History of Smuggling in the American San Juan Islands

History of Smuggling in the American
San Juan Islands

The San Juan Islands, a remote island paradise in the Pacific Northwest seem serene but have a turbulent history.
Image by Janalyn Voigt (all rights reserved).

Mists often shroud the San Juan Islands, an archipelago off the coast of Washington state. Add to this an intricate network of waterways, hidden harbors, secluded coves, and an international border, and it's easy to see why smuggling became an important industry in the San Juan Islands.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Washington between the United States and Britain in 1871, the San Juan Islands became an American territory. Shortly thereafter, the United States imposed import duties on woolens, silks and other goods entering the San Juan Islands. Many local residents didn't take well to having to pay for something they'd long received for free, so they simply ignored the law.

In response to popular sentiment that the immigrants from China were robbing American nationals of jobs, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese workers from entering the United States for the next ten years. This gave rise to the smuggling of Chinese laborers to build railroads and work in the mines. Thousands of illegal immigrants were willing to pay $100 a head for transport from China.

Illustration, "Central Pacific Railroad–Chinese Laborers at Work." Public domain image.

Lawrence "Pirate" Kelly and Ben Ure, both notorious smugglers, operated from a base on Ben Ure Island just off Washington state's Deception Pass. Ure is said to have tied illegal Chinese immigrants into burlap bags, to be thrown overboard when customs agents approached. Dead Man's Bay off San Juan Island, came by its name because the tide often washed the bodies ashore at that location.

In 1890, high tariffs were placed on the importation of opium, which led to this drug becoming a profitable item for smugglers.And in 1919, the Volstead Act ushered in Prohibition, creating a market for bootlegged alcohol until 1933, when Prohibition was repealed and "rum running" ended. Cigars and wool were also smuggled to avoid tariffs and turn a profit.

Drug smuggling continues in the San Juan Islands, today. One of the most recent incidents occurred in August 2015, when a Coast Guard crew confiscated 24 kilograms of the drug, MDMA (known as ecstasy or molly), from a boat near San Juan Island in August 2015.

As long as there are taxes, laws, and a profit to be made from circumnavigating them, smuggling will go on, and the seclusion of the San Juan Islands makes them one of its favorite locations.


Deceptive Tide

When murder comes to a peaceful island paradise, what you don’t know could just kill you.

Piper Harrington, struggling to build a new life after her husband’s plane crash leaves her widowed, travels to a remote island in the Pacific Northwest to research a novel. She checks into a resort condominium near the Moran mansion on Orcas Island and soon encounters a wounded teenage girl who seems followed by trouble. Piper wants to help Lindy, but a series of unsettling events lead her to believe she has, herself, become the target of a stalker.

A spectral figure resembling the ghost said to haunt the historic mansion has her questioning her sanity. She has never felt more alone, even while two men vie for her attention. One has an air of charm, while mystery surrounds the other. Remaining heart-whole seems the only way to protect herself, but both become increasingly impossible.

Learn more about this series

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. Look for her upcoming romantic mystery and western historical fiction releases. This multi-faceted author also writes in the fantasy genre. Beginning with DawnSinger, Janalyn's epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries readers into a land only imagined in dreams.

Janalyn is represented by Wordserve Literary Agency. Her memberships include ACFW and NCWA. When she's not writing, she loves to discover worlds of adventure in the great outdoors with her family.

The Torment of Sarah Winchester

Winchester House, CA

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By Marilyn Turk

When Sarah Pardee married William Winchester in 1862, she enjoyed a life of extravagant luxury. Winchester, manufacturer of the Winchester repeating rifle, became a very wealthy man through the sale of his guns, and the couple were among the elite New England society.

But in 1866, the death of their infant daughter threw Sarah into a depression from which she never emerged.  Several years later, she lost her husband to tuberculosis, and her grief was overwhelming. Sarah sought the counsel of a Boston medium to reach her beloved dead family members.

Sarah Winchester

The medium told Sarah that spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifle – Civil War soldiers, American   Indians and others – had sought revenge by the death of her husband and daughter. She also told Sarah they would kill her too, unless she moved out West and built a great house for the spirits. In addition, Sarah was told construction on the house must never end in order to appease the spirits and keep her alive, perhaps even give her eternal life.

Sarah followed the medium’s suggestions, and in 1884, she moved to the Santa Clara valley just outside San Jose, where she bought a farmhouse and property to build her mansion. Contractors were hired to work in round-the-clock shifts so the work never stopped. What began as an eight room  house became a seven story mansion over the next thirty-eight years, and her property grew to 160 acres of orchards and  imported plants.

Main Ballroom

One of the wealthiest women in the country after inheriting twenty million dollars and stock, money was no object as she built her house. The finest materials were imported for the home, some which were never used by the time of her death. Sarah paid her workmen double the going wage for that era, so they didn’t argue with her eccentric plans.

One of the master bedrooms

Sarah never had a blueprint drawn, rather she held a séance in a special room each night to sketch the next plans for the house. Built to please the good spirits and hide from the evil ones, staircases went nowhere, or went down then up, hidden passageways were installed, and doors led to nothing.

Often her plans involved tearing apart rooms that had just been finished to rebuild them another way, which also explained the stairs and doors that led nowhere.

Stairway to nowhere

Secret doorway

At first, Sarah entertained neighborhood children on her lawn, but eventually her arthritis forced her to become more reclusive.

After the 1906 earthquake which resulted in her being trapped in a front bedroom, she decided the spirits were angry with her and had the front of the house, including a grand ballroom that was never used, sealed up.  She supposedly slept in a different bedroom each night, using various passageways to get around the house and confuse the spirits.

Winchester House, aerial view

When she died in 1922, the house had 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 47 stairways, 57 fireplaces, 13 (a number she used frequently in the house) bathrooms, and 6 kitchens. It is estimated that some 500-600 rooms were actually built over the course of time, although “only” 160 remained.

When I visited the “mystery” mansion, tourists were warned to stay with their guides because one can still get lost among the erratic maze of the house’s layout.

There are many more odd and interesting details about the house, but I’ve run out of space.  For more information, see www.winchestermysteryhouse.com.

So, do you think Sarah Winchester ever had peace from the spirits that haunted her?  She’s one more of the sad examples that shows money can’t buy happiness.

Marilyn Turk has been published in Guideposts magazine, Guideposts books - A Joyful Heart and A Cup of Christmas Cheer, The Upper Room, Clubhouse Jr. Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Lighthouse Digest magazine. Her book, Lighthouse Devotions was published in 2015, and The Gilded Curse, a historical suspense novel, was released this month. Her weekly lighthouse blog can be found at http://pathwayheart.com. She lives in Florida with husband Chuck and enjoys boating, fishing, tennis, and gardening when she’s not climbing lighthouses or playing with her grandsons. 

It's 1942, and Lexie Smithfield, heir to her family’s fortune, journeys to Jekyll Island to dispose of the family vacation home her deceased mother told her was cursed.  But mysterious events threaten her safety, and only Russell Thompson, a childhood friend, can help her discover the truth before she is caught in a trap that threatens her very life.