Grab your mag­ni­fy­ing glass and explore nature in San Juan Island Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park, like nev­er before! On May 20–21, nation­al parks across the coun­try, includ­ing San Juan Island, will par­tic­i­pate in the Nation­al Parks BioBlitz. BioBlitz is a fun, fast-paced bio­log­i­cal sur­vey of a park’s creep­ers and crawlers, plants and pol­li­na­tors, mam­mals and more!  Con­tin­ue Reading

FHHS Junior Kendra Clifton-Pew has been select­ed to explore the ocean on the “Nau­tilus”, the explo­ration ves­sel used by Dr. Robert Bal­lard when he dis­cov­ered the Titan­ic ship­wreck. Edu­ca­tors and stu­dents par­tic­i­pate in ground­break­ing STEM ini­tia­tive explor­ing deep-sea biol­o­gy, geol­o­gy, and archae­ol­o­gy in the East­ern Pacif­ic Kendra has been select­ed as a 2016 Hon­ors Research  Con­tin­ue Reading

In hon­or of this month’s “His­to­ry Lives Here” cel­e­bra­tion the Land Bank and SJI Nation­al His­toric Park are host­ing an after­noon of fun and learn­ing for kids, cen­tered around the her­itage fruit trees in his­toric Drig­gs Park (adja­cent to the Land Bank office) and pol­li­na­tors. There will be games and art projects, as well as  Con­tin­ue Reading

Tourism to San Juan Island Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park cre­ates Over $19 mil­lion in Eco­nom­ic Ben­e­fits Report shows vis­i­tor spend­ing sup­ports 198 jobs in local econ­o­my A new Nation­al Park Ser­vice (NPS) report shows that 258,668 vis­i­tors to San Juan Island Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park (NHP) in 2015 spent $14,811,700 in com­mu­ni­ties near the park. That spend­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading

Here’s some press for the new book by local author and cre­ative direc­tor Sara Jensen… On May 3, Sara Jensen read her new­ly released book “Be Glad Your Dad…” aloud at Fri­day Har­bor Ele­men­tary School to grades K‑4. The book is avail­able local­ly at Peb­ble and Grif­fin Bay Book­store, both locat­ed on Fri­day Har­bor’s Spring  Con­tin­ue Reading

San Juan Island Library Book­mark Con­test Under­way for Grades K‑6th Stu­dents in grades K‑6th are invit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the Library’s Book­mark Con­test. The Book­mark Con­test is held annu­al­ly to pro­mote read­ing, illus­tra­tion, and to help kick off the Sum­mer Read­ing Pro­gram. This year’s theme is On Your Mark, Get Set, READ!  How does the Con­test Work? Pick  Con­tin­ue Reading

It’s time for the May 2016 edi­tion of the SJ His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety’s month­ly his­to­ry col­umn… From Ade­line to 50th Anniver­sary, His­to­ry Lives Here This month, the San Juan His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety cel­e­brates the 50th Anniver­sary of its Muse­um. This pho­to from about 1904 shows what is assumed to be Ade­line Ver­ri­er King, wife of James King, prob­a­bly with their youngest daugh­ter Alice. Over  Con­tin­ue Reading

Smug­gling, mur­der and fast boats in the San Juan Islands If you love a leisure­ly cruise around the San Juan Islands and are curi­ous about the smug­glers of olde that haunt­ed our shores, the Orcas Island His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety invites you to climb aboard the “Cruise Into His­to­ry” yacht that leaves from the Orcas fer­ry land­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading