Our Last Bit of Border to be settled

The last bit of border drawn between Canada and the Lower 48 states is on the west coast in the Gulf of Georgia. That’s named for the George the Thirteen Colonies broke with, and who signed the Quebec Act, guaranteeing the religion and language of the colony Britain won from France in the Seven Years War.

The main sweep of the border in the west had been fixed by the Oregon Treaty of 1846, extending the 49th parallel from the east slope of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.

There was an exception to this. The Hudson Bay Company had a trading fort at the south of Vancouver Island, and it was agreed to leave the entire Island in British hands. This meant bending the boundary south of 49 to pass midway through Juan de Fuca Strait.

Ownership of the smaller islands in the Gulf between Vancouver Island and the mainland was not decided. It was here the border zigzagged southwest from the 49th to end in Juan de Fuca Strait. Some islands would go to Washington, others to British Columbia.

Which would go where was not clear. Especially contentious was Belleville Island, so called by the British who had a Hudson’s Bay Company post there too. Twenty-nine American settlers who lived on the island called it “San Juan.”

A pig belonging to an Englishman was shot while rooting in an American potato patch. The owner refused $10 compensation, and tried to have the American settler arrested. The Battle of Giffin’s Pig loomed, and threatened to pit the US against the UK.

In July 1859 400 American militiamen faced off against five British warships. The fleet was called out by BC Governor James Douglas, but the British Rear Admiral in charge was reluctant to fight for such low stakes. Then the US Civil War broke out.

In 1872 the border issue was arbitrated by Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm I. He accepted the recommendation of three judges, and drew the boundary between today’s San Juan Islands (American) and the Gulf Islands (Canadian).

Belleville Island was awarded to the US and since has been known as San Juan, the second largest in the San Juan cluster. Washington State Ferries summer service from Anacortes WA to Sidney, BC, calls here.

The Canadian Gulf Islands north of the border are crisscrossed several times daily by British Columbia Ferries service between Vancouver and Victoria.

Captain George Pickett who led the US militiamen was the later Confederate General who lost the Battle of Gettysburg, which turned the tide in the Civil War.

Kaiser Wilhelm was grandfather of the Emperor of the same name in the First World War. The parties he made peace between were allied against his country in 1917-18.

Perhaps “Wilhelm Strait” would be a better name then “Georgia” for the place he drew the line. Chew on that next time you have a Kaiser bun.