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Article: San Juan Islands
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SAN JUAN ISLANDS
SAN JUAN ISLANDS.
Approximately 172 islands make up the San Juan Islands, located eighty miles from Seattle in the northern reaches of Puget Sound. Together, they comprise San Juan County, one of the smallest but fastest-growing counties in Washington State. The islands cover 175 square miles and are home to roughly 13,000 residents. Friday Harbor, the county seat, is the islands' biggest and only incorporated town.
Native Americans, mostly of the Lummi nation, lived on the islands until Spanish explorers arrived and named the San Juans in the late 1700s. White settlers began to colonize in the 1850s. By 1859, the San Juan Boundary Dispute erupted over the boundary ...