A scattered community on North Bay at northwest end of Griffin Bay. It is reported to have been named by a local settler for Argyle, Scotland. A post office was established as San Juan on June 5, 1873 and became Argyle on November 13, 1886 and was closed on April 30, 1912.

Constructed in 1882 for a Presbyterian congregation, it has been used by various denominations from time to time, including weddings and funerals, and is in a sense a community church. Adjacent to the church is the Island’s cemetery where many of the soldiers who were members of the Occupation Forces during get so-called “Pig War” are buried. Many of those men also attended church services there.

Near Cattle Point at the southeast end of San Juan. It was the site of a U.S. military camp during the San Juan boundary dispute of 1859-1872. First under the command of Capt. George Pickett of Civil War fame it was occupied by units of the 9th U.S. Infantry. Other names given to this site are Ft. San Juan and Camp Pickett. The point location marks the visitor center American...

The site of a Hudson's Bay Company trading post, and of a U.S. military camp during the San Juan Islands boundary dispute. The name was first used on British Admiralty charts in 1858. Captain Henry Richards of the Royal Navy chose the name because Hudson's Bay Company loaded and unloaded cattle there prior to the settlement of the San Juan Island boundary. The Lummi Native American name for the point...

The road swings through rolling hills with the flat expanse of the San Juan Valley visible, in the distance; well-tilled farms, many of them former pea ranches, dot the valley. During the 1940s, at planting time in the spring, each pea farmer was allotted a planting date: thus the crops ripen successively, assuring steady operation for the cannery at Friday Harbor. Visible across the farmland, south of the roadway is...

The limestone industry of the San Juan Islands began in the 1860s. A small community grew up around a quarry and included a hotel, saloon, post office and at least twenty houses. The post office operated between 1879 and 1888. A state park since 1984, limestone was first quarried at the site in 1860. In 1917, the U.S. Coast Guard erected a lighthouse at the point, with keeper’s quarters completed...

Points of Interest

Lime Kiln Light Station

San Juan Lime Company

Deadman Bay

Mount Dallas

The Brann Cabin is located in San Juan County Park. The cabin was constructed circa 1895 and is a small, one-story, hell log structure with a gable roof. According to long-time island residents, Lewis Braun was the original homesteader on this property. In 1938 county commissioners purchased the land and created a public park.

The site of the British marines’ camp between 1860 and 1872. It is entered through the Davis-Crook farm. The English blockhouse, a small log structure, with an overhanging upper story set diagonally across a lower room, stands at the border of Garrison Bay, which the grounds overlook. Two crumbling old buildings, reputedly the barracks and commissary occupied by the British, still mark the campsite. A path leads up a hill...

A picturesque little settlement at the northern tip of San Juan Island, owned and controlled by the Roche Harbor Lime and Cement Company, but with none of the depressing aspects of the typical “company town.” A pastoral air pervades the gardens and houses and the jagged rocks of the little cove. A small, white-steepled schoolhouse nestles snugly against a green-foliaged hillside. Roses and dahlias grow beneath tall, gay hollyhocks. Set...

Points of Interest

Snug Roche Harbor

Columbarium

Henry Island

Pearl Island

Barren Island

Located on pastureland near a marsh in the northern interior of San Juan Island. The main part of the post-and-beam, center-drive barn consists of seven bays that enclose a 33-foot-high hay mow, serviced by a hay rail and trolley system. Three large metal ventilators are located on top of the roof. The south shed, probably added in 1934 (as suggested by an inscription in the concrete floor), shelters a milking...