By the time Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) head James Douglas first scouted the harbor in 1843, Esquimalt already had a long human history.  A corruption of the Coast Salish word “es-whoy-malth,” meaning “the place of gradually shoaling water,” The vast…

The Royal Marines stationed on San Juan Island were effectively at the farthest end of the British Empire—which to them meant the end of civilization itself. Their supply line stretched for 4,750 miles across two oceans, and it took about six weeks…

Fort Bellingham was established in 1856 by the US Army to be a northern outpost protecting the growing communities of Whatcom County. Constructed on a bluff overlooking Bellingham Bay and at the mouth of the Nooksack River, the fort was able to…