The Pig War: The San Juan Islands in Conflict

Hear the tale of a pig that made the San Juan Islands part of the U.S. territory. Local arguments over an American killing a Hudson's Bay Company pig on June 15, 1859, erupted into an international confrontation. By mid-summer, British and American soldiers with heavy armaments had established American Camp and British Camp on San Juan Island. For the next dozen years during the American Civil War and after, the San Juan Islands conflict simmered. In 1872 Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany finally resolved the dispute. Examining the evidence, the Kaiser fixed the boundary between the United States and Canada and declared the San Juan Islands to be American territory. The big fuss over a pig nearly led to war!
Dr. Stephen Dow Beckham is the Pamplin Professor of History, emeritus, Lewis & Clark College. Professor Beckham taught college students for 42 years in courses on the History of the American West, Native Americans, and Environmental History. Beckham is a former "Oregon Professor of the Year" as well as a recipient of the "Distinguished Teaching Award" of the American Historical Association and the Earle Chiles, Jr., Award from the High Desert Museum. He is presently chair of the Oregon Committee on Historic Preservation and a member of the board of the Theodore Roosevelt Library Foundation. Beckham is the author of numerous books and technical reports, and has served as an expert witness in more than 40 state and federal court cases.