FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. – San Juan Island National Historical Park’s English Camp parade ground was the scene of more international goodwill Saturday (September 24) when Her Majesty’s Consul Dennis Leith presented the park with a new Union flag for the site’s 80-foot pole. The 12 x 25 foot flag was especially ordered for the park by the British Consulate, Seattle (a unit of the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office), which in 1998 contributed more than $12,000 to install the fiberglass pole from which it flies. The previous flag, also presented by the Seattle consulate in 1994, was retired by the park earlier this month. A U.S. flag is also flown at the site in the parking area located above the parade ground. Both flags are raised daily only when the English Camp visitor center is open June through August. The park commemorates the peaceful joint occupation of San Juan Island by British and American forces from 1859 to 1872, and the final, peaceful settlement of the Northwest Boundary dispute between the two nations. Fighting nearly broke out between the two sides in 1859 when an American shot a pig belonging to the British Hudson’s Bay Company; thus the so-called “Pig War.” Officials from both governments moved quickly to maintain the peace until a diplomatic settlement could be made. “We’ve long had an outstanding relationship with the British government,” said Peter Dederich, park superintendent, who accepted the flag on behalf of the National Park Service. “They were here when the park was dedicated in 1972 and have always been ready to provide assistance to maintain our English Camp unit, of which they are especially proud.” Leith also paid a visit to the Royal Marine cemetery, which lays a third of way up Young Hill, which rises 650 feet above the English Camp parade ground. Six Royal Marines and one civilian (country of origin unknown) are memorialized in the plot, which is maintained by the National Park Service. Four of the headstones are original to the 1860’s.
