Fort Vancouver facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
|
|
Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
|
|
Fort Vancouver in 1845
|
|
| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
| Location | Vancouver, Washington, United States |
|---|---|
| Built | Winter 1824-1825 |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000370 |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
Fort Vancouver was a very important fur trading post built in the winter of 1824–1825. It was the main office for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in the Pacific Northwest. The fort was named after Captain George Vancouver. It was located on the north side of the Columbia River in what is now Vancouver, Washington.
Fort Vancouver was a huge center for trading furs in the region. Every year, ships from London brought goods and supplies. They sailed across the Pacific Ocean or came overland from Hudson Bay using the York Factory Express. These supplies were traded with many different Indigenous groups for animal furs. The furs from Fort Vancouver were often sent to Guangzhou, a port in China. There, they were traded for Chinese goods that were then sold in the United Kingdom.
At its busiest, Fort Vancouver managed 34 smaller trading posts, 24 ports, six ships, and 600 employees. Today, you can visit a full-size copy of the fort. It has many buildings inside and is open to the public as the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
Contents
Fort Vancouver's Story
During the War of 1812, the Pacific Northwest was far from the main fighting. Two fur trading companies, the Canadian North West Company (NWC) and the American Pacific Fur Company (PFC), had been working peacefully there. The American company, PFC, didn't have much military protection. When news of the war and a British warship arrived, the PFC was in trouble. In October 1813, they decided to sell their business to the NWC. A British warship, HMS Racoon, arrived the next month. In honor of King George III, Fort Astoria was renamed Fort George.
After the war, the Treaty of 1818 was signed. This treaty said that the resources of the Pacific Northwest would be "free and open" to people from both the United States and Britain. The goal was to "prevent disputes" between the two countries. The North West Company kept growing its business. They had fought with their main rival, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), in what was called the Pemmican War. In 1821, the British government made the NWC join with the HBC.
Later Talks About the Border
From 1825 to 1826, British officials kept offering ways to divide the Pacific Coast of North America. These ideas often came from the fur trading companies. The British wanted the border to follow the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains. Then, they wanted it to follow the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. The American Secretary of State, Henry Clay, wanted the border to follow the 49th parallel all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Because the two sides couldn't agree, they put off deciding on a formal border for a while longer.
Building Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver was built on the north bank of the Columbia River in the winter of 1824–1825. The Hudson's Bay Company, based in London, built it to be the main office for their fur trade in the area. In the early 1820s, Sir George Simpson was in charge of reorganizing all the properties that now belonged to the HBC. The new Columbia District needed a better main office than Fort George.
Simpson was key in choosing the spot for Fort Vancouver. He believed that any future border agreement would use the Columbia River as the boundary. So, he picked a place across from where the Willamette River flows into the Columbia. This spot was an open, fertile field that was safe from floods and easy to reach from the Columbia River.
The Fort's Design
What Fort Vancouver Looked Like
An employee of the Hudson's Bay Company described Fort Vancouver in 1843. He said: "The fort is shaped like a rectangle, about 250 yards long and 150 yards wide. It is surrounded by a wooden wall made of large, strong beams stuck firmly in the ground. This wall is twenty feet high and held up by supports inside. At each corner, there is a tower with two twelve-pound cannons. In the middle, there are some eighteen-pound cannons. ... these cannons are no longer used. The area inside is divided into two yards. Around them are about forty neat, strong wooden buildings, one story high, used for different things..."
The fort was very large. Its protective walls were about 750 feet long, 450 feet wide, and 20 feet high. Inside, there were 24 buildings. These included homes, warehouses, a school, a library, a pharmacy, a church, a blacksmith shop, and a large factory. The Chief Factor's (manager's) house was two stories tall and in the center of the fort. It had a dining hall where important company workers would eat with the Chief Factor. Regular workers and fur trappers usually couldn't eat there.
After dinner, many of these gentlemen would go to the "Bachelor's Hall." There, they could "amuse themselves as they please, either in smoking, reading, or telling and listening to stories." One person remembered that the smoking room "looks like a weapons room and a museum." It had all kinds of weapons, clothes, and interesting items from both civilized and Indigenous life.
Outside the fort walls, there were more houses. There were also fields, gardens, fruit orchards, a shipyard, a distillery, a tannery, a sawmill, and a dairy. By 1843, about sixty wooden houses stood roughly 600 yards outside Fort Vancouver. This small village was home to fur trappers, mechanics, and other workers from the fort. They lived there with their Indigenous or Métis wives and families. The houses were built in neat rows. This settlement was often called Kanaka Village. This was because many Hawaiians, who worked for the company, lived there. In fact, Fort Vancouver had the "largest single group of Hawaiians ever to gather outside their home islands."
How the Fur Trade Worked
In the early 1800s, there was a high demand in Europe for clothes made from fur. This made the HBC expand its North American fur trade all the way to the Pacific Northwest. Fort Vancouver became the main office for the HBC's fur trade in the Columbia District. This area stretched from the Rocky Mountains in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It went from Sitka in the north to San Francisco in the south.
Fur trappers would bring the animal pelts they collected during the winter to the fort. They traded these furs for company credit. This credit could be used to buy goods in the fort's shops. Furs from all over the Columbia District came to Fort Vancouver. They arrived from smaller HBC posts either by land or by boat on the Columbia River.
Once the furs were sorted and counted, they were hung to dry in a large, two-story fur storage building inside the fort. After drying, the furs were mixed, weighed into 270-pound bundles, and packed with tobacco leaves to keep insects away. These large bundles were then pressed and wrapped in elk or bear hide to create bales for shipping overseas. The 270-pound bales were then loaded onto boats on the Columbia River. From there, they were shipped to London using HBC trade routes. In London, the furs were sold at auctions to companies that made textiles. Many hat makers wanted beaver furs to make popular beaver felt hats.
People at the Fort
For most of its history, Fort Vancouver was the biggest non-Indigenous settlement in the Pacific Northwest. The people living at the fort and nearby were mostly French Canadians, Métis, and Hawaiians. There were also English, Scots, Irish, and various Indigenous peoples like Iroquois and Cree.
The main language spoken at the fort was Canadian French. Company records and official journals were kept in English. However, trading and talking with the local communities were done in Chinook Jargon. This was a mix of Chinook, Nootka, Chehalis, English, French, Hawaiian, and other languages.
A survey of the people at Fort Vancouver in 1846 shows a very diverse group. For example, 57 men came from the Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland Islands. This was the same number as all the workers from England and mainland Scotland combined. A total of 91 men came from Upper Canada, Lower Canada, and Rupert's Land. These men had English, French Canadian, Métis, Iroquois, Cree, and other backgrounds. But the most surprising fact is that 154 Hawaiians lived there that year. This was 43% of the total fort population!
Chief Factor Dr. John McLoughlin was the first manager of Fort Vancouver. He held this important job for almost 22 years, from 1824 to 1845. McLoughlin made sure British laws were followed and kept peace with the Indigenous people. He also tried to keep order with American settlers. McLoughlin was later called the "Father of Oregon" because he allowed Americans to settle south of the Columbia River. He helped American settlers moving west, even though the company didn't want him to. He left the company in 1846 to start Oregon City in the Willamette Valley.
James Douglas worked at Fort Vancouver for nineteen years. He started as a clerk and was promoted to Chief Trader in 1834. From October 1838 to November 1839, Douglas was in charge while McLoughlin was away. In November 1839, Douglas became a Chief Factor. He also helped set up other HBC posts, like in San Francisco in 1841 and Fort Victoria in 1843. But from 1839 to 1845, there were usually two Chief Factors at Fort Vancouver, with McLoughlin as the main leader and Douglas as his assistant.
Farming at the Fort
When Fort Vancouver was first built, Governor George Simpson wanted it to grow its own food. Shipping food was very expensive. The fort usually kept a year's worth of extra supplies in its warehouses. This was to avoid problems if ships were lost or other disasters happened.
Eventually, Fort Vancouver grew more food than it needed. Some of this extra food was used to supply other HBC posts in the Columbia Department. The area around the fort was known as "La Jolie Prairie" (the pretty prairie) or "Belle Vue Point" (beautiful view). Over time, Fort Vancouver started doing more than just fur trading. It began selling farm products, salmon, lumber, and other goods. It sold these items to Russian America, the Hawaiian Kingdom, and Mexican California. The HBC opened offices in Sitka, Honolulu, and Yerba Buena (San Francisco) to help with this trade.
The York Factory Express
Fort Vancouver received some of its supplies through the overland York Factory Express. This route was first used by the NWC between Fort George and Fort William on Lake Superior. Each spring, two groups of travelers were sent out. One group started from Fort Vancouver, and the other from York Factory. A typical group had about forty to seventy-five men. These men carried supplies, furs, and letters by boat, horseback, and in backpacks. They delivered these items to various HBC posts and workers along the way. Furs stored at York Factory were then sold in London at a yearly fur sale. Indigenous people along the route were often paid with trade goods to help carry items around waterfalls and difficult rapids.
American Settlers
The Hudson's Bay Company controlled the fur trade in much of the area Americans called the Oregon Country. The company had tried to stop people from settling there because it got in the way of the profitable fur trade. But by 1838, American settlers started crossing the Rocky Mountains. Their numbers grew every year. Many left from St. Louis, Missouri, and followed a difficult but fairly direct path called the Oregon Trail. For many settlers, Fort Vancouver became the last stop on the Oregon Trail. Here, they could get supplies before starting their new homes.
During the Great Migration of 1843, about 700 to 1,000 American settlers arrived using the Oregon Trail.
The Oregon Treaty
In 1846, the Oregon Treaty was signed. This treaty set the Canada–United States border at the 49th parallel north. This placed Fort Vancouver inside American territory. The treaty said that the HBC could keep operating and had free access to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, and the Columbia River. However, the treaty made the company's business less profitable, and its operations soon closed down.
Restoring Fort Vancouver
Because Fort Vancouver was so important in United States history, a plan was made to protect the site. Fort Vancouver was named a U.S. National Monument on June 19, 1948. It was then renamed Fort Vancouver National Historic Site on June 30, 1961. In 1996, a 366-acre area around the fort was made into the Vancouver National Historic Reserve. This area includes Kanaka Village, the Columbia Barracks, and the riverbank. The National Park Service maintains it.
You can visit and tour the fort today. Some important buildings at the restored Fort Vancouver include a bake house, where they show how to bake hardtack (a type of biscuit). There's also a blacksmith shop, a carpenter shop with its collection of carpentry tools, and the kitchen, where daily meals were made.
Images for kids
-
Cots in the Douglas Quarters inside the Chief Factor's house
-
Fort Vancouver in 1859
See also
- Naukane (John Coxe)
- New Caledonia
- Vancouver National Historic Reserve Historic District
