Roche Harbor

History

What is now Roche Harbor was once part of a thriving Coast Salish community known as whelaalk, or WH’LEHL-kluh, which extended from what is now Roche Harbor to Lonesome Cove opposite Speiden Island and in the mid-1800s had 10 large longhouses. Other nearby communities included: * KWUH-nuhs (“whale”), at Reid Harbor on Stuart Island. And in 2016, representatives of the Lummi Nation, Saanich First Nation and National Park Service conducted a ceremony at which a Reef Net Captain Totem Pole and two Salmon Story Boards were dedicated at Pe'pi'ow'elh — English Camp.) British Marines established a presence here in 1860 after Great Britain and the United States claimed the San Juan Islands and agreed to a joint military occupation until the territory dispute could be resolved. Roche Harbor was named for Lt. Richard Roche, who served under British Capt. Henry Kellett in 1846 and Capt. James Charles Prevost in 1857–60, and scouted the area for an ideal site for the British Royal Marines encampment. British Marines quarried and processed limestone at or near Roche Harbor. After the territory dispute was settled in 1872 in favor of the United States, the land encompassing Roche Harbor was homesteaded by Joseph Ruff, 1872–78, and afterward owned by Israel Katz, 1878–79; and brothers Richard and Robert Scurr and their business partners, Alexander, Colin and Donald Ross, 1879-1886. (Katz was a Port Townsend merchant and future mayor of that city who during the joint military occupation established stores in Friday Harbor, Argyle, and San Juan Town, near the U.S. military encampment.) Limestone was quarried at the higher-elevation source, delivered by rail to chutes and dropped into the kilns, and the processed lime removed and bagged or barreled within a short distance from the…

Race & ethnicity