Haro Strait - History

History

Haro Strait and other waters flanking the Gulf Islands and San Juans were the home of Straits Salish peoples including the Lummi, Saanich, and Klallam, but the route's natural importance as a regional waterway made it also an important sea-route for raiding and also for regular trade for all marine peoples of the Northwest Coast.

Haro Strait was named in 1790 by Manuel Quimper, commander of the Princesa Real, in honor of his pilot, Gonzalo López de Haro. In 1791 Francisco de Eliza sent José María Narváez far into the Strait of Georgia via Haro and Rosario Straits. In 1792 Haro Strait was explored and mapped by George Vancouver. An alternate theory about the naming was proposed by Edmond S. Meany, who suggested that Haro Strait was named for Alonso Núñez de Haro y Peralta, Archbishop of Mexico from 1772 to 1800, and, for several months during 1787, Viceroy of New Spain.

Haro Strait's status as the location of the international boundary was not established until the resolution of the San Juan Islands dispute in 1870, when it was selected by an arbitrator, German Kaiser Wilhelm I, over Rosario Strait, on the eastern side of the San Juans, which was preferred by the British and would have made the San Juans part of British Columbia, as they were originally viewed to be by the British after the Oregon Treaty of 1846.

Haro Strait is also an important location for the regional commercial fishery, as the bulk of the Fraser River salmon run uses the Haro Strait to enter that river.

D'Arcy Island on the Canadian side of the strait was a leper colony for Chinese immigrants in the 19th century.