The Pig War: Standoff At Griffin Bay

Author Event with Mike Vouri at Griffin Bay Bookstore

“The Pig War – Standoff at Griffin Bay” an Author Event at Griffin Bay Bookstore, Saturday, April 20 at 7:00 PM

Griffin Bay Bookstore is proud to invite the community to attend a special event for San Juan Island historian Mike Vouri, on Saturday evening, April 20, 7:00 pm. Mike will present the just-released second edition of The Pig War: Standoff at Griffin Bay. First published by Griffin Bay Bookstore in 1999, and now distributed by the University of Washington Press, this definitive new edition has been revised and expanded with additional photographs, maps, drawings, and 100 more pages of text that provide fresh insights into the boundary dispute that confounded diplomats of three nations, but never quite descended into a shooting war.

Don’t miss this chance to hear Mike talk about new discoveries about the boundary dispute that began in 1859, when Great Britain and the United States almost went to war over the Northwest boundary when an American farmer shot a British pig.

“I’m frequently asked, ‘Why more work on a book already in print?’” said Vouri. “The answer is simple: Fourteen years have passed since the first iteration and when you work with a topic everyday as I have, as park historian, there has been no end to “Ah Hah(!)” moments either in the park or visiting the archives of three nations.”

Among these was an encounter between U.S. Coast Surveyor Steam Active skipper, James Alden and Gov. James Douglas of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island; a struggle over a revolver at the height of the crisis period between George Pickett and a rebellious subordinate; and a wealth of information about the joint occupation that did not appear in the first book.
But even as the new edition was going to press a whole new body of information arose, which could not be included, Vouri said. “And that’s the beauty of history,” he said. “It is a dynamic, ever-changing process.

Sources for The Pig War: Standoff at Griffin Bay include U.S. Coast Survey records, Hudson’s Bay Company documents, the National Archives of Great Britain and images from the Library of Congress, the National Archives and the Beinecke Library at Yale University.

About the author
Mike Vouri has for 18 years been a National Park Service historian/ranger for San Juan Island National Historical Park. In addition to Pig War: Standoff at Griffin Bay, he has published Outpost of Empire: The Royal Marines and Joint Occupation of San Juan island (DYNW/UW Press, 2004), Images of America: The Pig War (Arcadia Publishing 2008) and co-authored with his wife, Julia Vouri, Images of America: Friday Harbor (Arcadia Publishing, 2009) and Images of America: San Juan Island (Arcadia Publishing, 2010). For more than 16 years he has toured the region in the one-act play, “The Life and Times of General George E. Pickett.” He has been featured on the History Channel (“Forgotten Wars”) and in the pages of The Smithsonian (June 2005).

You can support the San Juan Update by doing business with our loyal advertisers, and by making a one-time contribution or a recurring donation.