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Photo: Chris Light (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The United States and Great Britain once made overlapping claims on the San Juan Islands. In 1859, they nearly went to war over a dead pig. Both established a military presence on the island, which are now preserved by this park.
San Juan Island National Historical Park, also known as American and English Camps, San Juan Island, is a US National Historical Park owned and operated by the National Park Service on San Juan Island in the state of Washington. The park is made up of the sites of the British and U.S. Army camps during the Pig War, a boundary dispute over the ownership of the island. The camp sites were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The park was created by an act of Congress in 1966 and expanded slightly in 2013.
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Cattle Point and its old lighthouse overlook the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Cattle Pass. On a clear, beautiful day you can feel the wind of the Pacific and see across the strait to the Olympic Peninsula.
The main park visitor center has exhibits, park film, a bookstore, and rangers on hand. You can visit the original officer’s quarters, the Redoubt, and the Laundress Quarters, and several hiking trails originate here.
Exhibits include life-sized whale models, articulated skeletons, information on the endangered Southern Resident killer whales' family groups (pods), and current scientific research on local species. Other exhibits feature pinnipeds, porpoises and other marine mammals of the Salish Sea, wildlife videos, and Northwest Native American culture and artifacts relating to marine mammals.
Friday Harbor houses one of the oldest and most famous marine research institutions, Friday Harbor Laboratories (or Labs, as it better known to locals). Situated inside University of Washington Biological Reserve, you will see island raccoons, tree frogs, banana slugs, Columbian black-tailed deer, Norway rat, White-footed mouse etc.