The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-04-10
THEP-I'S WOOL YARN
A FEW FACTS ABOUT A FANCIFUL
SMUGGLING sFoRY
Stuart island as "Center of Opera
tions NO sheep There-where Most
~
of tho Contraband Importations Have
Been Landed,

In the acknowledgements recent
wild and woolly' story about "Wool
Smuggling on .he Border" mentioned
in the ISLANDER las. week, the ridicu-
lous statement is made that "to such
great proportions has the Illicit traffic
grown during the past two years that
il has become as much If not more of
menace to existing laws than the
opium and Chinese trade" The re-
porter then proceeds to exploit with a
great air of mystery and importance a
recent visit of the cutter Grant to the
Indian settlements on Cowitchan inlet
and to Sidney, where he says "quiet
consultations were held between Capt.
IOZier and the customs authorities.
Then the Grant turned her course to
the southwark and sought the AmeIil
con side. Several days were spent be-
tween Whatcom and Port Townse nd
and data was gathered concerning
operations in this country" \
NEAR sidney, b. c., along a stretch Of
Vancouver island from that point to the
| northward, and on the small inlets be-
tween this territory and the San Juan
group is raised most of the smuggled
! product. Stuart island, on the American
| side, long bearing an ill name as snug
| glers' rendezvous, is said to be the center
of operations on the American side. On
this and the adjoining American islands
sheep raising is extensively carried on.
To their own some OF the settlers on these
| islands are said to have added many hun
dred pounds of Canadian wool. With
small sloops these smuggers cross to the
Canadian side. At night siwash sheep
herders are met OH the beach. The latter
bring with them bales of wool. The
sloops bear lighter cargoes, but far more
precious to the mind of the native. Bad
whisky and cheap tobacco, gaudy calico
and firearms would be included in the
manifests of these cargoes were manifests
ever made out. For these commodities,
| themselves contraband, the wool is eX-
changed. For the white man it is a good
| bargain. Struggled whisky brings a
great profit, for the Canadian laws on the
sale of liquors to natives are strict and
their heavy penalties are rigidly enforced.
On this cheap rate the smugglers obtain
| the wool, which on cash sale would be
purchased far more cheaply than it could
be bought few miles to the south or the
eastward.
Every quietly the sloops are loaded
with the white bales. Without lights
they slip away in the blackness while the
natives noisily make their way back to
the large potlatch houses and hasten to
make the air hideous with the sounds of
their festivities. In spite OF the fact that
practically no Canadian saloon keeper
dares to sell whisky to the siwashes,
drunkenness is frequent among that peo-
pie in this particular section, and more
than one murder has resulted from
drunke en- brawls.
"Once away from the shore, the sloops,
with all sail on, make speedy passage to
the American side. The run of few
miles is soon accomplished. The wool is
slowed in the warehouses. Unlike
stamped opium, it cannot be identi-
fed. With that of his own focks the
smuggler can market it openly and
without fear. This he does at a large
profit at Roche Harbor and other ad-
jacent points,"
Some thousands of the P-I.'s readers
doubtless read the above story with
considerable interest, and very likely
believed it. AS 'fstory" it is all right.
II should be classified with fiction
rather than history. AS matter of
fact Stuart island, represented by the
imaginative reporter as BEING "the
center of operations on the American
side," upon which "sheep raising is
extensively carried on" hasn't single
sheep upon it-so one Of the leading
sheep men of the county says, and he
says, too, that to his certain knowledge
there hasn't been a pound of Canadian
wool smuggled from Sidney island for
five years. Years ago wool smuggling
was much more extensively carried on
i'm this county than it is now. There
has been little of it in recent years,
but Stuart island is not now and never
has been the .'center of operations"
There isn't single warehouse there.