San Juan Island National Historical Park
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San Juan Island National Historical Park, also known as American and English Camps, San Juan Island, is a
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
National Historical Park National Historic Site (NHS) is a designation for an officially recognized area of national historic significance in the United States. An NHS usually contains a single historical feature directly associated with its subject. The National Historic ...
owned and operated by the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
on
San Juan Island San Juan Island is the second-largest and most populous of the San Juan Islands in northwestern Washington (state), Washington, United States. It has a land area of 142.59 km2 (55.053 sq mi) and a population of 6,822 as of the United States ...
in the state of
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
. The park is made up of the sites of the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
and
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
camps during the Pig War, a boundary dispute over the ownership of the island. The camp sites were designated a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1961, and listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1966. The park was created by an act of Congress in 1966 and expanded slightly in 2013.


Original settlement

San Juan Island is located in
Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
, the westernmost of the main islands of the
San Juan Islands The San Juan Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of ...
group. This island group is separated from
Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...
(part of
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
) by the
Haro Strait The Haro Strait is one of the main channels connecting the Strait of Georgia to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, separating Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, Canada from the San Juan Islands of Washington (state), Washington sta ...
, and from the Washington mainland by the
Rosario Strait Rosario Strait is a strait in northern Washington state, separating San Juan County and Skagit and Whatcom Counties. It extends from the Strait of Juan de Fuca about north to the Strait of Georgia. The USGS defines its southern boundary as a ...
. 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 The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coas ...
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. Because of the harsh winter weather off the
Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the centre ...
, it's likely that the American Camp area only hosted seasonal encampments for fishing and food gathering, but the sheltered bay likely made English Camp an ideal site for year-round settlement. An excavation by a team from the University of Washington's
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (Burke Museum) is a natural history museum in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Established in 1899 as the Washington State Museum, it traces its origins to a high school naturalist club fo ...
established extensive evidence of various human uses of the area around English Camp, but was inconclusive as to whether it was a site of year round settlement. Exploration by Europeans brought
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
to the area by the 1770s, devastating the local population. The
Lummi The Lummi ( ; Lummi: ''Xwlemi'' ; also known as Lhaq'temish (), or ''People of the Sea''), governed by the Lummi Nation, are a Native American tribe of the Coast Salish ethnolinguistic group. They are based in the coastal area of the Pacific No ...
Nation, among those Coast Salish tribes whose ancestors inhabited the islands, are engaged in efforts to re-start traditional uses of the English Camp area, including reef net fishing.


Territorial disputes

The Haro and Rosario straits defined the competing territorial claims of the United States and Great Britain after the
Oregon Treaty The Oregon Treaty is a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States that was signed on June 15, 1846, in Washington, D.C. The treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to t ...
of 1846 settled most of the northwestern border. Both sides pursued their territorial claims, with Americans homesteading on San Juan Island, and the British
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...
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 Henry Martyn Robert (May 2, 1837 – May 11, 1923) was an American soldier, engineer, and author. In 1876, Robert published the first edition of his manual of parliamentary procedure, ''Robert's Rules of Order'', which remains today the most com ...
, author of
Robert's Rules of Order ''Robert's Rules of Order'', often simply referred to as ''Robert's Rules'', is a manual of parliamentary procedure by U.S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert. "The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish the work for which ...
. 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. The British withdrew from their camp soon after, and the American camp was reduced in size and scope. The buildings and properties were sold as surplus or abandoned. The British camp was homesteaded in 1876 by William Crook, a farmer and carpenter, whose son built a house in the camp area in the early 20th century. The Crooks donated their property to the state beginning in the 1950s, and the state also acquired land around the American camp beginning in 1951. These properties formed the core of what became this park in 1966.


English Camp

The English Camp site is on Garrison Bay on the island's northwestern shore. Today the Union Jack still flies there, being raised and lowered daily by park rangers, making it one of the very few places without diplomatic status where US government employees regularly hoist the flag of another country. Surviving buildings from the British occupation include a commissary, barracks, blockhouse, and hospital; the latter building was one that was sold and moved from the site, but was later acquired by the park and returned.


American Camp

The American Camp site is on the island's southernmost peninsula, and partially overlaps the original Hudson's Bay Company farm. The park property also includes the original site of San Juan village on the north shore of the peninsula, which was abandoned after the dispute ended and was entirely burned in 1890. The camp site includes three surviving buildings from the American military occupation: two officers' quarters, and the house and working quarters of the camp laundress. File:San Juan Islands Am Camp.JPG, American Camp File:Officer's Quarters SJNHP.jpg, Officer's Quarters


Recreation

The park encompasses 2,146 acres, divided between two sites American Camp on the south end of San Juan Island and English Camp on northwest side of the island. Entry to both areas is free, and both include visitor centers. 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. Both English and American Camps have kayak launches.


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 The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...
,
Harrier (bird) A harrier is any of the several species of diurnal hawks sometimes placed in the subfamily Circinae of the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Harriers characteristically hunt by flying low over open ground, feeding on small mammals, reptiles, or ...
,
Harlequin duck The harlequin duck (''Histrionicus histrionicus'') is a small sea duck. It takes its name from Harlequin (French ''Arlequin'', Italian ''Arlecchino''), a colourfully dressed character in Commedia dell'arte. The species name comes from the Latin ...
,
American goldfinch The American goldfinch (''Spinus tristis'') is a small North American bird in the finch family. It is migratory, ranging from mid-Alberta to North Carolina during the breeding season, and from just south of the Canada–United States border to ...
,
Great horned owl The great horned owl (''Bubo virginianus''), also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air"), or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extrem ...
and
Osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...
. Foxes are commonly spotted, especially on the American Camp prairie, where they prey on rabbits.
Orca The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only Extant taxon, extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black ...
, humpback, and
gray whale The gray whale (''Eschrichtius robustus''), also known as the grey whale,Britannica Micro.: v. IV, p. 693. gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, Korean gray whale, or California gray whale, is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and bree ...
can be spotted on occasion from both parks.


References


External links


National Park Service's San Juan Island National Historical Park websiteGeneral Land Office Record of the Week highlighting San Juan Island National Historical Park
{{Authority control National Historical Parks of the United States Parks in San Juan County, Washington Pig War (1859) National Historic Landmarks in Washington (state) Protected areas established in 1961 National Park Service areas in Washington (state) Closed installations of the United States Army American Civil War army posts Museums in San Juan County, Washington History museums in Washington (state) Forts in Washington (state) 1961 establishments in Washington (state) Military facilities on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state) National Register of Historic Places in San Juan County, Washington Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state) Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state)