What if we told you one rogue pig almost led to a full-blown war between the US and Britain? It did happen. It all went down in 1859 when tensions between American settlers and the British Crown on the San Juan Islands boiled over, thanks to a hungry pig and a very stubborn farmer.
The chaos started when a pig wandered onto Lyman Cutlar's farm in Washington state and snacked on his crops. Simple, right? Well, not quite. The pig belonged to Charles Griffin, a British settler working for the Hudson's Bay Company, and its death sent ripples of fury across the Pacific Northwest. Cutlar shot the pig to protect his land, but Griffin wasn’t having it—he demanded a steep in compensation, sparking a standoff that escalated quickly.
The San Juan Islands were part of a messy boundary dispute. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 had set a vague border between the US and British territories, but it didn’t clearly address the San Juan Islands. Both sides laid claim to them, so when the pig got involved, tensions hit an all-time high. The US Army sent troops to defend its claim, while the British Navy stationed five warships and over 2,000 sailors and marines. Suddenly, it wasn’t just about a pig.
For a while, it looked like this quirky conflict could turn into an actual war. The US sent 500 soldiers to the island, facing off with the British Navy. The mighty USS Massachusetts was even deployed, ready to square off against the British fleet. But then, just as things were about to boil over, cooler heads prevailed.
Rear Admiral Robert Baynes, leading the British forces, looked at the situation and had a moment of clarity. He famously refused orders to engage in battle, wisely stating that "engaging two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig would be foolish."
After a tense few weeks, the standoff fizzled out, and both nations decided it wasn’t worth going to war over this. The situation was eventually resolved diplomatically, but not before nearly sparking a ridiculous international incident.
The Pig War remains one of the most bizarre chapters in history.
