Fort Vancouver Cultural Landscape Report

Administrative and Political Context
(continued)

Fort Vancouver Outposts

During this period, Fort Vancouver's operations extended far beyond the thousands of acres surrounding the depot north of the Columbia River. As previously noted, Cowlitz Farm and Fort Nisqually operations were closely overseen by Chief Factor McLoughlin and Chief Factor James Douglas from Fort Vancouver, as part of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company operations. In addition, the Company's influence and control from Fort Vancouver extended south, into the fertile Willamette Valley; to a large Columbia River island now known as Sauvie Island and to several other outposts in the general region of the post. Brief study of these satellites contributes to a greater understanding of Fort Vancouver's development during this period.

Willamette Valley

The small settlement of retired engages in the vicinity of Champoeg in the Willamette Valley in the late 1 820s continued to grow, with the assistance of loans from Chief Factor McLoughlin. In 1834 the population increased when the Reverend Jason Lee of the Methodist mission, established his mission farm, and a few hardy American settlers and freemen began to establish farms in the area.

The Hudson's Bay Company was an overwhelming economic presence, by virtue of its loans of cattle and seed, principally wheat. When the inward migrations of Americans to the Valley swelled in the 1840s, it was to Fort Vancouver that settlers turned for assistance. McLoughlin later stated that:

...When the immigration of 1842 came, we had enough of breadstuffs in the country for one year, but as the immigrants reported that next season there would be a greater immigration, it was evident if there was not a proportionate increase of seed sown in 1843 and 1844, there would be a famine in the country in 1845, which would lead to trouble, as those that had families, to save them from starvation, would be obliged to have recourse to violence, to get food for them. To avert this I freely supplied the immigrants of 1843 and 1844 with the necessary articles to open farms, and by these means avoided the evils. In short I afforded every assistance to the immigrants so long as they required it... [141]

The Company purchased the settler's wheat, raised from Company seed, and milled it at the gristmill at Fort Vancouver. By 1839, there was sufficient wheat production in the Valley for McLoughlin to agree to send a boat to accept the harvest in the Valley, at Champoeg. and a few years later, the Company built a storehouse for the grain at the site. In the mid-1840s, a busy river transportation system was in place to move wheat from the Valley to Fort Vancouver's mill: beginning in April, and continuing for five months, boats continuously moved up the Willamette River, laden with settler-raised wheat, which when processed, was sent to fulfill the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company's contract with the Russians in Alaska. By 1844, river trade in items other than wheat was also in effect--a shipment of five thousand bricks made in the Valley arrived at the post in August of that year. [142] A French visitor--Eugene Duflot de Mofrás--visited the Valley late in 1841, where he noted that:

Since the colonists [in Willamette Valley] have no outlet for the sale of their pructs except through the Company's forts, obviously the Company can arbitrarily set whatever price it chooses. For example, only two and one-half or three piasters a hecoliter are paid for wheat, and even at that price the colonists are forced to take in exchange for grain English merchandise on which the Company makes a considerable profit. [143]

Portions of Fort Vancouver's horse and cattle herds were grazed in the rich grasses of the Willamette Valley throughout this period. Horses were probably pastured there to supplement fur brigades traveling south. While McLoughlin was on leave in 1838-9, James Douglas sent a herd of Fort Vancouver cattle to the Tualatin Plains, pasture for which, he said, was "superior to any other" in the vicinity of the fort. [144] Poor weather and periodic flooding of the lower plains of Fort Vancouver made additional pasturage for the farm's vast herds a necessity. In addition, the bulk of the cattle lodged in the valley under the care of settlers belonged to the Company; with most of the offspring pledged to repay the loan from the Company, settlers' herds increased slowly. This situation was remedied somewhat in 1837, when long-horned cattle from California, driven by Valley settlers, were brought to the Willamette.

As continuing waves of American immigrants entered the Valley, the Company's hold on the economics of the region began to loosen. Independent merchandising operations and mills were established by enterprising Americans. When the Oregon Provisional Government was formed in the Willamette Valley in 1843, it was evident that the Hudson's Bay Company influence on the area had slipped; in fact, McLoughlin viewed it as politic to cooperate fully with the fledgling government. The Company, however, continued to purchase wheat from the Valley settlers to enable it to fulfill its contract with the Russians in Alaska for more than a decade.

The present-day town of Oregon City, located in the Valley at the falls of the Willamette River, was the selected as a site for a Company sawmill in the late 1820s, and construction on a mill race and other buildings began in the early 1830s, but limited manpower and a fire postponed further development until later in the decade. In 1842-43, McLoughlin had the site surveyed and named, and filed a claim to it in his name. After the establishment of the Oregon Country's provisional government in 1843, Oregon City was selected its first seat of government, and it was granted a charter by the provisional legislature, making it the first incorporated city west of the Mississippi River. It was to Oregon City that McLoughlin retired in 1845-6. The Company operated a sales store at Oregon City in the 1840s.

Sauvie Island

Nathaniel Wyeth was an American entrepreneur attempting to establish a fur-trading enterprise in Hudson's Bay Company territory. In 1834-35 he established a post, Fort William, on what is now known as Sauvie Island, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, about five miles from Fort Vancouver. Underfunded and inexperienced, Wyeth was unable to break the Company's hold on the fur trade, and when he abandoned his business in 1836, he left his buildings and other improvements on the island in the care of Chief Factor McLoughlin, with whom he maintained good relations.

By 1838, the Company was utilizing the island to graze cattle and horses, where there was "abundant feed," although the livestock was moved from the island during the flood season--its highest point was only fifty feet above sea level. By 1841, four dairies were operating on the island to help fulfill the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company's contract for butter with the Russians in Alaska. By the end of this period, 1846, there were several outbuildings and dwellings on the island, associated with the Company's dairies, although squatters had, by 1845, already begun to appropriate land there. [145]

Government Island

Another Columbia River island, about six miles east of Fort Vancouver, was utilized by the Company post. According to William Crate, who built sawmills for the post during this period on a site opposite the island, Fort Vancouver's employees gathered grass on the island to feed to oxen stabled near the mills. The island, referred to as Goose Grass Island during this period, was later mentioned in the Company's claims for compensation from the United States Government as the "Saw-Mill Island." It was referred to as Miller's Island when the U.S. Army reserved its use for raising hay in 1850; by 1867 it was referred to by its present name, Government Island. [146]