124-645: The San Juan Islands is an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island , British Columbia , Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of San Juan County . In the archipelago, four islands are accessible to vehicular and foot traffic via the Washington State Ferries system. The Gulf of Georgia Culture Area encompasses
248-472: A co-dominion of interests in the region in lieu of a settlement. In 1840, American Charles Wilkes explored in the area. John McLoughlin , Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company , headquartered at Fort Vancouver, was the de facto local political authority for most of this time. This arrangement ended as U.S. settlement grew and President James K. Polk was elected on a platform of calling for annexation of
372-691: A deep and wide gorge around the rim of the Columbia Plateau and through the Cascade Range on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Because many areas have plentiful rainfall and mild summers, the Pacific Northwest has some of North America's most lush and extensive forests, which are extensively populated with Coast Douglas fir trees, the second tallest growing evergreen conifer on earth. The region also contains specimens of
496-640: A dispute with the Colony of Vancouver Island over the ownership of the San Juan Islands, with the US claiming Haro Strait as the border and Britain claiming Rosario Strait. The resulting Pig War and San Juan Dispute were a diplomatic stalemate until the boundary issue was placed in the hands of Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany for arbitration in 1871. The border through Haro Strait was established in 1872. The surrounding bodies of water, including Puget Sound and
620-550: A diversity of cultures and societies. Some areas were home to mobile and egalitarian societies. Others, especially along major rivers such as the Columbia and Fraser, had very complex, affluent, sedentary societies rivaling those of the coast. In British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, the Haida and Tlingit erected large and elaborately carved totem poles that have become iconic of Pacific Northwest artistic traditions. Throughout
744-513: A major navigation beacon, Turn Point Light , is located. Strong, dangerous rip tides occur near Turn Point, as well as near the northern end of Boundary Pass, between Patos Island Light on Patos Island and East Point on Saturna Island . Rosario Strait is also a major shipping channel. More than 500 oil tankers pass through the strait each year, to and from the Cherry Point Refinery and refineries near Anacortes. The strait
868-691: A nation of hunters". Maritime fur trader Charles William Barkley also visited the area in Imperial Eagle , a British ship falsely flying the flag of the Austrian Empire . American merchant sea-captain Robert Gray traded along the coast, and discovered the mouth of the Columbia River . Explorer Alexander Mackenzie completed in 1793 the first continental crossing in what is called today central British Columbia and reached
992-705: A part of the Great Basin Desert , although by their northern and eastern reaches, dry land and desert areas verge at the end of the Cascades' and Coast Mountains ' rain shadows with the boreal forest and various alpine flora regimes characteristic of eastern British Columbia, the Idaho Panhandle and western Montana roughly along a longitudinal line defined by the Idaho border with Washington and Oregon. The North American inland temperate rainforest
1116-555: A point on the ground at this latitude, the sun is above the horizon for 16 hours, 12 minutes during the summer solstice and 8 hours, 14 minutes during the winter solstice . This latitude also roughly corresponds to the minimum latitude in which astronomical twilight can last all night near the summer solstice. All-night astronomical twilight lasts from about June 9th to July 2nd . "49°00'N, 45°00'E — Sunrise, Sunset, and Daylength, June 2024" . "49°00'N, 45°00'E — Sunrise, Sunset, and Daylength, July 2024" . At midnight on
1240-567: A population of approximately 530,000), the Okanagan Valley in the British Columbia interior (about 350,000 people centered around the city of Kelowna, which has close to 200,000 people). Large geographical areas may only have one mid-sized to small-sized city as a regional center (often a county seat), with smaller cities and towns scattered around. Vast areas of the region may have little or no population at all, largely due to
1364-697: A result, Wilkes' names are common in Puget Sound and Spanish names are rare, while the opposite is true for the San Juan and Gulf Islands. Wilkes had named the San Juan Islands the Navy Archipelago and individual islands after U.S. naval officers, such as Rodgers Island for San Juan Island, " Chauncey " for Lopez Island, and Hull Island for Orcas Island. Some of Wilkes' names, such as Shaw, Decatur, Jones, Blakely, and Sinclair, named after American naval officers, survived Kellett's editing. In 1843,
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#17327655966291488-565: A suitable harbor to repair his ailing ship. On June 17, Drake and his crew found a protected cove when they landed on the Pacific coast of what is now Northern California. While ashore, he claimed the area for Queen Elizabeth I as Nova Albion or New Albion . Juan de Fuca , a Greek captain sailing for the Crown of Spain , supposedly found the Strait of Juan de Fuca around 1592. The strait
1612-602: A third Spanish expedition, under the command of Ignacio de Artega in the ship Princesa , and with Quadra as captain of the ship Favorite , sailed from Mexico to the coast of Alaska, reaching 61° N . Two further Spanish expeditions, in 1788 and 1789, both under Esteban Jose Martínez and Gonzalo López de Haro , sailed to the Pacific Northwest. During the second expedition, they met the American captain Robert Gray near Nootka Sound . Upon entering Nootka Sound, they found William Douglas and his ship Iphigenia . Conflict led to
1736-622: A very large presence in Tacoma's Hilltop and South Tacoma neighborhoods, Seattle's Central District and Rainier Valley neighborhoods, and in Portland's Northeast Quadrant. There are growing numbers in Vancouver as well, particularly Africans, Jamaicans and Black people from the United States. Beginning in the late 20th century, a general suburbanization of East and South Asian communities occurred in Vancouver, prompting concerns regarding
1860-796: Is a diverse geographic region, dominated by several mountain ranges, including the Coast Mountains , the Cascade Range , the Olympic Mountains , the Columbia Mountains , and the Rocky Mountains . The highest peak in the Pacific Northwest is Mount Rainier, in the Washington Cascades, at 14,410 feet (4,392 m). Immediately inland from the Cascade Range are broad, generally dry plateaus. In
1984-702: Is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common conception includes the U.S. states of Oregon , Washington , Idaho , and the Canadian province of British Columbia . Some broader conceptions reach north into Alaska and Yukon , south into northern California , and east into western Montana . Other conceptions may be limited to
2108-588: Is a specimen of elk in the Slater Museum of Natural History at the University of Puget Sound that was collected on Orcas Island, and old-timers report finding elk antlers on both Lopez and Orcas Islands. Before 1850, most of the freshwater on the islands was held in beaver ( Castor canadensis ) ponds, although the aquatic mammal was extirpated by Hudson's Bay Company fur stations at Fort Langley and San Juan Island. Remnants of beaver dams number in
2232-663: Is closely associated with the North Central Rockies forests ecoregion designated by the WWF , which extends over a similar range but incorporates various non-temperate rainforest ecosystems. The overwhelming majority of the population of the Pacific Northwest is concentrated in the Portland–Seattle–Vancouver corridor. As of 2016, the combined populations of the Lower Mainland region (which includes
2356-586: Is defined as being the Northwestern United States specifically, excluding Canada . The Pacific Northwest has been occupied by a diverse array of indigenous peoples for millennia. The Pacific Coast is seen by some scholars as a major coastal migration route in the settlement of the Americas by late Pleistocene peoples moving from northeast Asia into the Americas. The coastal migration hypothesis has been bolstered by findings such as
2480-448: Is due to immigration quotas at the federal level, as while Canada has one-tenth the population of the United States, it takes in one-quarter as many immigrants, many of whom are from Asia. Vancouver settled about a quarter of all emigrants from Hong Kong to Canada in the late 1980s. In the U.S. side of the region, Latinos make up a large portion of the agricultural labor force east of the Cascade Range, and are an increasing presence in
2604-518: Is in constant use by vessels bound for Cherry Point, Bellingham , Anacortes, and the San Juan Islands. Vessels bound for British Columbia or Alaska also frequently use it in preference to the passages farther west, when greater advantage can be taken of the tidal currents. This list includes only those islands that are part of San Juan County as defined by the USGS, bounded by the Strait of Juan de Fuca , Haro Strait , Rosario Strait , Boundary Pass , and
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#17327655966292728-543: Is in the so-called interior wet-belt, approximately 500–700 km inland from the Pacific coast on western, windward mountain slopes and valley bottoms of the Columbia Mountains and the Rocky Mountains . The interior wet-belt refers to a discontinuous band of humid forest patches, that are scattered over 1000 km between Purden Lake in Canada's British Columbia (54° North) and Montana and Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains and Idaho's Salmon River Mountains (45° North). It
2852-429: Is possible on Vancouver Island due to the mild winters. The Big Dark is a term for winter in the Pacific Northwest. At a latitude of almost 48 degrees north , Seattle has sunsets before 6 PM between October and March, and fewer than nine hours of daylight for many weeks around the winter solstice. The darkness contributes to seasonal affective disorder among people living in northern cities, including those in
2976-733: Is the largest of the world's temperate rain forest ecoregions in the system created by the World Wildlife Fund , stretches along the coast from Alaska to California. The dry desert inland from the Cascade Range and Coast Mountains is very different from the terrain and climate of the coastal area due to the rain shadow effect of the mountains, and comprises the Columbia, Fraser and Thompson Plateaus and mountain ranges contained within them. The interior regions' climates largely within Eastern Washington, south central British Columbia, Eastern Oregon, and southern Idaho are
3100-626: The 1700 Cascadia earthquake . The geological record reveals that "great earthquakes" (those with moment magnitude 8 or higher) occur in the Cascadia subduction zone about every 500 years on average, often accompanied by tsunamis . There is evidence of at least 13 events at intervals from about 300 to 900 years. Active volcanoes in the region include Mount Garibaldi , Mount Baker , Mount Rainier , Mount St. Helens , Mount Adams , Mount Hood , Mount Meager , Mount Jefferson , Mount Shasta , Lassen Peak and Glacier Peak . The Pacific Northwest
3224-706: The Canada side, and from Washington to Minnesota on the U.S. side, more specifically from the Strait of Georgia to the Lake of the Woods . This international border was specified in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 and the Oregon Treaty of 1846, though survey markers placed in the 19th century cause the border to deviate from the 49th parallel by up to 810 metres (2,660 ft). From
3348-540: The Canadian province of British Columbia. Broader definitions of the region have included the U.S. states of Alaska and parts of the states of California, Montana, and Wyoming, and the Canadian territory of Yukon . Definitions based on the historic Oregon Country reach east to the Continental Divide , thus including all of western Montana and western Wyoming . Sometimes, the Pacific Northwest
3472-582: The Discovery Islands , charting the coastline together. They passed through Johnstone Strait and Cordero Channel and returned to Nootka Sound. As a result, the Spanish explorers, who had set out from Nootka, became the first Europeans to circumnavigate Vancouver Island. Vancouver himself had entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca directly without going to Nootka first, so had not sailed completely around
3596-501: The Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island . The 1846 Oregon Treaty established the 49th parallel as the border between Canada and the US, with Vancouver Island remaining British. The treaty did not specify which channel the border should follow between the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, leading to a boundary dispute. In 1852, the Territory of Oregon created Island County , including
3720-589: The Inside Passage , even though it is not an official international waterway. Disputes between British Columbia and Alaska over the Dixon Entrance of the Hecate Strait between Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii have not been resolved. The Northwest is still highly geologically active, with both active volcanoes and geologic faults . The last known great earthquake in the northwest was
3844-572: The Lewis and Clark Expedition to travel through the Midwest starting from St. Louis , cross the Continental Divide and reach the Columbia River up to its mouth. Americans reached the Pacific Ocean "overland" in 1805. The Pacific Fur Company sent in 1811 an "over-lander" crew including a large contingent of Voyageurs to retrace most of the path of the earlier expedition up to the mouth of
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3968-746: The Metro Vancouver Regional District ), the Seattle metropolitan area , and the Portland metropolitan area totaled more than nine million people. However, beyond these three cities, the PNW region is characterized by a very low density population distribution. Some other regions of greater population density outside this corridor include the Greater Victoria area and Greater Nanaimo area on Southern Vancouver Island (with
4092-572: The Missouri River and Mississippi River basins on one side and the Hudson Bay basin on the other. However, it is often difficult to precisely determine the location of a watershed in a region of level plains, such as in central North America . The British and American committees that met after the War of 1812 to resolve boundary disputes recognized there would be much animosity in surveying
4216-594: The Métis , Assiniboine , Lakota , and Blackfoot . Their power was gradually ceded by conquest and treaty during the several decades that followed. Among these peoples, the 49th parallel was nicknamed the Medicine Line because of its seemingly magical ability to prevent U.S. soldiers from crossing it. In the 1844 U.S. presidential election , the Democratic Party asserted that the northern border of
4340-607: The Nootka Crisis , which was resolved by agreements known as the Nootka Convention . In 1790, the Spanish sent three ships to Nootka Sound, under the command of Francisco de Eliza . After establishing a base at Nootka, Eliza sent out several exploration parties. Salvador Fidalgo was sent north to the Alaska coast. Manuel Quimper , with Gonzalo López de Haro as pilot, explored the Strait of Juan de Fuca, discovering
4464-478: The Nootka Sound Conventions , the last in 1794, Spain gave up its exclusive a priori claims and agreed to share the region with the other powers , giving up its garrison at Nootka Sound in the process. The United States established a claim based on the discoveries of Robert Gray , the Lewis and Clark Expedition , the construction of Fort Astoria, and the acquisition of Spanish claims given to
4588-758: The North West Company (NWC). During the 1820s, the upper Willamette, the Umpqua , the Rogue , the Klamath were all reached still heading southward up toward the Sacramento River and California under the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) having now itself acquired the NWC. The Siskiyou Trail was gradually being established by Alexander Roderick McLeod and Peter Skene Ogden leading related expeditions for
4712-597: The North West Company , the Pacific Fur Company or the Hudson's Bay Company include: Fort Saint-James (1806; oldest in British Columbia west of the Rockies), Fort Astoria (1811; oldest in Oregon), Fort Nez Percés (1818), Fort Alexandria (1821), Fort Vancouver (1824), Fort Langley (1827; oldest in southern British Columbia), Fort Nisqually (1833), and Fort Victoria (1843). Also of interest are
4836-503: The Northwest Territories of Canada . The region is sometimes referred to as Cascadia, which, depending on the borders, may or may not be the same thing as the Pacific Northwest. The region's largest metropolitan areas are Greater Seattle , Washington, with 4 million people; Metro Vancouver , British Columbia, with 2.84 million people; and Greater Portland , Oregon, with 2.5 million people. The culture of
4960-656: The Olympic Peninsula near the mouth of the Quinault River . On August 17, 1775, Heceta, returning south, sighted the mouth of the Columbia River and named it Bahia de la Asunción . While Heceta sailed south, Quadra continued north in the expedition's second ship, Sonora , reaching Alaska , at 59° N . In 1778 English mariner Captain James Cook visited Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island and also voyaged as far as Prince William Sound . In 1779,
5084-404: The Oregon Coast , Burrard Inlet , Puget Sound , and the highly complex fjords of the British Columbia Coast and Southeast Alaska . The region has one of the world's longest fjord coastlines. The Pacific Northwest contains an uncountable number of islands, many of the smaller ones being unnamed. The vast majority of such islands are in British Columbia and Alaska. Vancouver Island is by far
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5208-404: The Oregon Territory in 1848. It was later subdivided into Oregon Territory and Washington Territory . These territories became the states of Oregon, Idaho, Washington and parts of other Western states. During the American Civil War , British Columbia officials pushed for London to invade and conquer the Washington Territory in effort to take advantage of Americans being distracted in the war on
5332-472: The Oregon Territory should be 54°40′, later reflected in the 1846 slogan " Fifty-Four Forty or Fight !" However, the Oregon boundary dispute was settled diplomatically in the 1846 Oregon Treaty. This agreement divided the Oregon Country between British North America and the United States by extending the 49th parallel boundary to the west coast, ending in the Strait of Georgia ; it then circumvents Vancouver Island through Boundary Pass , Haro Strait , and
5456-441: The Pacific Ocean , North America , and the Atlantic Ocean . The city of Paris is about 15 km (9 mi) south of the 49th parallel and is the largest city between the 48th and 49th parallels. Its main airport, Charles de Gaulle Airport , lies on the parallel. Roughly 2,030 kilometres (1,260 mi) of the Canada–United States border was designated to follow the 49th parallel from British Columbia to Manitoba on
5580-452: The Pacific Ocean . Simon Fraser explored and mapped the Fraser River from Central British Columbia down to its mouth in 1808. And mapmaker David Thompson explored in 1811 the entire route of the Columbia River from its northern headwaters all the way to its mouth. These explorations were commissioned by the North West Company and were all undertaken with small teams of Voyageurs . United States President Thomas Jefferson commissioned
5704-407: The Puget Sound region . The darkness is enhanced by a return from dry summers to extremely cloudy and wet weather characterized by recurring atmospheric rivers and Pacific Northwest windstorms . Much of the Pacific Northwest is forested. The Georgia Strait – Puget Sound basin is shared between western British Columbia and Washington, and the Pacific temperate rain forests ecoregion, which
5828-510: The Salish Sea . The USGS definition of the San Juan archipelago coincides with San Juan County . Islands not in San Juan County are not part of the San Juan Islands, according to the USGS. NOAA notes that, while geopolitically divided, the San Juan Islands and Canadian Gulf Islands geologically form part of a larger Gulf Archipelago. At mean high tide, the San Juan Islands comprise over 400 islands and rocks, 128 of which are named, and over 478 miles (769 km) of shoreline. The majority of
5952-422: The San Juan and Gulf Island chains. The major cities of Vancouver, Portland , Seattle , and Tacoma all began as seaports supporting the logging, mining, and farming industries of the region, but have developed into major technological and industrial centers (such as the Silicon Forest ), which benefit from their location on the Pacific Rim . If defined as British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon and Washington,
6076-559: The San Juan Islands and Admiralty Inlet in the process. Francisco de Eliza himself took the ship San Carlos into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. From a base at Port Discovery , his pilotos ( masters ) José María Narváez and Juan Carrasco explored the San Juan Islands , Haro Strait , Rosario Strait , and Bellingham Bay . In the process, they discovered the Strait of Georgia and explored it as far north as Texada Island . The expedition returned to Nootka Sound by August 1791. Alessandro Malaspina , sailing for Spain, explored and mapped
6200-530: The Strait of Georgia . 2016 populations estimates for inhabited islands are in parentheses, though some have major seasonal changes. Islands protected as state parks are marked with an asterisk. Additional small rocks are listed at San Juan Islands National Monument . 48°31′55″N 123°01′45″W / 48.532066°N 123.029251°W / 48.532066; -123.029251 Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest ( PNW ; French : Nord-Ouest Pacifique ), sometimes referred to as Cascadia ,
6324-441: The Strait of Juan de Fuca . This had the side effect of isolating Point Roberts, Washington . Although parts of Vancouver Island and parts of Eastern Canada are south of the 49th parallel, and parts of the United States ( Alaska , Northwest Angle ) are north of it, the term 49th parallel is sometimes used metonymically to refer to the entire Canada–U.S. border. Actually, many of Canada's most populated regions (and about 72% of
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#17327655966296448-495: The War of 1812 or members of his crew, possibly unaware of the already existing Spanish names and charts. Henry Kellett led a project in 1847 to reorganize the official charts of the region for the British Admiralty. The project only applied to British territory, which at the time included the San Juan Islands but not Puget Sound . Kellett removed most of the names given by Wilkes and kept British and Spanish names, sometimes moving Spanish names to replace those given by Wilkes. As
6572-485: The tallest trees on earth, the coast redwoods , in southwestern Oregon, but the largest of these trees are located just south of the California border in northwestern California. Coastal forests in some areas are classified as temperate rainforest . Coastal features are defined by the interaction with the Pacific and the North American continent. The coastline of the Pacific Northwest is dotted by numerous fjords, bays, islands, and mountains. Some of these features include
6696-401: The 1870s and the 1880s, though no cross-border attacks were experienced. During the Alaska Boundary Dispute , U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt threatened to invade and annex British Columbia if Britain would not yield on the question of the Yukon ports. In more recent times, during the so-called " Salmon War " of the 1990s, Washington Senator Slade Gorton called for the U.S. Navy to "force"
6820-425: The Columbia and join the company ship. The Tonquin came oversea via Cape Horn to build and operate Fort Astoria . These early land expeditions mapped the way for subsequent land explorations and building early settlements. The Willamette River was the first PNW inland waterway to be explored north–south during trapping expeditions carried out throughout the 1810s by the Pacific Fur Company soon acquired by
6944-445: The Columbia. Noteworthy Russian settlements still in place include: Unalaska (1774), Kodiak (1791), and Sitka (1804) making them the oldest permanent non-Indigenous settlements in the Pacific Northwest. Temporary Spanish settlement Santa Cruz de Nuca (1789–1795) held on a few years at Nootka Sound . Other early occupation non-Indigenous settlements of interest, either long lasting or still in place, built and operated by either
7068-463: The Eastern region. This was rejected, as the UK did not wish to risk war with the United States, whose forces were better prepared and trained much more than the British troops. American expansionist pressure on British Columbia persisted after the colony became a province of Canada, even though Americans living in the province did not harbor annexationist inclinations. The Fenian Brotherhood openly organized and drilled in Washington, particularly in
7192-450: The European population contains large communities of English Canadians , Scottish Canadians , Irish Canadians , French Canadians , German Canadians , and many others. Europeans form between 80 and 90 per cent of the population in U.S. section of the Pacific Northwest, thus the Asian presence is comparably smaller, with all Asian groups together comprising about 8% of Washington state's population, and less than 4% in Oregon and Idaho. This
7316-421: The HBC. Also during the 1820s, HBC explorations were carried out northward originating from the Columbia River Fort Astoria long renamed to Fort George. Simon Plamondon first ventured during the early 20s into the Cowlitz River up to Cowlitz Prairie . By 1824, an expedition led by James McMillan was reaching Puget Sound via the Chehalis River (Washington) and a portage. The same expedition went on all
7440-405: The Northwest Coast, they found one of the world's most complex hunting and fishing societies, with large sedentary villages, large houses, systems of social rank and prestige, extensive trade networks, and many other factors more commonly associated with societies based on domesticated agriculture. In the interior of the Pacific Northwest, the indigenous peoples, at the time of European contact, had
7564-467: The Pacific Northwest are temperate; cool temperatures and frequent cloudy skies are typical. Under the Köppen climate classification , a warm-summer Mediterranean ( Csb ) designation is assigned to many areas of the Pacific Northwest as far north as central Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands , including cities such as Victoria , Vancouver (coast area), Seattle, and Portland. Other climate classification systems, such as Trewartha , place these areas in
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#17327655966297688-488: The Pacific Northwest has four US National Parks : Crater Lake in Oregon, and Olympic , Mount Rainier , and North Cascades in Washington. If a larger regional definition is used, then other US National Parks might be included, such as Redwood National and State Parks , Glacier Bay National Park , Wrangell–St. Elias National Park , Grand Teton National Park , and parts of Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park . There are several Canadian National Parks in
7812-400: The Pacific Northwest is influenced by the Canada–United States border , which the United States and the United Kingdom established at a time when the region's inhabitants were composed mostly of indigenous peoples . Two sections of the border—one along the 49th parallel south of British Columbia and one between the Alaska Panhandle and northern British Columbia—have left a great impact on
7936-403: The Pacific Northwest, including Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Mount Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park in the Selkirk Range alongside Rogers Pass , Kootenay National Park and Yoho National Park on the British Columbia flank of the Rockies, Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve in Haida Gwaii, and the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve in
8060-526: The Pacific Northwest, thousands of indigenous people live, and some continue to practice their rich cultural traditions, "organizing their societies around cedar and salmon". In 1579, the British captain and erstwhile privateer Francis Drake sailed up the west coast of North America perhaps as far as Oregon before returning south to land and make ship repairs. On 5 June 1579, the ship briefly made first landfall at South Cove, Cape Arago, just south of Coos Bay, Oregon , and then sailed south while searching for
8184-575: The San Juan Islands are quite hilly, with some flat areas and valleys in between, often quite fertile. The tallest peak is Mount Constitution , on Orcas Island, at an elevation of 2,407 feet (734 m). The coastlines are a mix of sandy and rocky beaches, shallow inlets and deep harbors, placid coves and reef-studded bays. Gnarled, ochre-colored madrona trees ( Arbutus ) grace much of the shorelines, while evergreen fir and pine forests cover large inland areas. The San Juan Islands get substantially less rainfall than Seattle , about 65 miles (105 km) to
8308-404: The San Juan Islands are sparse, there is a sea otter specimen collected in 1897 in the "Strait of Fuca" in the National Museum of Natural History . When the sea otter finally received federal protection in 1911, Washington's sea otter had been hunted to extinction, and although a small remnant population still existed in British Columbia, it soon died out. Fifty-nine sea otters were re-introduced to
8432-451: The San Juan Islands is provided by: The San Juan Islands are surrounded by major shipping channels. Haro Strait, along with Boundary Pass, is the westernmost and most heavily used channel connecting the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia. It is the main route connecting the Port of Vancouver and other ports around the Strait of Georgia with the Pacific Ocean. Haro Strait joins Boundary Pass at Turn Point on Stuart Island, where
8556-401: The San Juan Islands. In 1853, Island County became part of the Washington Territory , which created Whatcom County out of parts of Island County in 1854. The San Juan Islands were finally split off into present-day San Juan County in 1873. In 1855, Washington Territory levied a property tax on properties of the Hudson's Bay Company on San Juan Island, which the HBC refused to pay. This led to
8680-446: The San Juan Islands; therefore, all travel from the mainland is either by water or by air. Four ferry systems serve some of the San Juan Islands. Passenger-only ferries serve more islands. Passenger-only ferry service is usually seasonal and offered by private business. There are a number of public and private airports and seaplane bases throughout the San Juan Islands. Airports: Seaplane bases: Scheduled and on demand service to
8804-480: The San Juan and Gulf Islands , which share many archaeological similarities. These islands were home to various Coast Salish peoples, including the Nooksack and Northern Straits groups (consisting of the Lummi , Klallam , Saanich , Samish , and Songhees dialects). European exploration in the area introduced smallpox in the 1770s. The Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza named the San Juan Islands Isla y Archipiélago de San Juan in 1791 while sailing under
8928-423: The Spanish settlement and Fort San Miguel . Quadra sent Caamaño north, to carefully explore the coast between Vancouver Island and Bucareli Bay , Alaska. Various Spanish maps, including Caamaño's, were given to George Vancouver in 1792, as the Spanish and British worked together to chart the complex coastline. From 1792 to 1794, George Vancouver charted the Pacific Northwest on behalf of Great Britain, including
9052-601: The Strait of Georgia, the bays and inlets of Puget Sound , and the Johnstone Strait – Queen Charlotte Strait and much of the rest of the British Columbia Coast and southeast Alaska shorelines. For him the city of Vancouver and Vancouver Island are named, as well as Vancouver, Washington . From Mexico, Malaspina dispatched the last Spanish exploration expedition in the Pacific Northwest, under Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayentano Valdes aboard
9176-484: The Strait of Georgia. There are numerous protected areas in British Columbia and in the United States . Other outstanding natural features include the Columbia River Gorge , Fraser Canyon , Mount St. Helens , Malaspina Glacier , and Hells Canyon . The south-central Coast Mountains in British Columbia contain the five largest mid-latitude icefields in the world. The main general climatic types of
9300-855: The Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca, were recognized collectively as the Salish Sea , by the United States in 2009 and by Canada in 2010. On the 7th of June 2024, a T-34 plane driven by former astronaut and air force pilot, Bill Anders , crashed on the San Juan Islands. Anders did not survive the crash. The islands were heavily logged in the nineteenth century, but now have an extensive second-growth coast Douglas fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii ), Pacific madrone ( Arbutus menziesii ), red alder ( Alnus rubra ) and bigleaf maple ( Acer macrophyllum ) forest. There are small stands of old-growth Douglas fir and western redcedar ( Thuja plicata ), mostly within long standing privately held property. In
9424-668: The US, this region is known as the Columbia Plateau , while in British Columbia, it is the Interior Plateau , also called the Fraser Plateau . The Columbia Plateau was the scene of massive ice-age floods, and as a consequence, there are many coulees , canyons, and the Channeled Scablands . Much of the plateau, especially in eastern Washington, is irrigated farmland . The Columbia River cuts
9548-480: The United States cede the territory to Great Britain, but no action was ever taken. In 1909 the United States, United Kingdom , and Canada signed and ratified a treaty confirming the original survey lines as the official and permanent international border. Nevertheless, in 2002 the difference of the survey from the geographical 49th parallel was argued in front of the Washington Supreme Court in
9672-640: The United States in the Adams–Onís Treaty . From the 1810s until the 1840s, modern-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana, along with most of British Columbia, were part of what the United States called the Oregon Country and Britain called the Columbia District . This region was jointly claimed by the United States and Great Britain after the Treaty of 1818 , which established
9796-526: The Washington coast from Amchitka Island , Alaska, in the summers of 1969 and 1970, and these have expanded by 8% per year, mainly along the outer west and northwest coast of the Olympic Peninsula . Professional marine mammal biologists verified a single sea otter observed near Cattle Point, San Juan Island, in October 1996. Although the historical numbers of sea otter in the San Juan Islands is not known,
9920-496: The Woods, and this was retained even after an 1818 treaty set the boundary west of that point to follow the 49th parallel. At the time that the United States and Great Britain agreed on the 49th parallel as the boundary, much of the North American continent had not yet been mapped. After the boundary was established, British surveyors discovered that Point Roberts lay south of the 49th parallel. The British requested that
10044-461: The authority of Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo , the Viceroy of Mexico. Eliza named several places for the Viceroy, including Orcas Island (short for "Horcasitas") and Guemes Island . San Juan Island's first European discoverer was Gonzalo López de Haro , one of Eliza's officers, for whom Haro Strait is named. The Spanish had previously encountered
10168-457: The average. In any case, the Earth's North Pole moves around slightly, notionally moving the 49th and other parallels with it; see polar motion . The Northwest Angle is the only part of the contiguous 48 states that goes north of the 49th parallel as surveyed. The Treaty of Paris called for the boundary between the US and British territory to pass through the most northwesterly point of Lake of
10292-579: The border disputes (see Pig War ). The mainland territory north of the 49th parallel remained unincorporated until 1858, when a mass influx of Americans and others during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush forced the hand of Colony of Vancouver Island 's Governor James Douglas , who declared the mainland a Crown colony . The two colonies were amalgamated in 1866 to cut costs, and joined the Dominion of Canada in 1871. The U.S. portion became
10416-422: The case of State of Washington v. Norman , under the premise that Washington did not properly incorporate the portions of land north of the geographical 49th parallel, as laid out by detailed GPS surveying. The court decided against the premise, ruling that the internationally surveyed boundary also served as the state boundary, regardless of its actual position. The British national grid reference system uses
10540-503: The coast from Yakutat Bay to Prince William Sound in 1791, then sailed to Nootka Sound. Performing a scientific expedition in the manner of James Cook, Malaspina's scientists studied the Tlingit and Nuu-chah-nulth peoples before returning to Mexico. Another Spanish explorer, Jacinto Caamaño , sailed the ship Aranzazu to Nootka Sound in May 1792. There he met Quadra, who was in command of
10664-849: The coastal areas west of the Cascade and Coast mountains. The Northwest Coast is the coastal region of the Pacific Northwest, and the Northwest Plateau (also commonly known as " the Interior " in British Columbia), is the inland region. The term "Pacific Northwest" should not be confused with the Northwest Territory (also known as the Great Northwest, a historical term in the United States) or
10788-576: The coastal migration hypothesis is still subject to considerable debate. Due in part to the richness of Pacific Northwest Coast and river fisheries, some of the indigenous peoples developed complex sedentary societies, while remaining hunter-gatherers . The Pacific Northwest Coast is one of the few places where politically complex hunter-gatherers evolved and survived to historic contacts, and therefore has been vital for anthropologists and archaeologists seeking to understand how complex hunter and gatherer societies function. When Europeans first arrived on
10912-639: The east, and the Rocky Mountains , on the west. West of the Rockies, the treaty established joint occupation of the Oregon Country by both parties; east of Lake of the Woods, the boundary established in the Treaty of Paris would be retained. Although the Convention of 1818 settled the boundary, neither country was immediately able to take control over the territories on its side of the line; effective control still rested with local First Nations peoples, mainly
11036-527: The entire Oregon Country and of Texas. After his election, supporters coined the famous slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight", referring to 54°40′ north latitude —the northward limit of the United States' claim. After a war scare with the United Kingdom, the Oregon boundary dispute was settled in the 1846 Oregon Treaty , partitioning the region along the 49th parallel and resolving most, but not all, of
11160-679: The first mixed ancestry settlements sometimes referred as Métis settlements or French Canadian settlements. Native and newly arrived "half-breeds" (born out of "Europeans" and Indigenous alliances), local and newly arrived Indigenous people as well as "French Canadians" all issued of the fur trade were all able to peacefully coexist. Small scale farming occurred. Catholic missions and churches thrived for many years. These first settlements were: French Prairie , Frenchtown near Walla Walla, Cowlitz Prairie (Washington), French Settlement (Oregon) and Frenchtown near Missoula. Most mixed ancestry people ended up resettled in or around Indigenous reserves during
11284-584: The general labor force west of the Cascades. Despite the Second Great Migration from the 1940s to 1960s due to the booming Boeing war industry and post-war growing economy, African Americans are less numerous in the Pacific Northwest; however, the overall African American population has been growing in other smaller urban areas throughout the region such as Eugene. African Americans tend to concentrate in western urban areas such as Tacoma, south Seattle, and Portland. Nonetheless, Black people have
11408-482: The habitat for them may have once been ideal. In the 1890s non-native European rabbits , an exotic invasive species , began to infest the islands as the result of the release of domestic rabbits on Smith Island . Rabbits from the San Juan Islands were used later for several introductions of European rabbits into other, usually Midwestern, states. The rabbits are pursued by Eurasian red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ), another non-native species introduced intermittently through
11532-413: The highlands one also finds grand fir ( Abies grandis ), western hemlock ( Tsuga heterophylla ) and other subalpine trees. The San Juan Islands host the greatest concentration of bald eagles ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) in the contiguous United States. Great blue herons ( Ardea herodias ), black oystercatchers ( Haematopus bachman ), and numerous shorebirds are found along the shore and in winter,
11656-532: The hot season is associated with high atmospheric pressure . The shadows of the mountains also greatly decrease the amount of precipitation. West of the Cascades , the marine climates have a much greater precipitation than the west coast of Europe due to orographic lift , with some regions seeing as much as 3,500 mm (138 in) of precipitation per year. Winters are very mild for the region's latitude. The growth of Arbutus , an evergreen broad-leafed tree,
11780-505: The hundreds across the archipelago. Gnawed stumps and beaver sign are now seen on Orcas and other islands, and recolonization by this keystone species is likely to lead to increased abundance and diversity of birds, amphibians, reptiles and plants. In spring 2011 a pair of beaver appeared at Killebrew Lake on Orcas Island, but were killed to avoid flooding a phone company switch box buried under Dolphin Bay Road. These beaver likely swam from
11904-494: The island. In 1786, Jean-François de La Pérouse , representing France, sailed to Haida Gwaii after visiting Nootka Sound, but any possible French claims to this region were lost when La Pérouse and his men and journals were lost in a shipwreck near Australia. Upon encountering the Salish coastal tribes, either Pérouse or someone in his crew remarked, "What must astonish most is to see painting everywhere, everywhere sculpture, among
12028-463: The islands are home to trumpeter swans ( Cygnus buccinator ), Canada geese ( Branta canadensis ) and other waterfowl. Peregrine falcons ( Falco peregrinus ), northern harriers ( Circus cyaneus ), barred owls ( Strix varia ) and other birds of prey are found. In addition diving birds such as rhinoceros auklets ( Cerorhinca monocerata ), pigeon guillemots ( Cepphus columba ) and endangered marbled murrelets ( Brachyramphus marmoratus ) frequent
12152-598: The islands during Manuel Quimper 's exploring voyage on the Princesa Real in 1790, but they were not recognized as islands until Eliza's expedition. José María Narváez , one of Eliza's pilots, also helped explore the San Juans in 1791 and became the first European to explore the Strait of Georgia . The Vancouver Expedition , led by George Vancouver , explored the area in 1792 while a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores
12276-552: The islands includes the Journal of the San Juan Islands and the Islands' Sounder . Generally speaking, the resident population of San Juan County is well educated. In the period 2016 to 2020, 51.7 percent of the resident population aged 25 and up have earned a bachelor’s degree or attained a higher level of formal education. Statewide, 36.7 percent of the adult population have a bachelor’s degree or higher. There are no bridges to
12400-481: The largest island in the area, but other significant land masses include the Haida Gwaii , vast and remote Princess Royal Island , Prince of Wales Island and Chichagof Island . The Salish Sea located close to major populated areas contains smaller but more frequently visited and well known islands. These include Whidbey Island , Salt Spring Island , and Texada Island , along with dozens of smaller islands in
12524-555: The largest mammals on the San Juan Islands, which are unusual in their historic absence of large carnivores, except for wolves ( Canis lupus ) which were extirpated in the 1860s. Dr. Caleb B. R. Kennerly, surgeon and naturalist, collected a wolf specimen on Lopez Island, which is now in the National Museum of Natural History , probably during the Northwest Boundary Survey from 1857 to 1861. Also, there
12648-422: The mainland and could have recolonized the islands. Northern sea otter ( Enhydra lutis kenyoni ) remains are documented on Sucia Island in the San Juan Islands archipelago. In 1790, Spanish explorer Manuel Quimper traded copper sheets for sea otter pelts at Discovery Bay , for live sea otters captured north of the bay in the "interior" of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Although historical records of sea otter in
12772-537: The oceanic zone ( Do ). An Alpine climate dominates in the high mountains. Semi-arid and arid climates are found east of the higher mountains, especially in rainshadow areas. The Harney Basin of Oregon is an example of arid climate in the Pacific Northwest. Humid continental climates occur inland on windward sides, in places such as Revelstoke, British Columbia . A subarctic climate can be found farther north, especially in Yukon and Alaska. The lack of rain in
12896-443: The parallel, but the vast majority of Canadian territory lies north of it. Parts of the 49th parallel were originally surveyed using astronomical techniques that did not take into account slight departures of the Earth's shape from a simple ellipsoid , or the deflection of the plumb-bob by differences in terrestrial mass. The surveys were subject to the limitations of early to mid-19th century technology; consequently, in some places
13020-474: The population) are south of the 49th parallel, including the two largest cities Toronto (43°42′ north) and Montreal (45°30′ north). The federal capital Ottawa (45°25′ north), and the provincial capital of seven provinces (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and British Columbia) are south of the 49th parallel. Three provinces, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia, are each entirely south of
13144-431: The presence of extensive mountains and forests, and plateaus containing both extensive farm and range lands, much of which is protected from development in large parks and preserves, or by zoning use regulation related to traditional land use. For example, all cities within the portion of California which are sometimes included some definitions of the "Pacific Northwest" have populations less than 100,000, with that portion of
13268-430: The present, the San Juan Islands are an important tourist destination, with sea kayaking and orca whale-watching (by boat or air tours) being two of the primary attractions. San Juan Island's Lime Kiln Point State Park is a prime whale-watching site, with knowledgeable interpreters often on site. Politically, the San Juan Islands comprise by definition, San Juan County, Washington . Media based in and/or concerning
13392-560: The preservation of historical inner-city communities particularly in Chinatown and Punjabi Market . African Americans have held the positions of Mayor in Seattle; King County executive, while the state of Washington elected a Chinese American governor during the 1990s, Gary Locke . 49th parallel north The 49th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 49 ° north of Earth 's equator . It crosses Europe , Asia ,
13516-490: The region. According to Canadian historian Ken Coates , the border has not merely influenced the Pacific Northwest—rather, "the region's history and character have been determined by the boundary". Definitions of the "Pacific Northwest" region vary, and even Pacific Northwesterners do not agree on the exact boundary. The most common conception includes the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and sometimes
13640-491: The report that the sediments in the Port Eliza Cave on Vancouver Island indicate the possibility of survivable climate as far back as 16 kya (16,000 years ago) in the area, while the continental ice sheets were nearing their maximum extent. Other evidence for human occupation dating back as much as 14.5 kya (14,500 years ago) is emerging from Paisley Caves in south-central Oregon. However, despite such research,
13764-536: The schooners Sutil and Mexicana . They met Vancouver in the Strait of Georgia on June 21, 1792. Vancouver had explored Puget Sound just previously. The Spanish explorers knew of Admiralty Inlet and the unexplored region to the south, but they decided to sail north. They discovered and entered the Fraser River shortly before meeting Vancouver. After sharing maps and agreeing to cooperate, Galiano, Valdés, and Vancouver sailed north to Desolation Sound and
13888-453: The south, due to their location in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains to the southwest. Summertime high temperatures are around 70 °F (21 °C), while average wintertime lows are in the high 30s and low 40s Fahrenheit (around 5 degrees Celsius). Snow is infrequent in winter, except for the higher elevations, but the islands are subject to high winds at times; those from the northeast sometimes bring brief periods of freezing. In
14012-516: The state containing millions of acres of national forests and parks. In British Columbia, Europeans form 64% of the population with Asians comprising a further 29% of the provincial population. Both the Asian and European populations of the province are diverse; of the Asian population, 15% of the population is of East Asian descent, 8% of the population is of South Asian descent, with smaller numbers of Southeast Asians (4%) and West Asians (2%);
14136-638: The subsequent period, or otherwise assimilating in the mainstream. Initial formal claims to the region were asserted by Spain in 1513 with explorer Nuñez de Balboa , the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. Russian maritime fur trade activity, through the Russian-American Company , extended from the farther side of the Pacific to Russian America . This prompted Spain to send expeditions north to assert Spanish ownership, while Captain James Cook and subsequent expeditions by George Vancouver advanced British claims. As of
14260-576: The summer solstice, the altitude of the sun is about −17.56°. "Planets Visible in the Night Sky in 49°00'N, 45°00'E" . Slightly less than one-eighth of the Earth's surface is north of the 49th parallel. Download coordinates as: Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 49° north passes through: In 1714, the Hudson's Bay Company proposed the 49th parallel as
14384-831: The surrounding seas. Western bluebirds ( Sialia mexicana ), which were eliminated from the islands 50 years ago because of competition for nesting sites by non-native European starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris ), were recently restored to San Juan Island thanks to the efforts of volunteers and conservation organizations. The islands are famous for their resident pods of orcas ( Orcinus orca ). There are three resident pods that eat salmon, but also some transient orcas that come to take harbor seals ( Phoca vitulina ). Other marine mammals include river otters ( Lontra canadensis ), Steller sea lions ( Eumetopias jubatus ), common minke whales ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata ), Dall's porpoises ( Phocoenoides dalli ) and other cetaceans . Columbia black-tailed deer ( Odocoileus hemionus columbianus ) are
14508-710: The surveyed border is several hundred feet from the geographical 49th parallel for the currently adopted datum , the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83). The Digital Chart of the World (DCW), which uses the Clarke 1866 ellipsoid, reports the border on average at latitude 48° 59′ 51″ north, roughly 270 metres (886 ft) south of the modern 49th parallel. It ranges between 48° 59′ 25″ and 49° 0′ 10″ north, 810 metres (2,657 ft) and 590 metres (1,936 ft) on either side of
14632-493: The twentieth century. On the islands is the San Juan Islands National Monument with 75 sections. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) defines the San Juan Islands as the archipelago north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca , west of Rosario Strait , east of Haro Strait , and south of Boundary Pass . To the north lie the open waters of the Strait of Georgia . All these waters are within
14756-465: The watershed boundary, and agreed on a simpler border solution in the Treaty of 1818 : the 49th parallel. Both sides gained and lost some territory by this convention, but the United States gained more than it lost, in particular securing title to the Red River Basin . This treaty established the boundary only between the line of longitude of the northwesternmost point of Lake of the Woods , on
14880-689: The way to Boundary Bay and reached the Fraser River via the Nicomekl and the Salmon linked via a portage. The lower Fraser was revisited 16 years after explorer Simon Fraser (NWC) had first reached its mouth, although originating from northern present-day British Columbia . Puget Sound soon after would get reached via the Cowlitz and the Cowlitz Landing portage, but originating from new HBC headquarter Fort Vancouver located closer by, north of
15004-533: The western portion of the boundary between the company's land and French territory. At the time, Britain and France had agreed, in the Peace of Utrecht , to negotiate a boundary, but negotiations ultimately failed. Following the Louisiana Purchase by the United States in 1803, it was generally agreed that the boundary between the new territory and British North America was along the watershed between
15128-460: Was also exploring. The British and Spanish ships met and cooperated in exploring the north. Vancouver encountered other Spanish ships and traded information, so he was aware of the names given by the Spanish expedition and kept them, although he renamed some features, such as the Strait of Georgia . The United States Exploring Expedition , led by Charles Wilkes , explored the region in 1841. Wilkes named many coastal features after American heroes of
15252-514: Was named after these settlements. In 1774, the viceroy of New Spain sent Spanish navigator Juan Pérez in the ship Santiago to the Pacific Northwest. Peréz made landfall on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) on July 18, 1774. The northernmost latitude he reached was 54°40′ N . This was followed, in 1775, by another Spanish expedition, under the command of Bruno de Heceta and including Juan Peréz and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra as officers. On July 14, 1775, they landed on
15376-512: Was named for him, but whether he discovered it or not has long been questioned. During the early 1740s, Imperial Russia sent the Danish-born Russian Vitus Bering to the region. By the late 18th century and into the mid-19th century, Russian settlers had established several posts and communities on the northeast Pacific coast, eventually reaching as far south as Fort Ross, California . The Russian River
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