Virtual Field Trip: Glossary

apprentice: An apprentice is someone who is studying a job with someone who already does that job. For example, an apprentice carpenter is someone who is studying with a master carpenter in hopes of becoming a carpenter themselves.

fur brigade: A fur brigade was a group of men, women, and even children who gathered together and traveled into the forests of the Pacific Northwest looking for fur-bearing animals to trap, like beavers.

camas: Camas is a plant from the lily family with a beautiful blue-purple flower. It used to grow on the prairie where Fort Vancouver was built, and can still be seen in the fields around Fort Vancouver today. The root of the camas flower can be cooked and eaten, and tastes sort of like a potato. Camas is an important food for Native American people in the Northwest.

candleabra: A candleabra is something that holds more than one candle. There was no electricity at Fort Vancouver, and people used many different kinds of candle holders.

Chief Factor: At Fort Vancouver, the chief factor was the person who was in charge of the fort and its business.

christen: To "christen" something is to give it a name. In 1825, Fort Vancouver was "christened," or named.

clerk: At Fort Vancouver, clerks were responsible for writing down all the things that came in and out of the fort and how much they cost. Clerks recorded the furs that fur brigades brought to the fort, they recorded what supplies were brought to the fort by ships and how much each employee at the fort should be paid.

ecosystem: An ecosystem is a community of organisms (including plants, animals, bugs, birds, microscopic life - everything!) that works together with its environment to make one whole system.

employee: An employee is someone who works for a company.

headquarters: A headquarters is the place where a company does their business. Fort Vancouver was the headquarters for the Hudson's Bay Company's business in the Northwest.

investors: Investors are people who give money to a company or a project.

mess hall: At Fort Vancouver, the mess hall was a long room with a huge table where the officers of the fort ate all their meals.

missionary: A missionary is a person or a group of people who leave their home and go to a new place to share their religion.

pelt: A pelt is another word for a fur taken from an animal that has been hunted.

prairie: A prairie is a large, open grassland.

profit: A profit is money or goods that a person gets in return for something that amounts more than that thing cost them. For example, if a fur trader sold a fur to the Hudson's Bay Company for $1, and the Hudson's Bay Company sold that fur to a hat factory for $5, the Company would make a profit of $4.

rank: Companies, organizations, and the military are organized by rank. People with a higher rank are usually in charge, while people with lower ranks follow directions from those with higher ranks.

resources: Resources are things that people use. They can be natural resources, like minerals, trees, or animals. They can also be cultural resources, like traditions, important objects, or stories.

settler: A settler is a person or group of people who come to a new place to build their home. Many settlers from the eastern United States traveled across the Oregon Trail to build farms in Oregon and Washington. Because so many settlers came in the 1800s, Native Americans who had lived here for many generations were forced to move.

tributary: A tributary is a river or stream that flows into a larger river, like the Columbia River. Take a look at this map and see how many Columbia River tributaries you can spot!

verandah: A verandah is a long porch that stretches across the whole front of a building, like the verandah on the front of the Chief Factor's House at Fort Vancouver.

village: A village is a place where people live and work that is smaller than a city. Near Fort Vancouver, there was a village with many small cabins where the people who worked at the fort lived.