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Old newspapers, pinned to the places they wrote about — the streets you can still walk today.
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A minor dispute over a pig on San Juan Island spiraled into an international standoff between the United States and Great Britain in 1859.
“This was United States territory, no laws, other than those of the United States, nor courts, except such as are held by virtue of said laws, will be recognized or allowed on this island.”
Before Seattle became a metropolis, Puget Sound was a wild frontier of rugged homesteaders, vigilante justice, and international border disputes sparked by a single, ill-fated swine.
“Who knows how nearly that perverse pig came to being enrolled along with Boston’s Revolutionary tea as a part of the world’s historic exhibit of war-breeding relics?”
A dangerous standoff between American officials and Hudson's Bay Company agents threatens to ignite an international incident.
“An attempt was made... by a posse of white-livered tools of Gov. Douglass... to arrest the aforesaid Inspector, but it was soon ascertained that it might cause them a little disaster to make a successful arrest.”
A dangerous confrontation between American custom officials and British authorities at San Juan Island risks international conflict.
“Governor Douglas need apprehend no filibustering maneuvers... he may be 'rubbed out,' without a moment's warning.”
Tensions between American settlers and British authorities on San Juan Island flare in the territorial legislature, sparking a debate over sovereignty and the treatment of American interests.
“We regard the claim of Great Britain to San Juan Island as rapacious as it is unjust.”
By 1891, the San Juan archipelago had been transformed from a series of failed ventures into a million-dollar industrial powerhouse, complete with its own church, school, and company store.
“One thing has certainly been demonstrated by the Roche Harbor works, and that is, that only large works can be made good paying properties.”
A look back at the bizarre diplomatic standoff between the U.S. and Britain on San Juan Island, sparked by a hungry pig in a settler’s garden.
“A foraging pig and stubborn settler got the two countries by the ears in the 'San Juan controversy.'”
Before tourism, local entrepreneurs on San Juan Island sought their fortune in the 'stinking' but profitable trade of extracting oil from thousands of dogfish caught in the sound.
“The dogfish is a long, snaky-looking, shark-like fish, abounding in all Puget Sound waters, but fairly swarm in the San Juan archipelago.”
Before the archipelago was a tourist destination, it was the site of a tense naval standoff between American and British forces over a disputed boundary.
“A war between Great Britain and the United States was not to be brought about by a petty Colonial Governor and a captain in the navy.”
A routine repair job on the family farm turns into a fatal struggle with blood poisoning, highlighting the constant vulnerability of life in 1898.
“The infection received by the nail thrust was evidently of the kind producing malignant oedema which finally develops gangrene.”
A Supreme Court justice warns that the legal limbo surrounding the San Juan islands threatens to turn the territory into a lawless refuge for criminals.
“Was the intention then of the high contracting parties to exclude all laws from San Juan Island and to make it a secure asylum for thieves and murderers? I think not.”
Decades after the 'Pig War' nearly ignited a conflict between the U.S. and Britain, Colonel Granville O. Haller presents a historical accounting of the San Juan Island boundary dispute to the Washington State Historical Society.
“The idea of General Harney bearding the British lion humored our American egotism to a degree that will render a conservative history, however true, very tame.”
When American informality faced British stiff-upper-lip formality in a frontier courtroom, a pair of gaudy kid gloves settled the diplomatic score.
“The English magistrate... appeared in court in faultless attire... his Yankee confrere... appeared in an old suit of rusty gray, a collarless flannel shirt, and his large and horny hands never knew any covering other than a coat of clay.”
From a high-ranking U.S. District Judge in Washington Territory to a forgotten death in a San Francisco boarding house.
“The miserable end of this once brilliant public man, to whom nothing in the United States was impossible thirty years ago.”
In May 1877, a contingent of Victoria militia and the local sheriff executed a peaceful but firm eviction of five families from disputed land, arresting only those who resisted or fraternized with the miners.
A local editor was struck down by a county auditor with a heavy lead weight after a tense meeting in the commissioners' court.
“Auditor Murray, taking exceptions to the remarks, took up a large lead weight and knocked the editor down.”
When a Tacoma newspaper attempted to trash the San Juan Islands as a speculative wasteland, the locals hit back in print—blaming the insult on petty jealousy over their loyalty to Seattle.
“The people have grown so used to going to Seattle for everything, even to having a tooth pulled, that many of them appear to forget that there is any other place.”
A young woman fishing off Friday Harbor defends her boat against a shark, nearly capsizing in the process.
“By persistent efforts in plying her oar on Mr. Shark's head, she succeeded in getting the better of him.”
Local entrepreneurs Morgan and O'Bryant strike it rich with a silver-laced copper vein, promising to transform the rugged island into a major mining hub.
A fireman aboard the revenue cutter 'Grant' dies after a gun mishandled by a shipmate discharges.
“Goebel had the gun cocked, and when he started to raise it, it went off.”
A Friday Harbor editor claims Democrats and Populists will skip their own nominations, then run a fusion slate disguised as a nonpartisan citizens' ticket.
“The wolf will then go before the public in sheep's clothing, claiming their suffrage—posing as the champions of the rights of the 'dear people.'”
A pleasure party explores the lime kilns and historic military sites of the San Juan group, reflecting on the area's transition after the boundary dispute.
“The whole face of a mountain is one solid mass of this valuable material, and the vein runs back for one fourth of a mile.”
An 1888 dispatch captures a fleeting moment when the San Juan Islands were poised to become the Pacific Coast’s premiere summer resort, complete with massive lime kilns and romantic orchards.
“Outside of the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence there is not in the whole of the states so beautiful and romantic a spot.”
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