On June 15, 1859, an American settler named Lyman Cutlar found a pig rooting around in his potato patch on San Juan Island, in the waters between what are now Washington State and Vancouver Island. He shot it.
The pig belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company, which ran a sheep farm on the island. An argument over who should pay for the animal grew into an international standoff between Britain and the United States, and that standoff lasted twelve years.
The Pig War is usually told as a comedy, and in some ways it was funny. It also came close to turning into something much worse.
Why the island was disputed
In 1846, Britain and the United States signed the Oregon Treaty. It set the border in the Pacific Northwest along the 49th parallel, then down "the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island" and out to the Pacific.
The trouble was that there was more than one channel. There were two main ones, Haro Strait to the west and Rosario Strait to the east, and the San Juan Islands sit between them. Britain argued that the border ran through Rosario Strait, which would put the islands in British territory. The United States argued for Haro Strait, which would make them American.
By the late 1850s, people from both sides were living on San Juan Island. The Hudson's Bay Company operated Belle Vue Sheep Farm there. American settlers had arrived as well, and they refused to recognize British authority.
The pig
Cutlar said he shot the pig because it kept eating his potatoes, and he offered to pay for it. Accounts disagree about the amounts involved, but the argument soon shifted from the price of a pig to the larger question of who had jurisdiction. British authorities threatened to arrest Cutlar, and the American settlers asked for military protection.
Troops arrive
In July 1859, U.S. Army Captain George Pickett landed on the island with a company of soldiers. Pickett would later become famous for leading a doomed charge at Gettysburg during the Civil War.
The British answered by sending warships. Over the next few weeks, both sides kept adding to their forces. By August there were several hundred American soldiers on the island, while British warships carrying many guns and more than a thousand men sat in the waters nearby.
By then the situation had become genuinely dangerous. Officers on both sides were under orders to defend their positions. The British governor of Vancouver Island, James Douglas, is reported to have wanted the navy to put troops ashore.
Cooler heads
What prevented a fight was, for the most part, the restraint of a few senior officers. Rear Admiral Robert Baynes, in command of the British naval forces, reportedly refused to land marines, saying he would not involve two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig. The exact wording comes from a later report, but his refusal itself is well documented.
In Washington, President James Buchanan was alarmed when he heard about the standoff. He sent General Winfield Scott, the most senior officer in the U.S. Army, to calm things down. Scott negotiated with Douglas, and the two sides agreed to scale back their forces.
Joint occupation
What came out of this was an unusual arrangement. Starting in 1860, both countries kept small military camps on San Juan Island. The British were at the north end, at what is now called English Camp, and the Americans were at the south end, at American Camp.
The joint occupation went on for twelve years. By most accounts, the two garrisons got along well. Soldiers visited each other's camps and joined in celebrations together.
How it ended
The dispute was eventually settled by arbitration. In the Treaty of Washington of 1871, the two countries agreed to let Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany decide where the boundary lay. He appointed a commission to study the question, and in October 1872 he ruled in favor of the United States. The border would run through Haro Strait, and the San Juan Islands would be American.
The British pulled out of English Camp in November 1872. The Americans left in 1874.
The only casualty
The Pig War is often described as a war whose only casualty was a pig. That is essentially accurate. Nobody was killed in combat between the two sides.
Why it still matters
The Pig War is a useful reminder of several things.
- Vague treaty language can cause real conflict. The 1846 treaty's phrase about "the channel" was too imprecise for the actual geography.
- Local disputes can escalate quickly once they touch on questions of sovereignty.
- Individuals matter. Baynes and Scott both chose not to escalate, even though they had the authority and a reason to do so.
- Arbitration can work. Both sides accepted the settlement reached by a third party.
Visiting today
Both camps now belong to San Juan Island National Historical Park, which is run by the U.S. National Park Service. The park still raises the British flag at English Camp as a mark of the site's history. It is one of the few places where the Park Service regularly flies a foreign flag.
What the record supports
- The date and the pig are documented in reports and correspondence from the period.
- Troop numbers appear in official records, though the figures vary depending on which date is used.
- The famous quotes, such as Baynes's remark about the pig, come from later accounts and should be treated as reported speech rather than verbatim.
- The arbitration result is fully documented.
Sources
- National Park Service, San Juan Island National Historical Park, "The Pig War" and park history pages.
- Mike Vouri, The Pig War: Standoff at Griffin Bay (Griffin Bay Bookstore, 1999).
- Treaty of Washington (1871), Articles XXXIV to XLII.
- Oregon Treaty (1846), Article I.
- HistoryLink.org, Washington State history encyclopedia, essays on the Pig War.