San Juan Island National Historical Park, also known as American and English Camps, San Juan Island, is a US National Historical Park owned and operated by the National Park Service on San Juan Island in the state of Washington. The park is made up of the sites of the British and U.S. Army camps during the Pig War, a boundary dispute over the ownership of the island. The camp sites were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961,

Original settlement

San Juan Island is located in the Salish Sea and is the westernmost of the main San Juan Islands. This island group is separated from Vancouver Island in British Columbia by the Haro Strait, and from the Washington mainland by the Rosario Strait.

The islands were first settled roughly 11,000 years ago when the continental ice shelf began to recede at the end of the Last Glacial Period. These original inhabitants were ancestors of six central Coast Salish tribes. Archeological evidence suggests hunting and gathering on the islands between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago, and shell middens found in both English and American Camp areas indicate there were thriving villages before the arrival of Europeans.

Exploration by Europeans brought smallpox to the area by the 1770s, devastating the local population. Both sides pursued their territorial claims, with Americans homesteading on San Juan Island, and the British Hudson's Bay Company establishing a farm on the southern tip of the island. In 1859, an American killed a stray British-owned pig, sparking the international dispute known as the Pig War. The American homesteaders requested military protection, resulting in the establishment of the American camp, while the British sent Royal Navy ships. Cooler heads prevailed, and an agreement was reached whereby both sides would maintain camps on the island until the dispute could be resolved through diplomacy. From 1860 to 1872, British Royal Marines occupied a camp on the northwestern part of the island. The American garrison included Henry Martyn Robert, author of Robert's Rules of Order.

The period of military occupation was peaceful; a road was built between the two camps, and Americans in the village of San Juan engaged in commerce with both encampments. As part of the 1871 Treaty of Washington, the two countries agreed that the matter of the islands would be arbitrated by the German Kaiser Wilhelm I. The following year he declared the boundary to be the Haro Strait, thus awarding the islands to the United States. American Camp has three mapped hiking trails, including one to the summit of Mount Finlayson. English Camp includes the Bell Point Trail, Young Hill Trail and Mitchell Hill Trail Network. American Camp includes South Beach on the Strait of Juan De Fuca, with views of the Olympic Mountains, and 4 July Beach on Griffin Bay.

Wildlife

The American Camp prairie is home to the world's only viable population of the island marble butterfly (Euchloe ausonides insulana). The butterfly was thought to be extinct for 90 years before being rediscovered in 1998, and was listed as endangered in 2020. Bird species commonly spotted at American Camp include bald eagle, Harrier (bird), Harlequin duck, American goldfinch, Great horned owl and Osprey. Foxes are commonly spotted, especially on the American Camp prairie, where they prey on rabbits. Orcas and humpback and gray whales can be spotted on occasion from both parks.

References

  • National Park Service's San Juan Island National Historical Park website
  • General Land Office Record of the Week highlighting San Juan Island National Historical Park