On a lonely island off the coast of North America, one man shot another man’s pig for eating his potatoes. The legal question of who had the right to arrest him nearly upset the fragile peace between two nations.
Featured image: A pig (Image source)
A map of the San Juan Islands and the border as it exists today, running through the Haro Straight, thanks to Kaiser Wilhelm. I’ve mapped a walking path between the English and American camps to you can see how small the island actually is and how easy it would be to travel between the two camps. (Image source)
A map of the area produced by George Vancouver’s lieutenant in 1798. As you can see in comparison with the more accurate map above, Vancouver’s cartography could be a bit loose. (Image source)
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The Belle Vue Sheep Farm, managed by Charles Griffin. (Image source)
The Commandant’s residence at the English camp. Captain Delacombe and his family are hanging out on the porch. (Image source)
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The English camp on San Juan island today. Yes, they did plant a miniature English garden there. (Image source)
A watercolor of the American camp produced in 1859. (Image source)
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A photograph of the American camp today. (Image source)
British troops evacuating the island in 1872. (Image source)
A sign that stands at the English camp today. (Image source)
A modern kids’ book about the Pig War, available on Amazon.
People involved
Sir Geoffrey Thomas Phipps Hornby, pictured much later in life after his promotion to Admiral. (Image source)
Robert Lambert Baynes, pictured here when he was a Rear Admiral. (Image source)
William S. Harney. This picture was taken a few years after the Pig War incident. (Image source)
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A cartoon of a real incident in which George Vancouver got a beatdown from a cousin of the Prime Minister in 1796. This is only tangentially related to Vancouver’s voyage in the Pacific Northwest (it concerns a dispute with Thomas Pitt, who was part of the expedition and behaved atrociously during his time on Vancouver’s ship, but had very powerful family members who smeared Vancouver’s name in the press) but I just had to include it in the show notes. (Image source)
Sources
- OUTPOST OF EMPIRE: THE ROYAL MARINES AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION OF SAN JUAN ISLAND
- The Geology of the San Juan Islands
- Langsdorff’s Narrative of the Rezanov Voyage
- Rights of Conquest, Discovery and Occupation, and the Freedom of the Seas: a Genealogy of Natural Resource Injustice
- From Ruling People to Owning Land: Russian Concepts of Imperial Possession in the North Pacific, 18th and early 19th Centuries
- The Pacific Northwest
- San Juan Islands
- Inter Caetera: Division of the undiscovered world between Spain and Portugal
- Nootka Sound controversy
- Hudson’s Bay Company
- The “Doctrine of Discovery” and Terra Nullius: A Catholic Response
- The Oregon Territory, 1846
- Westward expansion
- Province of Canada
- Oregon Question
- English Camp
- Basic Facts About the Oregon Trail
- Donation Land Claim Act
- What’s The Cost To Buy A Pig? (with examples and prices)
- Past Tense Oregon: The Pig War, one of history’s stranger conflicts, started June 15, 1859
- The Pig War
- Harney Re-Examined: The Early Years of General William Harney
- Harney Re-Examined Part III: Harney and the Pig War
- BAYNES, Sir ROBERT LAMBERT
- Lambert Baynes
- San Juan Island Chamber of Commerce
- Internationale orchestral arrangement