ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY
The theory ascribes, if not the actual origin of Freemasonry to Pythagoras, at least its introduction into Europe by him, through the school which he established at Crotona, in Italy
See THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY:

Early Exploration of the Northwest
May 18, 1792, on the southern tip of what the Spanish had charted Isla y Archipelago San Juan. An ebb tide was roiling the rock-fringed waters between presently known as San Juan Island and Lopez Island and the wind was freshening in the narrow channel. Lt. William Broughton, captain of HM Armed Tender Chatham dispatched the ship’s cutter under Master James Johnstone, who carefully guided both craft through a passage of a mile in width close to the larboard Rocky Island. In skirting what we now know as Goose Island, the British sailors aboard Chatham became the first Europeans to enter the interior channels of the San Juan Archipelago. They would spend the next three days roughly charting the central waterways and fleshing out that single mass—shaped like a “pork chop”—the Spanish under pilot Jose Maria Narvaez had circled the year before.
See Early exploration here

Freemasonry in BC
Freemasonry in British Columbia, as in other parts of Canada, followed the path of settlement. In the early days in eastern North America, and later in the North and West, the chief attraction was the fur trade. The demand for furs in Europe, and the potential wealth of furs everywhere in the land that is now British North America led to the formation of fur companies, chief of which was the Hudson's Bay Company established in 1670 by the Charter granted by Charles II to Prince Rupert and his Associates.
See A History of the Early Days of Freemasonry in BC at

Westward-Expansion
Under the Homestead Act of 1862, any family head or adult male who was a citizen or had filed a declaration to become one could claim 160 acres of surveyed government (public domain) land. The West grew dramatically after the Civil War. As the 20th century began, that growth continued. People leaving the Midwest and joined by European immigrants moved farther West into the High Plains and interior West. Nearly a million people, many of them farmers, migrated into Washington, Oregon, and Idaho between 1900 and 1910.
See Westward Expansion after Civil War here:

Admiralty Inlet Region Freemasonry
The Juan Islands were explored (1790–92) and named by the Spanish Francisco Eliza expedition. The main islands (including Orcas, San Juan, and Lopez) were visited by George Vancouver in 1792 and were occupied for a time by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Following the bloodless “Pig War” of 1859.
See Masonic History here:

San Juan Masonic Lodge
San Juan Masonic Lodge No. 175 was chartered in 1909. Fidalgo Lodge No. 77 (Anacortes) was the recommending lodge through which our lodge was created. Before the present hall was built in 1914, San Juan Lodge 175 (the only Masonic organization in the county) met for an undetermined time in the second fioor of the drugstore building erected in 1900 at 200 Spring Street west. There is no known record of plans and specifications or costs for the new building, but members evidently supplied labor, materials, teams, and wagons, as evidenced by the Grand Master's expression of thanks contained in the lodge minutes at the conclusion of the project.

Goldstream Lodge No. 161 of the Most Worshipful Grand lodge of BC and Yukon was Instituted on November 8th, 1954 and Constituted on September 29th, 1955 and has been our sister lodge for over 60 years. San Juan Lodge helped recommend/establish this lodge.

See History of Our Lodge Building here:

Historical Vignettes
See the following San Juan 175 Historical Vignettes concerning the lodge and its members:

MAP of early lodges in Admiralty Inlet region:


Washington State Masonry Reference: Paul W. Harvey, "Not Made With Hands" (history of Freemasonry in Washington) published by MW Grand Lodge of F&A Masons of WA, 1958

https://www.kriso.ee/vancouver-inland-washington-waters-journals-12-db-97807864825422e.html%3Flang%3Den


These islands were home to various Coast Salish peoples, including the Nooksack and Northern Straits groups (consisting of the Lummi, Klallam, Saanich, Samish, and Songhees dialects). European exploration in the area introduced smallpox in the 1770s.

The Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza named the San Juan Islands Isla y Archipiélago de San Juan in 1791. San Juan Island's first European discoverer was Gonzalo López de Haro, one of Eliza's officers, for whom Haro Strait is named. The Vancouver Expedition, led by George Vancouver, explored the area in 1792 while a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores was also exploring the area.
The United States Exploring Expedition, led by Charles Wilkes, explored the region in 1841.
Henry Kellett led a project in 1847 to reorganize the official charts of the region for the British Admiralty. The project only applied to British territory, which at the time included the San Juan Islands. Kellett removed the names of the San Juan Islands given by Wilkes and resurrected the Spanish names for the San Juan and Gulf Islands.