The Pig War of 1859

The Pig War - Talking It Out at the BorderA pig in a potato patch nearly sparked a war. In 1859, American settler Lyman Cutlar shot a Hudson’s Bay Company hog on San Juan Island, igniting a sovereignty dispute between the United States and one of the British colonies that would become Canada. British warships soon appeared offshore as tensions rose. In this episode of Into the Archives, historian Ed Echtle and archivist Ben Helle join TVW's Paul Taylor to explore the Pig War — set against the Fraser River gold rush, rising nationalism and the looming American Civil War — and why a crisis on the U.S.–Canada border ended in restraint instead of battle.Show Notes:John Dwyer, The San Juan Pig (1978) - https://pnwfolklore.org/PigWar.html

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