harney was officially rebuked and afterwards reassigned
for allowing the situation to get so out of hand. Casey’s soldiers were withdrawn and replaced by others under a different officer. On March 21,
1860, British Royal Marines landed on the island’s northwest coast and established on Garrison bay what is now known as "English Camp."
San Juan Island remained under joint military occupation for the next 12 years waiting for settlement of issues raised by the Joint Occupation
Treaty and the Oregon Treaty of 1846. In 1871, when Great Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Washington, the San Juan question
was referred to Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany for settlement. On October 21, 1872, the emperor ruled in favor of the United States, establishing
the boundary line through Haro Strait. Thus San Juan became an American possession and the final boundary between Canada and the United States
was set. On November 25, 1872, the Royal Marines withdrew from English Camp. By July 1874 the last of the U.S. troops had left American Camp.
Peace finally come to the 49th parallel, and San Juan Island would be long remembered for a military confrontation in which the only
casualty was a pig.
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