Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Quest For The Almighty Spud

The Continuing History of San Juan Island:
Quest For the Mighty Spud.

The Mighty Spud

In those early days leading up to the Pig War, San Juan Island had plenty of fish and plenty of game. And what does a man need to go with his meat? Potatoes of course! Here we have Lyman Cutlar, another failed miner and a sure-shot from Kentucky, living on, what from all handed down reports, was a ramshackle homestead with his native wife and their child and he was in want of potatoes. In fact, so the story goes*, Cutlar wanted potatoes bad enough to row the 40 miles across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Townsend to purchase his seed potatoes. He then had to haul them up the hill from Granny's Cove and plant them in his, so they say, rather poorly fenced garden.

The Incoming Tide ~ Winslow Homer


*The Pig War: by Mike Vouri

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