The San Juan Islands were originally mountain ranges, hundreds of millions of years ago. During the Ice Age, the islands were submerged by huge glaciers, scarring the mountains and compressing the lowlands below sea level.

Native Americans visited the San Juans as long as 1,500 years ago. In 1791, a Spanish officer on a ship reconnoitering the area, name San Juan Island after the Viceroy of New Spain, and in 1792, the British arrived.

in 1853, the Hudson's Bay Company created Bellevue Farm on San Juan Island. Tensions between the British and the Americans increased, both believing the San Juans to be their own. In 1859, American Lyman Cutlar settled near Bellevue Farm. The farm manager complained that Cutlar was on British soil, but he refused to move, insisting that he was on U.S. territory. Twice, a pig from Bellevue Farm broke out of his pen and made tracks for Cutlar's potato patch. Fuming, Cutlar pulled out his trusty musket and blew the unfortunate porker into the promised land. The manager of Bellevue Farm demanded reimbursement, which Cutlar wouldn't pay. The British threatened to make Cutlar stand trial. The Americans responded by sending troops, who set up camp, complete with tents and field artillery to which the British retaliated with their own men and firepower. No battles were fought during the 12-year Pig War, although evidence of target practice turns up on Orcas from time to time. These cannonballs were likely the only shots fired. In 1872 Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, acting as a disinterested arbiter, decided that the Americans had a stronger claim to the islands. In 1886 the Tacoma and Roche Harbor Lime Company was formed, continuing the work in the lime quarry that was begun by British soldiers during the Pig War.

On Orcas Island the population grew from a couple of lonely trappers who arrived in the 1850's to a group of only about 40 by the end of the Pig War. By the mid-seventies the quality of Orcas soil was becoming evident to several growers -- their orchards were bearing unparalleled apples, pears and plums. A couple of decades later, Elder Gray, the first clergyman of Orcas and original Eastsound visionary, arrived and formed the Orcas Island Fruit Company in an attempt to raise dream town, Village de Haro (now known as Eastsound). In 1905, Robert Moran, Seattle shipbuilder, began to build Rosario, his retirement estate. In 1921, he donated 6,000 of his acres around Mount Constitution to the state for a park, now known as Moran State Park.

Lopez Island was developing more slowly. The first Americans visited around 1850 to cut timber to send to San Francisco. Actual settlers didn't arrive for another 15 years, and in 1870 the first trading post was built.

The early part of this century was one of growth in San Juan County. By the 1930's, though, everyone was feeling the Depression. Growth didn't really start again until the late 1950s. Retirees who like the sunny weather and the recreation began to "homestead." Today tourism and construction are still the largest growth industries in the county.

For more information, check out the Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Island historical museums' websites at www.historicsanjuans.org.