Mike Vouri - History - Results from #14

Mike Vouri: On Hadrian’s Wall: Into the West

After a day of hiking and sightseeing along Hadrian’s Wall, Jerry and I sat on the lawn in front of the Vindolanda visitor center and waited for our gear to dry. We had just emerged from…

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Mike Vouri: On Hadrian’s Wall: The Hard (Best) Part

July 12 Once Brewed (Vindolanda) As I write this in our room at the Vallum Lodge, the sheep are bleating plaintively several pitches above the steady hiss of the B6318 highway, which passes directly in front…

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Mike Vouri: On Hadrian’s Wall: Bridge Over Ancient Waters

I swayed like a drunk engaged on a balance beam as I skirted thorny foliage encroaching on a narrow sidewalk that runs along England’s A6079 highway. I should have been facing the cars and monster trucks…

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Mike Vouri: Covid on the Wall

For me, the word “pandemic” was either from my grandfather’s stories or found in history books about events that have faded from living memory. “Epidemic” was quite another matter, as I still remember standing in line…

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Mike Vouri: On Hadrian’s Wall: Romans Didn’t Need Smart Phones

Since Covid-19 struck last year we have become accustomed to virtual experiences such as museum tours, town council meetings, inaugural events and even the World Series. But imagine my surprise when I learned via Facebook that…

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Mike Vouri: On Hadrian’s Wall: A Hike Across England

There was a moment when hiking in northern England that I ascended a bare hillside fringed by conifers and flashed instantly to Mt. Finlayson on San Juan Island. Except for the sheep scattering ahead and piles…

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Mike Vouri: Scofflaws and Moonshine: San Juan’s Stormy Joint Occupation

O'Reilly's gone to Hell Since down the pole he fell. He drank up all the bug juice The whiskey man would sell. Oh, they rammed him in the mill They've got him in their still. His…

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Mike Vouri: Luck of the Irish: The De Courcy Cousins and San Juan Island

Major John Fitzroy De Courcy watched from the deck of H.M.S. Satellite as the big steam corvette rounded Cattle Point Peninsula and dropped anchor off the Hudson’s Bay Company dock on San Juan Island. John De…

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Mike Vouri: Looking for Richard...Roche

Richard Roche was swaddled in furs with a bullet in his leg, bleeding out as a sledge pulled by dogs and guided by an able seaman carried him back to his ship and his future. It…

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Mike Vouri: Tootle-loo: Bugler Hughes and the Last Post for George Bazalgette on San Juan Island

Captain George Bazalgette must have jumped out of his chair when he heard the bugle call to Christmas dinner at American Camp. Every bugler had his signature, and the style was unmistakable. That was his bugler,…

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Mike Vouri: The Guns of August...1859

“The United States troops are landing eight 32-pounder guns from the steamship Massachusetts as if for the purpose of fortifying themselves!” — Captain Geoffrey Phipps Hornby, H.M.S. Tribune, Aug. 14, 1859 So wrote Hornby from his…

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Mike Vouri: English or British? The Puzzlement on Garrison Bay

When I arrived here for duty with San Juan Island National Historical Park in February 1995 my first question for my supervisor was: “Is it English Camp or British Camp?” The question remains as valid today…

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Mike Vouri: The Battle for Battleship Island

Morse,Morse, Bo-borse, Banana-fana, Fo-force, Fee-Fi-mo-Morse. Morse! (Adapted from “The Name Game,” with apologies to Shirley Ellis) On a boat trip more than 40 years ago a friend pointed out a flat straw-colored rock sprouting a few…

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Mike Vouri: Mapping the San Juans: It’s all in a name

You never know what the Strait of Juan de Fuca will bring, even in late July. So discovered a survey party of the U.S. Exploring Expedition (Ex. Ex.), caught midway across the strait en route from…

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