CANADIANS MAKE POOR SMUGGLERS

Smugglers in Cornet Bay. We reported the story March 16, as if it was
something new. But the only thing new was the ineptitude of the smugglers.
In fact, smuggling on Whidbey Island is a tradition that goes back more
than a century.

The latest smugglers were from Canada. Their tugboat pushed a small
bargeful of marijuana onto shore right next to a boat ramp in Deception
Pass State Park. It may have been the worst smuggler's landing site of all
time. What were the Canadians thinking? "Let's wait til morning when it's
nice and light and unload our marijuana in a popular park with a lot of
rangers around?" Well, that's what they did, perhaps because they'd been
sampling their own product. It was like Al Capone off-loading a truckful of
booze on Elliot Ness' front yard, or an Afghan warlord dropping off a camel
load of opium at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

When these Canadians brought in their contraband like it was an entry in
the Easter parade, there must have been plenty of former islanders spinning
in their graves. We used to have a lot better smugglers.

If you want local history, head for the writings of Dorothy Neil. In this
particular case, "By Canoe and Sailing Ship they Came," a tome she wrote
with assistance from Lee Brainard. You all know Dorothy. She's been writing
for Whidbey Island newspapers since before most of you were born. Years
ago, she encouraged yours truly to start writing a column, which I did. And
to this day it remains the one real regret of her long, illustrious life.

Dorothy writes about an incident in 1894 when a fruit rancher near West
Beach found several cans of smuggled opium. In those days, it wasn't
unusual to find smuggled Chinese roaming the beaches, having been thrown
overboard when smuggling vessels were approached by the Coast Guard.

The Canadian smugglers of 2002 went right past Ben Ure Island, the tiny
island which before the turn of the century sported a dance hall and saloon
built by the island's namesake. For years the feds suspected smuggling was
going on, but they couldn't prove it until 1902 when Ben Ure, a canny
Scotsman, was arrested for harboring smuggled cigars, whiskey and opium,
which got him five days in jail.

In 1896, a schooner wrecked on Camano Island and authorities found 100
pounds of opium. And if smuggling started to wane in later years, the
federal government fixed that with prohibition. That started a whole new
era of smuggling booze to the mainland via Whidbey Island.

According to Dorothy's book (which should be require reading for any
islander), liquor smugglers unloaded their boats on West Beach in order to
avoid Coast Guard patrols at Deception Pass. They'd truck the booze to the
other side of the island and load it back into boats. In 1921 Island County
Sheriff William Gookins captured two booze runners with 900 quarts of
whiskey, worth $9,000. The liquor came from Vancover, B.C. The book doesn't
say how the smugglers were caught. But, being Canadians, maybe they decided
to land at a state park, in broad daylight, with lots of rangers around.
Poor smuggling skills appear to be a tradition in Canada.