Fort Vancouver Cultural Landscape Report

HISTORICAL CONTEXT [3]

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site has a rich and varied history, from its beginning as the most important Hudson's Bay Company post in the Pacific Northwest, through its development as the primary U.S. Military post in the region, to the present, as an important archeological and interpretive unit in the National Park Service. The site's development as chronicled in the landscape history identifies six periods of landscape development including: Fort Vancouver: Establishment 1824-1828; Fort Vancouver: Principal Development 1829-1846; Fort Vancouver: Transition 1847-1860; Fort Vancouver: Vancouver Barracks 1861-1918; Fort Vancouver: Vancouver Barracks 1919-1947; and Fort Vancouver: National Park Service 1948-Present. The focus of the Cultural Landscape Report is on the Hudson's Bay Company occupation from 1824-1860.

In 1824, George Simpson, the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company's Northern Department, ordered the establishment of a new fur-trading post on the north side of the Columbia River. This post was named Fort Vancouver. During its existence between 1824 and 1860, Fort Vancouver became the most important settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. As administrative headquarters and principal supply depot for the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia District, Fort Vancouver developed into the economic, political, social, and agricultural center of present day Washington, Oregon, western Montana, and Idaho states, and British Columbia, Canada.

The fur resources of the Pacific Northwest began sparking the interest of American and British traders in the late 1780s when British explorers reported rich supplies of fur pelts. Soon, fur traders from North America and Europe began competing for these valuable resources. The 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition across the continent to the mouth of the Columbia River, increased interest in fur-trading profits in the Columbia River area. Beginning in 1811, John Jacob Astor from New York organized the Pacific Fur Company and established several fur-trading posts in the Columbia Basin, including Fort Astoria, on the south side of the mouth of the Columbia River. In the meantime, the powerful British fur-trading company from Montreal, the North West Company, had established posts in present day British Columbia and had expanded into the Columbia basin. The two companies competed with each other until the war of 1812, between America and Great Britain, disrupted supplies for the Pacific Fur Company. In 1813, the Pacific Fur Company was forced to sell out to the North West Company. The Canadian company took control of Fort Astoria, renaming it Fort George. The North West Company controlled the fur-trading industry in the Pacific Northwest until 1821 when it merged with its principal rival, the British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). The reorganized Hudson's Bay Company divided North America into two departments, the Northern Department, which included the Columbia District and New Caledonia District, and the Southern Department. In 1824, the Hudson's Bay Company decided to move the headquarters of the Columbia District from Fort George to a more strategic location one hundred miles upstream to the north side of the Columbia River.

The decision to move the headquarters was primarily based on the desire to strengthen British claims to the land north of the Columbia River, and to find land suitable for large-scale subsistence farming. Starting with the Treaty of Ghent, after the war of 1812, the United States and Great Britain tried unsuccessfully to resolve boundary issues concerning the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, from Spanish settlements in the south, to Russian posts in the north. In 1818, a joint occupation treaty was negotiated that left this territory open to both countries for a period of ten years. In 1824, boundary negotiations were suspended leaving the HBC in a position to exploit the trade potential of the area between the forty-ninth parallel and the lower Columbia River. Establishing a fur-trading post on the north shore of the Columbia River supported the British campaign for dominion over the region.

"Sketch of the Environs of Fort Vancouver..." by H.N. Peers, (post 1844) showing Lower Plain, Fort Plain, Mill Plain and the Back Plains. Credit: Hudson's Bay Company Archives Provincial Archives of Manitoba.

In the winter of 1824-1825, Fort Vancouver was constructed on a bluff sixty feet above a low-lying river plain. In addition to its strategic political location, the site was chosen for its agricultural potential. During the next four years, 1824-1828, the foundations were laid for international trade and a vast agricultural enterprise. In 1829, Fort Vancouver became the chief administrative headquarters of the Columbia Department. The decision to make the fort the principal Hudson's Bay Company establishment in the Pacific Northwest, and the stockade's inconvenient distance from the Columbia River, precipitated rebuilding the stockade at a new site lower down on the river plain, about one mile southwest of the first stockade site. It is the site of the second fort that is preserved at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

The principal period of development for Fort Vancouver was between 1829 and 1846. During this time, Fort Vancouver's influence in the Pacific Northwest reached its peak and the site was developed to its fullest extent. Under the leadership of Chief Factor Dr. John McLoughlin, Fort Vancouver dominated the fur-trade industry and became the administrative and producing hub of an important agricultural and manufacturing establishment. The agricultural operations at the fort extended for miles along the north shore of the Columbia River, with farming operations located on several large plains surrounded by extensive forests. Agricultural features included cultivated fields, livestock pastures, dairies, and piggeries, as well as the fort's garden and orchard. Agricultural operations also extended beyond Fort Vancouver to outlying areas such as Cowlitz Farm and Fort Nisqually, as part of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company. In addition, Fort Vancouver's influence and control spread south into the fertile Willamette Valley, to a large island in the Columbia River now known as Sauvie Island, and to other areas of the region.

Manufacturing operations also contributed to the fort's prominent lead in Pacific Coast trade, including trade with California, Hawaii and Alaska. Industrial operations included large-scale timber milling, grain milling, and salmon fishing. Industrial activities that supported the fort's operations included coopering (barrel making), boat building, hide tanning, and blacksmithing.

Fort Vancouver was also the social and cultural center of the region. The first schools and churches were established at the fort, and social activities enjoyed by employees, visitors, and settlers included plays, balls, dinners, and picnics. Also, as the only source of emergency shelter and transportation, and the only dependable supply of food and clothing, Fort Vancouver became a destination point for American missionaries during the 1830s, and American settlers in the 1840s. Although Hudson's Bay Company policy did not encourage American settlers in the region, Dr. McLoughlin, through necessity and kindness, helped most settlers by supplying them with material necessary to start a farm including seed, livestock and agricultural implements.

The HBC policy on and treatment of Native Americans in the region was directed to maintaining a peaceful coexistence. The predominant group of Native Americans in the region were speakers of several closely related Chinookan languages. They occupied an area that was concentrated along the bank of the Columbia River from the mouth of the river at Astoria, to the Dalles east of the Cascade mountains. Those Chinookan speakers who had villages near Fort Vancouver spoke the Multnomah dialect of Upper Chinookan. [4] Their economy was based primarily on fishing, hunting and gathering. Although the HBC defended its property and employees, and exacted retribution for damage, Chief Factor McLoughlin noted that as traders, it was in the best interest of the Company and more profitable to treat the Indians fairly and avoid hostilities. [5] The local Multnomah Chinookans and other Indians interacted in Fort Vancouver's social and economic network through trading, as HBC "engage" or "servant" class employees, and through liaisons or marriages between Indian women and non-Indian HBC male employees. The most dramatic and far-reaching consequence of contact period history for Chinookans in the region was severe population decline due to smallpox, measles, malaria, and other diseases. In the early 1830s, an estimated ninety-eight percent of the Chinook population in the Portland Basin, including both Multnomah Chinookans and the more easterly Clackamas Chinookans died. The entire population of a Multnomah Chinook village in the vicinity of Fort Vancouver was exterminated by disease during this epidemic. [6] In the 1850s, the few Multnomah that survived diseases moved onto reservations (located away from the Columbia River) in exchange for residual fishing rights. [7]

In the early 1840s, as the American population in the region grew and the boundary dispute between Great Britain and the United States escalated, the Hudson's Bay Company began to transfer some of its operations from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria, in present day British Columbia. This administrative shift was accelerated by two events in 1846; the Treaty of 1846 which established the boundary at the forty-ninth parallel, and the termination of McLoughlin's superintendency of Fort Vancouver. During the following decade, the fort's influence declined as it was reduced to a subordinate trading and supply post, and Fort Victoria became the principle HBC center. In 1849, the U.S. Army established a military post on the hill above the fort's stockade. Although the HBC and the army co-existed somewhat peacefully for several years, political, economic and social pressure by increasing numbers of Americans led to losses of thousands of acres of HBC land to American squatters and increasing hostility towards the HBC. In 1860, Fort Vancouver was abandoned and the remaining HBC land around the stockade was encompassed by the 640 acre military reservation, claimed by the U.S. Army in 1850.

In 1848, the U.S. Secretary of War ordered the establishment of a ten square mile military reservation on the Columbia River, part of a series of military posts authorized to protect settlers traveling from the Mississippi to the Columbia. In May of 1849, a column of riflemen and two artillery companies arrived at the HBC's Fort Vancouver where they established a camp, called Camp Vancouver, on the hill above the stockade. By 1850, more soldiers had arrived, twenty-six buildings had been constructed, and the army had formally proclaimed the establishment of a military reservation called Columbia Barracks. In 1865, the army's Department of Columbia was established with Columbia Barracks as its headquarters until 1867 when it moved to Portland. The Columbia Department included Oregon, Washington and Idaho territories. In 1878, the headquarters for the Columbia Department was returned to Columbia Barracks and a period of expansion ensued. The post was renamed Vancouver Barracks in 1879, a name that continues to the present.

From its establishment in 1849 until World War I, Vancouver Barracks was the principal military site in the Pacific Northwest. Throughout the 1860s and 1870s, the soldiers of Columbia Barracks primarily engaged in enforcing domestic policies in the Pacific Northwest including actions to control periodic Indian uprisings with the Nez Perce, Modoc and Bannock Indians. The post also served as headquarters for organizing survey and exploration expeditions to Alaska in 1870s and 1880s. In the late 1880s and 1890s, forces at Vancouver Barracks served as a police force during civil unrest in the region including anti-Chinese riots in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, mine union strikes in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho, and railroad union strikes that occurred across twenty-seven states and territories. During World War I, the Spruce Production Division, part of the U.S. Army Signal Cops, was formed at Vancouver Barracks to provide milled spruce for Allied demands. It became the site of the Cut-up Plant, the largest spruce mill in the Division. While the post served an important role in the war, with the construction of Camp Lewis which became a major training and assembly point for overseas bound soldiers, Vancouver Barracks was no longer the most important military site in the region.

Between World War I and World War II, military activity at Vancouver Barracks was low. During this time the post served as a Citizen's Military Training Center, and a branch of the newly formed U.S. Army Air Service began operations at Vancouver Barracks which led to the establishment of an army airfield in 1925. The post also served as a headquarters and dispersing agency for the Civilian Conservation Corps program in the Pacific Northwest during the 1930s. During World War II, Vancouver Barracks was revitalized when it served as a staging area for the Portland Subport of Embarkation under the control of the Ninth Service Command. It also served as a training center for some units. In 1946, Vancouver Barracks was declared surplus by the army. The reservation was slated for disposal but in 1947 about sixty-four acres of the post were reactivated to serve as headquarters for reserve training in the Pacific Northwest. Today, Vancouver Barracks occupies fifty-two acres of the original reservation and is under the command of Fort Lewis, Washington. A portion of Vancouver Barracks lies within the authorized boundary of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

1859 map by Richard Covington showing the overall organization of Fort Plain. Fort Vancouver N.H.S. photo file.