All Stories: 122
What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor
The night of February 16th, 1897 was dark and stormy on Stuart Island. Turn Point Lighthouse keeper, Edward Durgan, and his assistant keeper, Peter Christiansen, were spending the evening chatting with one another while on duty. The storm deterred…
A Man Named Friday
Friday Harbor was incorporated as a city in 1909, but the city’s story starts much earlier. In 1845, the first Europeans arrived, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and they began to occupy the island after claiming it for England. The Hudson’s Bay Company…
Popeye the Blind, Biting Seal
Popeye is a female harbor seal commonly spotted at the Port of Friday Harbor. She’s got one blind, milky eye (hence her name) and she’s become something of a local celebrity.
Popeye was originally attracted to the harbor by food scraps dumped by…
Dr. Victor Capron, The Traveling Physician
One of the first prominent physicians to call San Juan Island his home was Dr. Victor Capron. Born in New York in 1868, Capron moved to Port Townsend. He later moved to Hawaii as a government physician where he worked with leprosy patients, became an…
Keepers of Light
In an era before sonar, radio and GPS, lighthouses were a vital safety measure to keep ships off the rock, and light house keepers served vital roles.
Commission for a light station on Patos Island was recommended by the Lighthouse Board in 1888.…
Crow Valley School
Education proved a challenge on the remote San Juan Islands. The one-room schoolhouse on Orcas Island was opened in 1888, a year before Washington became a state. Peter Freshette donated 1.8 acres of land to the school district for the construction…
Mrs. Dr. Harrison and the Women of San Juan Islands' Medical Community
With over a hundred islands, many not served by the ferries, medical care for San Juan Islanders often required a long journey. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, island women made names for themselves while providing health care in the San Juan…
Mount Constitution Observation Tower
Built in 1935-36, the tower on Mount Constitution takes center stage on the highest point in the San Juan Islands and is the star of Moran State Park. Visitors to the 53-foot fire lookout/observation tower are rewarded with spectacular 360-degree…
Listen to the Trees
An old-growth forest – also known as a primary forest or primeval forest – refers to a forest that has reached a significant age without significant disturbance, such as a devastating wildfire or logging. With a variety of tree species that range in…
An Unlikely Find--Bison antiquus in the San Juans
In 2003, while working on a local pond, a crew with a trackhoe began excavations for a pond when one of the men spotted a bone jutting out of the dig site. With careful examination, the crew started sifting through the loose soil and gathered almost…
Interaction: Portal to the Past
Interaction is a contemporary carving created by Musqueam Coast Salish artist Susan A. Point. Located at Friday Harbor’s Fairweather Park, this sculpture “represents a healing chapter in local history.” The sculpture is made from two cedar posts and…
"Kanakas" settlers of the San Juan Islands
During the first half of the 1800s, the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) expanded their fur-trading empire establishing forts, farms, and warehouses in the Pacific Northwest. At this time the HBC shipping routes extended throughout the British empire, and…
Who is the Namesake of Friday Harbor?
In 1859 the British survey ship HMS Plumper was scouting the San Juan Islands during the joint occupation of the Islands by the British and the United States. Oarsmen from the HMS Plumper took a skiff into what they would later call "Friday Harbor." …
Island of Ducks
Patos Island is the northernmost in the San Juan Islands group. The entirety of the island--all 207 acres--is a state park, one of the most remote in Washington state. With no ferry service, visitors to the island must ferry themselves in any…
Pirates, Bootleggers, and the Beryl G
Prohibition took hold in Washington state in 1916, but failed to eliminate the state’s thirst for alcohol. Bootleggers were all too happy to quench the thirst, and smuggling whiskey from Canada became commonplace. Rumrunners operated throughout the…
Buried Thousands of Miles from Home
Along the mile trail to Young Hill lies a solemn clearing with five gravestones. The white picket fence enclosing the area marks the cemetery for the English camp. Buried in the confined area are six men, one civilian and five Royal Marines, who died…
Waldron Island
At 4.59 miles square, Waldon Island is not the smallest island in the San Juans, but it may be the most private and that is exactly how the hundred or so residents like it. There is no public ferry to Waldron Island; one must take a small boat to get…
Early Humans & Bison antiquus
Anthropologists have long held, despite the insistence of Native Americans to the contrary, that early humans, known as “Clovis people,” came to North America from Asia via a land bridge. New evidence from Orcas Island is changing that narrative.
…
Savannah on the Hill
Garry oaks use to line the coasts of the Pacific Northwest including the San Juan Islands. However, centuries of environmental change has reshaped the landscapes these oaks inhabit. Due to overlogging, the oaks have over time dwindled to a scarce…
The Changing Locations of American Camp
In 1853, the steamer HMS Beaver brought the first shipment of sheep to a farm located at the southern point of San Juan Island named Belle Vue Sheep Farm. Established by Charles Griffin, Belle Vue Sheep Farm was the perfect location to raise sheep…
Built Up to Dig In
Americans began to fortify San Juan Island even before the Joint Occupation Agreement of 1859. Anticipating war with Britain, they chose the site of Camp San Juan accordingly. Set on a high exposed hill overlooking Griffin Bay and the Strait of Juan…
The Royal Marines of Garrison Bay
Following their victories in the Opium Wars of East Asia, some Royal Marine veterans of the Second Opium War came here to Garrison Bay. They agreed to extend their service for extra pay. Earlier, conflicts between British and American settlers on San…
Syphilis and Fevers: Medicine at English Camp
Medicine prior to the modern era was precarious. Infectious diseases were poorly understood, and doctors rarely washed before an operation. Surgeons did not widely use antiseptics until the 1860s. The only "modern" medical practice at English Camp…
Veggies and Flowers, the Garden at Garrison Bay
Early photos of the initial Royal Marine encampment at Garrison Bay suggest a life devoid of most conveniences. Crude tents, overgrown foliage, and dense surrounding forests defined the early camp. But for all the challenges facing the Marines as…
Burning the Forest
Evidence suggests that the Coast Salish peoples of San Juan Island took an active part in managing and modifying the ecosystem they lived in. This included controlled forest burnings, where the dense forests of the island were purposefully set on…
San Juan Island's Foxes and Rabbits
Cute, fluffy, and a pest: European rabbits have become a nuisance on the island within the last 100 years. In 1900 several domestic rabbits were brought to the island by a lighthouse keeper in hopes of selling their meat to Seattle markets. After…
Native Clam Gardens of the Salish Sea
The coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest were among some of the most densely populated parts of Native North America. At the time of European contact, it is estimated that 150,000 Indigenous people lived in the Salish Sea region which spanned from…
The Hanging of "Kanaka Joe"
In June of 1873 settlers James and Selina Jane Dwyer were murdered on their homestead at Kanaka Bay on San Juan Island. James was shot as he worked in his fields. His pregnant wife was sewing baby clothes in their little cabin when the killer found…
The Roslers
In the early days of white settlement in the San Juans, marriages and less formal arrangements between white men and native women were not uncommon. Though some ended sadly, others, like that of Anna and Christopher Rossler, were happy and lasting…
Kalakala
Rising from the ashes of the remains of the San Francisco ferry Peralta in 1933, Black Ball Line’s new ferry would be an inspiration to all who saw her. Kalakala (pronounced kah-LOCK-ah-lah), is Chinook for flying bird, a name that would describe the…