The “Pig War” in History and Memory at – Victoria, Canada

Get your tickets to see The “Pig War” in History and Memory in Victoria, Canada. Happening on Thursday, November 20, 2025 at . Doors open at 7:30 PM.

Did you know the border between Canada and the US was determined because of a pig? 

On November 20th at 7:30, visit Ross Bay Villa Historic House Museum in Fairfield, and learn about an unusual chapter of early settler history with UVic historian Gordon Robert Lyall. 

In 1859, an American settler on San Juan Island shot and killed a pig owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company during a dispute between Great Britain and the United States over a small group of islands in the Salish Sea. Known today as the “Pig War,” this conflict captured historical imaginations, making a Berkshire boar the star character in the final settlement of the international border between Canada and the US. A summary of key moments in the San Juan Island “imbroglio” will engage questions of causality and how historical memory can be reframed by subsequent historians for contemporary purposes. 

This discussion concludes with comments on how the resolution of the so-called Pig War and the creation of the US-Canada border has impacted Coast Salish peoples.

Tickets are $10/person. As seating is limited, they must be prebooked. 
All proceeds support the Ross Bay Villa Society, the entirely volunteer based society which runs and owns Ross Bay Villa, a restored historic house museum built in 1865. 

Tickets-RSVP Link