Everything about The San Juan Islands totally explained
The
San Juan Islands are a part of the San Juan
Archipelago in the
northwest corner of the continental
United States. The archipelago is split into two groups of islands based on national
sovereignty. San Juan Islands are part of the U.S. state of
Washington, while the
Gulf Islands are part of the
Canadian province of
British Columbia. There are over 450 islands in the entire archipelago at high tide, but fewer than one-sixth are permanently inhabited.
In the archipelago, fifteen islands are accessible by public ferry. Public ferries serve nine
Gulf Islands and six San Juan Islands.
History
The islands were part of the traditional area of the Central Coast
Salish.
Linguistically, the Central Coast Salish consisted of five groups:
Squamish,
Halkomelem,
Nooksack, Northern Straits (which includes the
Lummi dialect), and
Klallam. Exploration and settlement by Europeans brought
smallpox to the area by the
1770s. In
1843, the
Hudson's Bay Company established
Fort Camosun at nearby
Vancouver Island.
The
1846 Oregon Treaty forced by President
Polk established the
49th parallel as the boundary between Canada and the U.S., except in the San Juan archipelago. While both sides agreed that all of Vancouver Island would remain British, the treaty wording was left vague enough as to put the boundary between modern-day Gulf Islands and San Juan Islands in dispute. Conflicts over this border led to the
Pig War in
1859. Skirmishes continued until the boundary issue was eventually placed in the hands of Kaiser
Wilhelm I of Germany for arbitration. The border was finally established in
1872.
The name "San Juan" was given to the San Juan Islands by the Spanish explorer
Francisco de Eliza, who charted the islands in 1791, naming them
Isla y Archiepelago de San Juan. The expedition sailed under the authority of the Viceroy of Mexico,
Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo and Eliza named several places for him, including the San Juan Islands and
Orcas Island (short for "Horcasitas").
San Juan Island itself was first discovered (by a European) by one of the officers under Eliza's command,
Gonzalo López de Haro (for whom
Haro Strait is named). The Spanish had found the islands a year earlier during the exploring voyage of
Manuel Quimper on the
Princesa Real, but it wasn't clear that they were islands. Subsequent explorations of the region by the British, under
George Vancouver, and the Americans, under
Charles Wilkes, resulted in many of the Spanish names being replaced with English ones. Vancouver's expedition occurred within a year of Eliza's, and Vancouver encountered other Spanish ships and traded information. Thus Vancouver knew of the names given by Eliza's expedition and tended to keep them, although he renamed some things, like the
Strait of Georgia. Wilkes, sailing in 1841, had some British charts, but may not have been aware of the Spanish names and charts. He liberally gave new names to nearly every coastal feature not already named on the charts he had. The names Wilkes gave tended to be patriotically American (heroes of the War of 1812 for example), or to honor members of his crew. In 1847, due to the confusion of multiple names on different charts, the British Admiralty reorganized the official charts of the region. The project, led by
Henry Kellett, applied only to British territory, which at the time included the San Juan Islands but not
Puget Sound. Kellett systematically kept the British and Spanish names and removed nearly all of Wilkes' names. In some cases Kellett moved Spanish names around to replace names given by Wilkes. Thus in Puget Sound itself, the names given by Wilkes are common and Spanish names rare, while the reverse is true for the San Juan and Gulf Islands (although the Spanish didn't explore Puget Sound as thoroughly as the British and Americans, resulting in fewer Spanish names to start with). Wilkes had given the name
Navy Archipelago to the San Juan Islands, and named individual islands for distinguished officers of the US Navy, such as
Rodgers Island for San Juan Island, and
Hull Island for Orcas Island. Some of his names survived the editing of Kellett, such as Chauncey, Shaw, Decatur, Jones, Blakely, Perry, Sinclair, Lawrence, Gordon, and Percival, all named after American naval officers.
San Juan Islands today
Today, the
San Juan Islands are an important tourist destination, with
sea kayaking and
orca-watching two of the primary attractions. Part of the charm that attracts tourists and residents to the San Juan Islands is that each island seems to have a character of its own, both in terms of geography and of the lifestyle of the people who live there.
Politically, the bulk of the San Juan Islands make up
San Juan County, Washington, though some of the furthest east of the islands are in the mainland counties of
Whatcom and
Skagit, including
Lummi,
Guemes,
Fidalgo, and
Cypress Islands.
The majority of the San Juan Islands are quite hilly, the tallest mountain being
Mount Constitution at almost exactly a half-mile (800 m) elevation (see
Orcas Island), with some flat areas and valleys, often quite fertile, in between. The coastlines are a mixed bag of sandy and rocky beaches, shallow and deep harbors, placid and reef-studded bays. Gnarled, ochre-colored madrona trees (
Arbutus) grace much of the shorelines while evergreen fir and pine forests cover large inland areas.
The San Juan Islands get less rainfall than
Seattle, about 65
miles (100 km) to the south, due to the
rain shadow of
Olympic Mountains to the southwest. Summertime high temperatures are around 70 °F (21 °C) while average wintertime lows are in the high thirties and low forties. Snow is infrequent in winter except for the higher elevations, but the islands are subject to high winds at times—those from the northeast sometimes bring brief periods of freezing and Arctic-like windchills.
Beginning in about 1900 the San Juan Islands became infested with
European rabbits, an
exotic invasive species, as the result of the release of domestic rabbits on
Smith Island. Rabbits from the San Juan Islands were used later for several introductions of European rabbits into other, usually midwestern, states.
Art in the San Juans
Long a sustaining refuge for artists, the San Juan Islands have been home to such noted artists as
Helen Loggie,
James Hardman,
Janis Miltenberger, and
Carolyn Buchanan. The largest collection of art by San Juan Islands' artists is currently housed at
The Lambiel Museum on Orcas Island which is available for individual or group tours by appointment.
Transportation
Three ferry systems serve some of the San Juan Islands.
Passenger-only ferries serve more islands. Passenger-only ferry service is usually seasonal and offered by private business.
The San Juan Islands
Further Information
Get more info on 'San Juan Islands'.
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