Pig War: A Garden Dispute at an Unsettled Border
The Pig War began with an animal in a garden and grew into a confrontation between the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1859, the disputed border ran through the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver Island and Washington Territory. The name fits the immediate trigger: an American farmer shot a pig. The fighting suggested by the word "war" never produced human casualties on either side. Behind the garden stood a boundary neither government had agreed how to draw.
The Oregon Treaty of June 15, 1846, had divided the Oregon Country along the 49th parallel before sending the boundary south through a channel toward the Pacific Ocean. That wording left a practical problem. Haro Strait lay west of the San Juan Islands, while Rosario Strait lay east, and either could be understood as the intended channel. Widely available maps by George Vancouver and Charles Wilkes left the nearby geography unclear. The islands therefore sat between rival interpretations of the same treaty. A line through one strait would place them on a different side of the border from a line through the other.
Diplomats tried to settle that ambiguity before the Pig War. A boundary commission established in 1856 brought British commissioner James Charles Prevost and American commissioner Archibald Campbell into discussions. Prevost argued for Rosario Strait, emphasizing a southerly course, separation of the continent from Vancouver Island, and navigability. Campbell favored Haro Strait and disputed how those requirements applied. In December 1857, Prevost proposed a compromise through San Juan Channel that would leave San Juan Island with Britain and give the other main islands to the United States. The Americans rejected it, and the commission ended its meetings with the water boundary unresolved.
Both countries claimed sovereignty over the islands. The Hudson's Bay Company operated a sheep ranch on San Juan, while American settlers also moved there. On June 15, 1859, farmer Lyman Cutlar found a pig rooting in his garden and eating his tubers. The intrusion had happened before, and Cutlar shot the animal. Its owner, Charles Griffin, worked for the company and allowed his pigs to roam freely. Cutlar offered compensation of $10; Griffin demanded $100. Cutlar then took the position that he owed nothing because the pig had trespassed. British authorities threatened arrest, and nearby American settlers sought military protection.
The Pig War moved from a compensation dispute to an armed standoff when General William S. Harney dispatched Captain George Pickett and 66 soldiers. Their orders were to prevent a British landing. Britain responded with three Royal Navy warships commanded by Captain Geoffrey Hornby. Pickett first placed his company and battery near the company's Belle Vue sheep farm, beneath the guns of HMS Satellite. After the danger of that position was pointed out, he moved his cannon north to higher ground overlooking Griffin Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Construction of a redoubt gave the American position a more substantial defense.
By August 10, 1859, the Pig War involved 461 Americans with 14 cannons facing five British warships carrying 2,140 men and mounting 70 guns. Governor James Douglas wanted Hornby to remove the American troops while avoiding armed conflict if possible. Hornby waited for Rear Admiral Robert L. Baynes before acting. Baynes refused to turn the dispute into a war between the nations over a pig.
News of the crisis brought intervention from London and Washington. President James Buchanan sent Winfield Scott to negotiate with Douglas, and Scott arrived in October. The resulting arrangement kept a joint military occupation pending a final settlement, with each side reducing its presence to no more than 100 men. The British camp stood at the north end of the island near the shoreline, convenient for access and resupply. The Americans occupied a high meadow at the south end suitable for artillery aimed at passing ships. Over the following years, the units visited each other's camps for national holidays and athletic competitions.
The final border settlement came through arbitration rather than a battlefield victory in the Pig War. The Treaty of Washington of 1871 placed the island dispute before German Emperor Wilhelm I, who referred it to a commission meeting in Geneva. On October 21, 1872, that commission accepted the American preference for Haro Strait, west of the islands, over Britain's proposed Rosario route to the east. British Royal Marines left their camp on November 25, 1872. The Americans departed by July 1874, leaving the former military positions to a later role as historical sites in San Juan Island National Historical Park.