We explore some of Wikipedia’s oddities in our 6,307,677-week series, Wiki Wormhole.
This week’s entry: Pig War (1859)
What it’s about: Sadly, not a war between two rival armies made up of talking pigs. Instead, it was a border dispute between the United States and Canada, over three small islands in Puget Sound, in between Washington State and Vancouver. It was so named because it was triggered by the shooting death of a pig.
Biggest controversy: The Oregon Treaty had resolved the Pacific Northwest’s longstanding border dispute between the U.S. and the U.K., best-remembered for the American slogan, “50'40” or fight!”, in reference to the latitude of the northern border our side wanted (we settled for 49). But the treaty was vague in one area: The 49th parallel serves as the U.S.-Canadian border from Minnesota/Manitoba all the way west; but once it hits Puget Sound, it dips south so as not to split up Vancouver Island, which is entirely Canadian.
As for the small islands between Vancouver and the mainland, the treaty stipulates that the border go “thence southerly through the middle of the said channel… to the Pacific Ocean.” Only problem: There are two middle channels—Haro Strait, and Rosario Strait, which run on either side of the San Juan Islands (Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan).
Strangest fact: The Pig War was nearly a front in the looming Civil War. Union General George McClellan later claimed that his friend and West Point classmate-turned Confederate General George Pickett (of Pickett’s Charge) had stoked tensions around the San Juan Islands to incite war with Britain, in order to unite North and South against a common enemy. As usual, the Confederates were given too much credit by history, as another Union officer, Colonel Granville Haller, suggested the likelier theory that Pickett wanted war so that the South could declare independence while America’s army was tied up fighting the British in Canada.
Thing we were happiest to learn: The pig was the only casualty of the Pig War. The whole thing started when Lyman Cutlar, an American farmer living on San Juan Island, which he believed to be U.S. territory, found a pig in his garden, eating his potatoes. The offending pig belonged to an Irish sheep rancher, Charles Griffin. After several warnings, and the pig pilfering potatoes on several occasions, Cutlar lost his temper and shot the animal. He offered $10 in recompense ($290 in today’s money), but Griffin demanded ten times that amount. When Cutlar refused, saying the whole thing was Griffin’s fault for letting his pig roam free, Griffin called the local (British) authorities and threatened to have Cutlar arrested. Cutlar rallied his American neighbors on the island and called for U.S. military protection.
Thing we were unhappiest to learn: The neighborly dispute quickly escalated to the brink of war. The U.S. dispatched Pickett (then a Captain) and the 9th Infantry to San Juan, hoping to stop the British from landing. The Brits sent three warships, and Pickett boasted, “We’ll make a Bunker Hill of it,” building a fortification on high ground at the south end of the island. Each side sent reinforcements. By August 10, 1859, two months after the pig incident, Pickett had 461 men and 14 cannons, facing down five British warships with 70 guns and 2,140 men on board between them. The governor of Vancouver Island ordered Rear Admiral Robert Baynes to land on San Juan and engage the Americans. Baynes refused, not wanting to involve “two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig.”
Instead, both sides hurled insults, but no shots were fired as neither side wanted to make the first move. President James Buchanan sent General Winfield Scott to parlay with the governor, and both sides settled on a peaceful joint military occupation, with the Americans retaining their position on the south end of the island, and the British setting up camp on the north. This went on until 1871, when the two sides called in German Emperor Wilhelm I to arbitrate. He found in favor of the U.S. The British withdrew, but the Union Jack is still flown over their camp in commemoration—one of the only non-embassies where the U.S. government raises a foreign flag.
Best link to elsewhere on Wikipedia: Griffin, the pig’s owner, was sent to work on San Juan by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The company was founded in 1670 by King Charles II to try and break the French monopoly on the Canadian fur trade, but their territory encompassed Eastern Canada. In 1779, rival traders formed the North West Company, whose territory stretched to the Pacific. The two had such a bitter, often violent rivalry, that the Crown forced a merger in 1821 to keep the peace. The HBC quickly became a monopoly, operating as far away as Hawai’i.
Remarkably, the HBC still operates today. In the late 1800s, they started expanding the company’s trading posts until they grew into the precursor for the modern department store. They eventually bought competitors Zellers, Kmart Canada, and Saks, and were themselves bought by the equity firm that owns Lord & Taylor. The CEO of HBC still retains the traditional title of “Governor,” first held by Prince Rupert in 1670. (His successor, James Stuart, stepped down after two years to become King James II.)
Further Down the Wormhole: The American fortification on the southern end of San Juan Island was designed by a recent West Point grad named Henry Martyn Robert. He subsequently worked for the Army Corps Of Engineers, building defenses for Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia during the Civil War, improving harbors from Green Bay to New York afterwards. But his most lasting contribution is his book, Pocket Manual Of Rules Of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, better known by its pithier title, Robert’s Rules of Order, which has been the weapon of sticklers at school board and homeowners’ association meetings across the land ever since.
While the Army Corps Of Engineers are best known for building civilian infrastructure like the Panama Canal, Bonneville Dam, and Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, they also built the facilities that housed the Manhattan Project. One of the most ambitious scientific efforts in history, the Manhattan Project discovered how to split the atom and harness the resulting energy for a devastating weapon. But it wasn’t the only secret weapons project in the New Mexico during WWII. We’ll look at the military’s far less ambitious project to develop a bat bomb next week.
61 Comments
I’ve done research on San Juan Island and the locals love the pig war story. Who am I kidding, I love it too! Nothing really remains at the American camp (we used it as a field site), but a lot of the British Camp survives. Apparently the two sides got on well and celebrated holidays together.
After several warnings, and the pig pilfering potatoes on several occasionsThat’ll do pig. That’ll do.
Fun Pig Fact: The Danish have bread a pig in their national colours because they weren’t allowed to fly their flags under Prussian occupation…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Protest_Pig
I believe you meant to write “bred a pig”. To “bread” a pig might be this:https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-dont-wanna-be-bread
Well. I’m sure some of them, were eventually breaded as well…
Mmm… Schnizel.
It’s a sandwich.
The fact that an Irish man called on British authorities to menace a farmer who was protecting his potatoes is irony wrapped in a second layer of irony and then deep-fried in piping hot molten irony.
“Scotch irony”
“best-remembered for the American slogan, “50’40” or fight!”, in reference to the latitude of the northern border our side wanted”Minor correction, but it was 54 40 or Fight, not 50. Otherwise, great article.Fun thing about this, the American and British camps are both maintained by the National Park Service now. You can visit the preserved sites as part of San Juan Island National Historical Park. It’s a really cool spot (and the British camp is much nicer).
I gave you a star for bringing this up even though you called this error “minor.” “54-40 or fight!” is a legitimate slogan. “50-40 or fight!” has no rhythm whatsoever.Whether the Canadian band 54-40 has rhythm: Debatable.
Also, the punctuation is off. Written here as 50 minutes, 40 (undetermined) rather than 54 degrees, 40 minutes (54°40′).
A spider could have stopped that war.
SOME BORDER
Ah, the quintessential PNW trivia question.
If you ever end up on a PTA board or any other kind of board, I highly recommend reading Robert’s Rules. Especially if you are the Chair. It’s short, fairly simple to understand, and it will help you to keep meetings moving and prevent people from hijacking the meeting by using it against you.
It’s still used by municipal governments in Canada as the guide for running council and other government meetings. It may (at first glance) appear old-fashioned or cumbersome, but Robert’s Rules really do cover every eventuality and possible difficulty, and eliminate confusion, as long as the chair has taken the time to read them.
They can help run a lot of things:Just be careful how closely you follow them:
The Hatfields and McCoys scoff at your little pig argument. A real pig fight lasts for generations.
Remarkably, the HBC still operates today.
Albeit now owned by an American investing group, and like many of its competitors in the department store retail industry, is on wobbly footing. I like The Bay, but I preferred Eaton’s.
One of the most interesting things about Hudson’s Bay Company is that it once held a commercial monopoly over a substantial chunk of territory that would later be surrendered to the British crown and transferred to Canada. It was called Rupert’s Land, and included parts of what are today Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and the territory of Nunavut.
There was also The War of Jenkins’ Ear, which supposedly was triggered by the Spanish cutting the ear off of a British smuggler.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Jenkins%27_Ear There are various stories about Parliament being riled up by the display of either an earless Jenkins or a Jenkinsless ear, although it sounds like the full machinations behind the war are a lot murkier.
And, of course, one of the major British commanders in that war was Admiral Edward Vernon. He was the superior officer of a Virginian officer named Lawrence Washington, who admired him so much that after the war he named the manor house he built on his plantation Mount Vernon. After he and his wife died, the house and land were inherited by his half-brother, and surrogate son, George.
And George Washington, of course, was one of the Sweathogs on Welcome Back, Kotter…
And now you know the rest of the story.
It is probably lucky for the US they did not end up fighting the British over this, since Pickett was commanding the US forces & he was an incompetent, flamboyant dope. Supposedly late in the Civil War Lee sees Pickett and asks his staff, why is that man still with the army? He thought he had sent Pickett home after losing his division several times by that point. (Albeit partly because of following Lee’s orders to attack on the 3rd day at Gettysburg).
Pickett was an interesting guy. He was last in his West Point class, but turned into a fairly competent and respected officer, at least at lower levels. And as you mention, he was following orders at Gettysburg, and primarily gets the “credit” because he was the only permanent commander of the three divisions in the attack (both Pettigrew and Trimble were in temporary command after Heth and Pender, respectively, were wounded during the earlier days of the battle).
PICKETT ALSO GETS CREDIT FOR HONESTY. LEGEND GOES WHEN ASKED WHY THE CHARGE FAILED, HE REPLIED “I ALWAYS THOUGHT THE YANKEES HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT.”
I seem to recall that Pickett was generally regarded as at least a competent brigade commander but was out of his depth commanding a division.
It was 54 40 or fight, not 50 40.
I got a Black Sabbath notification for this?
If the US had gained control of Vancouver, where would the CW film its shows? It really makes you think. A powerful historical “what-if”
They would have had to film in Prince George, which would have led to considerable attrition of bankable young stars in bar room knife fights.
No joke. Prince George is where Canadian politeness goes on a nice scenic trip and wakes up bloody in a freezing cold ditch.
Toronto, like a lot of other US production companies. Montreal sometimes gets used too. The lamentable 2002 remake of the classic 1975 Rollerball was filmed in part in my then neighborhood in Montreal, for example.
Orphan Black, Warehouse 13, and Being Erica are all Toronto shows that I love
Lots of stuff is shot in Toronto (Half Baked, the Total Recall remake, The Boys etc.). Basically if you need a place that to double as New York, Chicago or Detroit, Toronto is your city.
Both The Avengers and Spider Man 3 used Cleveland as the New York double.
I mean, it’s not a law or something, just a thing that happens very frequently. Because Toronto looks sorta like Chicago, New York or Detroit if you squint in American.
Yes, but Toronto looks like a Northeastern city (it often doubles for New York City, which I do not get!). Vancouver appears to be in the temperate West Coast, and looks more futuristic.
Guess Seattle, then….
Another anomaly of the US/Canada border in the area is that it creates Point Roberts, a tiny enclave of Americans who are surrounded by water on three sides and the Canadian border to the north (south of Vancouver). Rather than dip down to make the whole peninsula Canadian, the border goes clean through the top, meaning that unless you live there and have a boat, if you want to get to mainland Washington State you have to drive into Canada, head east, and then cross the border into Washington at Blaine.
Because staples like gas and dairy items are considerably cheaper in the States than in Canada, Point Roberts capitalizes on its proximity to Vancouver and the Metro Vancouver region by having a lot of gas stations and grocery stores, making it a popular place for Canadians in the neighbourhood to nip down to for groceries. A lot of Canadians also have summer places there. Unfortunately, the COVID border closures have caused some issues. Most people get that popping across to Point Roberts for milk and bread isn’t ‘essential travel’, but second-home owners haven’t been able to get to their properties to do maintenance, and residents trying to get to Washington State for things have had issues.
Point Roberts, a tiny enclave
*pushes up glasses*Actually, I believe that would be a semi-exclave.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclave_and_exclave*awaits fart noise*
Sounds like that weird “northwest angle” of Minnesota. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Angle
Instead, both sides hurled insults……..that’s some real life Monty Python Holy Grail shit right there.
The ‘Pig War’ came only a few months after the Fraser Canyon War, which was only 120 miles or so from the San Juan Islands and almost involved American troops. There’s also a connection to ‘It was a dark and stormy night.’
In 1858 gold was discovered in the Fraser River northeast of Vancouver. At first no one knew how big it was, but the first sample of ore was sent to be assayed in San Francisco, and someone there told his friends that the next big strike was going to be on the Fraser River, in what was then just British territory.The California gold rush had petered out by then, so thousands of men stampeded north. Fearful that Americans might try to take over the territory, and not wanting to see a repeat of the lawlessness of the California rush, the British government declared the area a British Colony called British Columbia. The Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time was one Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and a small settlement at the junction where the Fraser and Thompson Rivers meet was called Lytton in his honour (pop. 279 today, although there are many times that number of First Nations people in the region).Soon the Fraser River from Yale to Lytton – a distance of about 50 miles – was thick with would-be treasure-seekers, most of them American. The local First Nations – the Nlaka’pamux* (Thompson) people – soon found themselves being muscled out of their traditional hunting and fishing grounds. A handful of small attacks were carried out by the Nlaka’pamux against American miners, to protect their territory, but the Americans took this as provocation. The miners formed military companies and carried out their own, much more vicious, attacks on the Nlaka’pamux.Things quickly got to the point where the American military was poised to cross the border and potentially wage war in the colony. One of the American miners, Capt. Henry Snyder, headed north to Lytton, the heart of Nlaka’pamux territory, to negotiate a peace treaty with the Nlaka’pamux chiefs. They were unwilling, until their leader, Chief David Sexpínlhemx (known in English as Chief Spintlum) urged them to make peace in their turn. And thus was the Canyon War ended.
Chief Sexpínlhemx is commemorated by a memorial cairn in Lytton, overlooking the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers. No one knows if he is buried there, but two years ago a search using ground penetrating radar determined that there are bodies at the site, buried in First Nations post-contact manner (i.e. it’s not white people). Three years ago I was able to attend a ceremony there to mark the 160th anniversary of the Canyon War, where direct descendants of Chief Sexpínlhemx and Capt. Snyder met. It was very moving.
*Nlaka’pamux is (more or less) pronounced Ing-kla-cap-em in English. There are very few Nlaka’pamuxtsn speakers, and even they sometimes pronounce the word slightly differently to each other.
We still have a minor water based border dispute with canada due to the differing methods we use to calculate where water boundaries go, although it’s small enough it ought to be meaningless.Aso bat bombs totally worked. It just turns out that rounding up bats and dropping them on cities and waiting for them to blow up is a bit less efficient then just dropping the bombs directly onto the buildings. On that vein, the japanease balloon bomb also totally worked, they just didnt realize that lots of small scale forest fires were already just a thing that happened in the western US, so they were barely even noticed
That’s only a few degrees away from this: https://www.theonion.com/fbi-uncovers-al-qaeda-plot-to-just-sit-back-and-enjoy-c-1819576375
…found a pig in his garden, eating his potatoes. The offending pig…I just. I just love it.
Think I was unhappiest to learn:Nobody sent the other side a gift basket of hams and bacon, just to piss them off
I mean Americans went to war over taxes and free tea. Something that could have been settled in British court. Meanwhile, other countries were founded because they were being enslaved, killed off, and raided daily. Two peasant nations fighting over livestock is cool though – I guess.https://www.historynet.com/debunking-boston-tea-party-myths.htm
And, of course, there was the longstanding disagreement between Canada and the US over a small island in Lake of the Woods called Moosylvania; neither side wanted it, and each claimed it was property of the other country. I’ve still got a “Statehood for Moosylvania” decal among my pop-culture collectibles, and you can listen to the “Moosylvania Anthem” at this link: http://www.bambinomusical.com/Moosylvania/Salute%20To%20Moosylvania01%20Moosylvania%20Anthem.mp3
Sometimes it’s not so easy to be Fearless Leader.
At first, I thought the pig in the title was referring to Trump. Clickbait!
How is there not a Canadian Heritage Minute about this?
This is a fantastic recap of the absolute nadir of the US and Britain’s ongoing squabble to occupy the Pacific Northwest. I wrote a paper on this in college once because I am from Victoria and in hindsight it’s hilarious because it failed. However, one small correction: it’s 54’40 or fight not 50’40. That’s where Canadian band 54-40 take their name from, as a protest to American imperialism (they’re best known in the US for writing “I Go Blind”, which was covered by Hootie and the Blowfish)
Stupid typo. I not only know the correct parallel, I know the band! (I grew up in Buffalo, and listened to a lot of CFNY bouncing across the lake)
“I’ve never expelled anyone before, but that pig had some powerful friends.”
I remember re-enacting this wearing tri-corn hats on in Washington State History class back in 8th grade.
When the Northwest Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company were fighting over the fur trade in the West, John Jacob Astor launched the American Company with a goal of taking over the fur trade in the Oregon country. He sent an expedition overland in 1811 to establish a fort and dispatched a ship with supply goods to start trading. Due to the outbreak of the War of 1812, the supply ship failed to arrive. The Americans had a fort and no trade goods, so the sold the outpost to the local Northwest Company who had supplies but no good base. The British sent a ship to patrol the Oregon coast for American traders. Having no prizes and nothing to do, the captain sailed for the American fort, which he found flying a British flag. So he ordered the American flag up so he could capture the fort and have something to show on his record. Had he left the fort alone, it would have continued in British hands after the war as Fort George, as it had been legally sold. But because of the show capture, the Northwest Company had to return the fort to American possession under the Status Quo Antebellum clause in the peace treaty and the fort reverted to the original name Astoria.
So that was just the first time an American pig escalated tensions between Canada and the US. trump was the second pig to do so.
Yes, but in that case, it was the pig hurling the insults!
Thanks for this – I’m a sucker for geographical oddities. Three of my favourites in the Americas being: i) due South from downtown Detroit is Canada (making me wonder if the protagonist of Don’t Stop Believing was actually Canadian); ii) the Western end of the Panama Canal opens out into the Atlantic Ocean; and iii) Alaska is the Northernmost, Westernmost and Easternmost state in the USA.