The occupation of San Juan Island by the Royal Marines between 1860 and 1872 marked the last time "redcoats" would be stationed in lands south of the 49th parallel. Following the nearly disastrous "Pig War" crisis, their primary mission with their U.S. Army counterparts was keeping the peace on an island considered ripe for the taking by Britons and Americans alike. Drawing on historical, archaeological and photographic research, Outpost of Empire offers an intriguing glimpse of a frontier garrison in the Victorian age. "A well-illustrated book which will be particular interest to Northwest history buffs and past and prospective visitors to the San Juan islands."― Journal of the West A history of the English Royal Marines twelve-year occupation of San Juan Island. ― University of Washington Press Outpost of Empire is a fascinating look into the joint occupation of San Juan Island by the Royal Marines and the U.S. Army leading up to the Treaty of Washington. Complementing the research with dozens of historic photographs and illustrations, historian Mike Vouri provides a detailed and inviting insight into camp life in what was at the time still a neutral or disputed territory. As author of The Pig War: Standoff at Griffin Bay, Vouri detailed the crisis that arose between Great Britain and the United States in 1859 over possession of the San Juan Islands, which lie between Vancouver Island, BC and the U.S. mainland. In this latest offering Vouri explores how each nation went to great lengths to avoid conflict on the island during the 12-year joint military occupation. The joint occupation was essentially a martial law, enforced by the U.S. Army and the Royal Marines. To affirm British hegemony and keep the peace in the Pacific Northwest, the Royal Navy brought 164 Royal Marines from Canton, China to Victoria, Vancouver Island in February 1859. Veterans of fighting in the Crimea as well as China, the marines participated in community building and helped keep peace along the Fraser River. When the Pig War crisis was touched off in July 1859 (an American on San Juan had shot a pig belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company), the marines were dispatched to San Juan Island. They initially lent muscle to British naval forces during the crisis before being assigned peacekeeping duties. Outpost of Empire explores how the principles of joint military occupation were established by British and U.S. officials, and how, despite numerous attempts by U.S. settlers to circumvent the agreement, peace was maintained until the very end. Outpost of Empire is the outgrowth of a paper presented in October 2003 to the North American Conference on British Studies in Portland, Oregon. I was fascinated by the commitment each nation made to keeping the peace on San Juan Island during the joint occupation. Over that 12-year period between 1860 and 1872, even while the U.S. was engaged in the Civil War, it maintained a garrison of regular army soldiers (not volunteers) on the island. The British, meanwhile, were ready to answer any slight and take care that their own garrison did not violate the agreement. This led to the sacking of their first commanding officer over a desertion of a marine to the U.S. side. The man, a bugler, had disappeared from the Royal Marine Camp in 1861, then reappeared, also as a bugler, for the U.S. side five years later. British and U.S documents were rich with such incidents. The book was a lot of fun to research and write. In 1859, Great Britain and the United States almost went to war of the Northwest boundary when an American farmer shot a British pig. When it was over, the pig was the only casualty in this comic opera whose players included famous generals, blustering politicians and obscure farmers. Mike Vouri is the San Juan National Park historian and author of The Pig War.