San Juan Island are an archipelago in the Pacific north - western part of the United States between the US state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Island are part of Washington State and form the core of San Juan County. The four island of the archipelago are accessible by car and foot through the Washington State Ferry System.
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| San Juan Island Washington |
History
Archaeologists use the term Gulf of Georgia Cultural Zone to refer to the San Juan Island and the Persian Gulf, all of which show many archaeological similarities. The San Juan Island were part of the traditional range of various peoples of the coastal Salish ethnolinguistic group. Linguistically, the Salish Coast group in the area consists of the Nooksack and northern straits (which includes the Lummi, Klallam, Saanich, Samish, and Songhees dialects).
By the 1770s, Europeans brought smallpox to the region. The name "San Juan" was given to the island by the Spanish explorer Francisco de Elisa, who mapped these island in 1791, calling them Isla y Archipelago de San Juan.
The expedition was led by the Viceroy of Mexico, Juan Vicente de Guemes, Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Earl of Revillajigedo, and Eliza named several places after him, including San Juan Island, Orcas Island (short for "Horcasitas" ) and Guemes. Island. The first European discoverer of the island of San Juan was one of Eliza's officers, Gonzalo Lopez de Aro, after whom the Aro Strait is named... The Spaniards had discovered the islands a year earlier during Manuel Kemper's exploratory voyage in the Princesa Real, but it was not clear to them that they were islands. Jose Maria Narvaez, one of Eliza's pilots, also helped explore San Juans in 1791 and became the first European to explore the Strait of Georgia.
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| San Juan Island Washington |
In 1792, the British Vancouver Expedition led by George Vancouver explored the area. At the same time, a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcala Galiano and Cayetano Valdes y Flores was also conducting research. Shortly after leaving San Juan, British and Spanish ships met and explored areas to the north together. In 1841, a United States exploration expedition led by Charles Wilkes continued to explore the region.
The Vancouver Expedition took place a year after Eliza's Expedition, and Vancouver met other Spanish ships and exchanged information. Thus, Vancouver knew about the names given by Eliza's expedition, and tried to preserve them, although it renamed some objects, for example, the Georgia Strait. Wilkes, sailing in 1841, had several British maps, but may not have known Spanish names and maps. He generously gave new names to nearly all coastal features not yet named on his existing maps. Wilkes' names tended to be patriotic American (like the heroes of the war of 1812 ) or after members of his crew. In 1847, due to confusion over several names on different maps, the British Admiralty reorganized the official maps of the region.
The project, led by Henry Kellett, concerned only British territory, which at the time included the San Juan Island, but not Puget Sound. Kellett systematically kept the British and Spanish names and deleted almost all of Wilkes' names. In some cases, Kellett moved Spanish names to replace the names given by Wilkes. Thus, in Puget Sound, Wilkes' names are common and Spanish are rare, while the opposite is true for the San Juan Island and the Persian Gulf, although the Spanish did not explore Puget Sound as thoroughly as the British and Americans. resulting in fewer Spanish names in the beginning.
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| San Juan Island Washington |
Wilks gave the name of " The Archipelago Navy's" San Juan Island and named some of the island in honor of outstanding officers of the US Navy, for example, Rogers Island to the island of San Juan and the island of Hullfor Orcas Island. Several of his names survived Kellett's editing, such as Chauncey, Shaw, Decatur, Jones, Blakely, Perry, Sinclair, Lawrence, Gordon, and Percival, all named after American naval officers.
How to get from Seattle to San Juan Island
Shortest route by road from Seattle to San Juan Island, the distance is 167 km and the approximate duration of the trip is 3h 17 min. Review alternative routes and plan how to get from Seattle, Washington, USA to San Juan Island, Washington, USA by car on the most optimal itinerary.