Town of Friday Harbor

The second largest island in the county at 55.3 square miles, San Juan Island is the economic, cultural and social center of the county.

The county seat is Friday Harbor, with a population just over 2,000 people - one of the last fishing villages in Puget Sound looking substantially like it did 100 years ago.

Sculpted by glaciers that formed the character of all the islands, San Juan is perhaps the most diversified in terrain and feeling.

There is ranch and pasture land in three interior valleys, most featuring beautiful territorial views of wooded hills or lakes.

San Juan's West Side is famous for stunning views of Victoria, Vancouver Island, the Olympic Peninsula and marine traffic moving towards Seattle, Vancouver or Alaska.

A great deal of history involves the San Juan Islands. Most notably on San Juan was the dispute between the British and the Americans over who the San Juan Islands belonged to.

The neat sweep of the 49th Parallel, accepted by Great Britain and the United States in 1846 as the U.S./Canadian border, did not fit the maze of the San Juan Archipelago.

American settlers, ignoring British claims, began to homestead the San Juans. When an American shot a boar belonging to the British that was rooting in his potato garden, tempers flared and sides were drawn. The British set up camp on the north end of San Juan Island, the Americans set up camp on the south end, and the Pig War began. Both camps are still there as National Historic Parks.

Roche Harbor Village. The quaint seaside village of Roche Harbor is on the National Register of Historical Sites. In 1881, two brothers bought Roche Harbor and started the islands' lime industry. The

 

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