Fort Okanogan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Fort Okanogan
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Fort Okanogan in 1853
Location in Washington (state)
Location	Okanogan County, Washington, USA
Nearest city	Brewster, Washington
Built	1811
NRHP reference No.	73001883
Added to NRHP	June 4, 1973

Fort Okanogan (sometimes called Fort Okanagan) was a very old trading post built in 1811. It was located where the Okanogan and Columbia Rivers meet. This fort was important for the fur trade in the early 1800s.

It was first built for John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company. This made it the first American-owned settlement in what is now Washington state. The fort was in Okanogan County.

Later, a rival company called the North West Company bought the fort in 1813. Then, in 1821, the North West Company joined with the Hudson's Bay Company. The Hudson's Bay Company then ran Fort Okanogan. The fort became a key stop on the York Factory Express trade route, which went all the way to London!

In 1846, the Oregon Treaty was signed. This treaty ended a big argument about who owned the Pacific Northwest. Even though the land became part of the United States, the Hudson's Bay Company was allowed to keep using the fort. But the fur trade slowed down a lot. So, the Hudson's Bay Company closed the fort in June 1860.

The original spot where the fort stood is now underwater. It was flooded in 1967 when the Wells Dam was built, creating Lake Pateros.

Building the Fort: The Pacific Fur Company

The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) planned Fort Okanogan to compete with other trading posts. One of these was Spokane House, run by the North West Company. In 1811, PFC workers traveled up the Columbia River. They were even joined by a North West Company group led by David Thompson for part of the journey.

As the PFC group moved up the Columbia, they found trade goods from the North West Company. These goods were with the local people near where Fort Okanogan would be built. On October 31, PFC leaders met with the local Okanagan leaders. The Okanagan people agreed to be friends with the PFC workers. They also agreed to help with beaver trapping, keep the fort safe, and make sure the workers had enough food.

After the fort was built, the workers split up. One group went back to Astoria. The other group traveled north along the Okanagan River. A man named Ross stayed at the fort. He had a dog he bought in Monterrey. Ross worried a lot at night, even though hundreds of friendly local people were camped nearby, helping to guard the fort.

Life at the Fort: The North West Company

When the North West Company (NWC) took over the Pacific Fur Company's forts, Alexander Ross stayed on as manager of Fort Okanogan. In 1816, Ross Cox became the new officer in charge. He arrived at the fort on April 30.

During that summer, workers used lots of wood to rebuild the fort. They built a tall fence, called a palisade, that was fifteen feet high. They also added two strong towers, called bastions. Each bastion had a brass cannon! Besides new homes for the staff, they built a large storage building for furs and goods. There was also a shop to trade with the local people.

The workers at the fort ate mostly salmon and deer, which they bought from visiting Indigenous people. They also ate plants like Sarsaparilla and even rattlesnakes! The fort employees started wearing special waterproof coats called Kamleikas. These coats were made by Aleuts from sea-lion intestines. The fort tried to grow its own food, but it didn't work well. Mice and frost destroyed most of the crops.

One winter, a group of Sanpoils took some of the company's horses from Fort Okanogan. Ross Cox and a small group of French-Canadians and Hawaiians, along with some Okanagans led by a local chief named Red Fox, went to find the horses. Even with fresh snow, Red Fox guided them to the Sanpoil village. The village leaders admitted taking the horses. They said they did it because they were starving. The Sanpoils also had problems with wolves attacking their own horses. Cox got the company horses back without a fight. He knew it was important to keep peace, so the Sanpoils wouldn't attack the fur groups traveling from Spokane House.

The Hudson's Bay Company Era

In 1821, the North West Company and its many forts joined with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). When HBC leaders traveled to Fort George, they passed through Fort Okanogan. The four workers already there (one Hawaiian, three French-Canadian) stayed on. The number of staff grew a lot! By 1826, over 40 Native and White workers lived at the fort.

The fort still relied on local Indigenous people for food. They ate a lot of salmon (over 19,000 fish each year!) and venison (deer meat). They didn't grow much of their own food. In 1826, they also ate many quarts of Wapato (a type of potato) and over a thousand quarts of different berries.

In 1841, HBC Governor Sir George Simpson visited Fort Okanogan. He said that the fort was mostly used to help move goods to other forts, like Thompson's River and New Caledonia. He noted that there weren't many fur-bearing animals left in the area around Fort Okanogan. This meant the fort wasn't bringing in much fur anymore.

In its last 20 years, only one employee, usually with their family, lived at the fort. After 1848, fur traders stopped using the Okanogan Trail. They started getting their supplies from Fort Hope instead of Fort Okanogan. By 1853, the Company thought about closing the fort because it wasn't making enough money. They were still talking with the American Government about selling their land in the United States. The HBC didn't want to lose its claim to the land where Fort Okanogan stood.

In 1853, the son of the fort's manager, Joachin La Fluer, was told to work there. His name was François Duchouquette. He stayed at the fort until 1860. Then, he was told to move all the remaining supplies and property of the HBC. Duchouquette left with a group of horses carrying goods on June 18 or 19. This meant the fort was "for all practical purposes abandoned." He later set up a new trading post near Keremeos in British Columbia.

A witness named Robert Stevenson remembered the fort closing: "When we visited, all the local Native people were gathered at the fort. They were helping the manager pack up the goods to move the post to Keremeos in British Columbia. The goods were packed in Hudson Bay 'parflushes,' which are bags made of raw hide. They prepared loads for 150 horses. The fort was going to be closed the next day, so no goods were for sale."

After the fort was abandoned, American and Chinese gold miners in the area took wood from the old buildings. By 1880, no buildings of Fort Okanogan were left.

Fort Managers

By the time the Hudson's Bay Company took over Fort Okanogan, it was not as important for the fur trade. Because of this, "no officer of the company was regularly stationed there." Here is a list of some of the people who managed the fort:

Fort Okanogan State Park

The site of Fort Okanogan

Until 2011, there was a place called Fort Okanogan State Park (48°05′53″N 119°40′42″W / 48.09806°N 119.67833°W / 48.09806; -119.67833). It was a park that looked over where the old fort used to be and the Columbia River. The park was about 45 acres big and was for day use. It had the Fort Okanogan Interpretive Center (FOIC). This was a museum with exhibits about the fort, early settlers, and the fur trapping business.

Because of money problems, the park was given to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in 2011. The Interpretive Center is now part of the Colville Tribes' History/Archaeology Program. The Center is open from late May through mid-September.

The park is located about five miles (8 km) north of Brewster, Washington. It is closed during the winter months.