Fort Vancouver Cultural Landscape Report

Operations at Fort Vancouver

Overview

George Simpson's perilous canoe trip down the Fraser River enroute to Fort Vancouver in the fall of 1828 ended his plans to establish the Columbia Department's principal depot on that river. [147] With that scheme abandoned, and with the agreement with the United States to indefinitely extend joint occupation of the disputed territory, Fort Vancouver became the permanent supply depot for all of the department's posts in the Columbia and New Caledonia. The location of the original stockade, at least a mile from the Columbia River, was not practical for the increasing amounts of goods and material which would have to be moved in and out of the depot enroute to and from other posts, England, and, if the envisioned agricultural and industrial production plans materialized, Hawaii, California, and possibly the Russians in Alaska. Hauling water to the stockade, with an increased complement of employees stationed there to perform depot duties, would be inefficient. Also, as noted by several later visitors, a high, naturally-defensible site to repel Indians who, as it turned out, were mostly peaceful, was unnecessary. [148] Thus, in the winter of 1828-29, or possibly in the early spring of 1829, construction began on a new stockade on the plain lying along the river, about four hundred yards from its bank. [149]

Fort Vancouver: Headquarters of the Columbia Department

As noted previously, from this new site, Fort Vancouver became the supply center and administrative locus for an expanding number of fur-trading posts and two agricultural outposts. Returns from the Columbia Department and New Caledonia fur brigades were shipped via canoe and bateaux to Fort Vancouver, where they were inspected, prepared for shipment and recorded, and then loaded on the annual supply ships sent from London. From Fort Vancouver, annual supplies and trade goods for each post were ordered from London, and repacked, invoiced and shipped out to the posts. Over time each post came to rely more on produce raised "in country," including cattle, grain, and so forth, either from its own location, or from other posts, particularly Fort Vancouver, and later Cowlitz Farm and Fort Nisqually, a result of the policy formulated by Simpson and London to reduce the expense of transporting foodstuffs from London. McLoughlin's letters to chief factors and chief traders at various posts during this period often include specific instructions for agricultural production, for intra-post shipment of produce, seed and livestock, and for repairs of tools, structures and expensive manufactured items. As noted earlier, Fort Vancouver also administered a relatively short-lived merchandising venture in San Francisco (1841-45), and a trading establishment in the Hawaiian Islands (1833-1844). [150]

Headquarters of Coastal Trade

To conform with London's policy to maximize the joint occupation agreement with the United States, Fort Vancouver also became the base of operations for an expanded coastal trade, designed to compete with American ships, primarily operated from Boston, that carried on a provisioning and trade goods enterprise with the Russian American Company in Alaska, and direct trading activity with Indians along the Pacific Northwest coast. By the mid-1830s seven vessels, including a steamship, the Beaver, were operating along the coast, under the direction of John McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver; some of these were the annual supply vessels from London, which were dispatched to other Company ports before their return to Europe. The Marine Department also served to move provisions between Fort Vancouver and various trading posts, and were vital links in the industrial development at Fort Vancouver, used to ship lumber, salmon, and other goods--such as flour--to California and Hawaii, and later, Alaska, to transport livestock, and to import such goods as rice, molasses, and sugar.

Center of Agricultural Production

By the mid 1830s, agricultural production at Fort Vancouver allowed Simpson to tell London that: "The Farm...has enabled us to dispense with imported provisions, for the maintenance of our shipping and establishments, where as, without this farm, it would have been necessary to import such provisions, at an expense that the trade could not afford." [151] Agricultural production was a major activity at several other posts in the Department--notably Fort Colvile, designated as the principal supplier of the inland posts of the upper Columbia, and later, New Caledonia posts, and Fort Langley, which partially provisioned the coast posts with agricultural produce, and provided a substantial percentage of the salted salmon trade. Fort Nisqually (1833) and, later, the Cowlitz Farm (1838), both of which were folded into the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, were established as agricultural production centers, both to provision the Hudson's Bay Company posts and to produce foodstuffs for export. It was, however, the Fort Vancouver farm, that was the center of agricultural enterprise during this period.

Early Industrial and Marketing Center

Governor George Simpson's acute eye noted the rich potential of natural resources in the Columbia region during his 1828-29 visit. During this period, Fort Vancouver became a hub of early industrial activity on the Pacific Coast, and an exporter and marketer of, in addition to furs, a variety of other products to foreign countries. In addition to salmon, noted above, the Company at Fort Vancouver became a major producer of flour, shipped primarily to Alaska, after 1839, but also to Hawaii and California, as well as to its own departmental posts. There was some trade in hides and tallow, and again, after 1839 and the establishment of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, wool, although this principally came from the farm at Fort Nisqually. Nisqually and Fort Vancouver also produced butter for foreign trade. Another major industry at Fort Vancouver was lumber, milled at the post's sawmill, and shipped in the form of planks and deals to Hawaii and California. [152] Beginning in the 1830s, and expanding rapidly in the 1840s, Fort Vancouver became a merchandising center for imported goods, primarily sold--in exchange for wheat--to American immigrants; two additional sales outlets for goods were established under Fort Vancouver's aegis in the 1840s at Oregon City and in San Francisco.

Crossroads of Civilization

In 1836, Chief Factor Peter Skene Ogden, by then in charge of the New Caledonia District of the Columbia Department, wrote an associate:

When at Vancouver last summer I saw our Steam Boat and made a short trip in her....the Americans had four ships there... amongst the many good things their honours from Frenchurch Street [the Governor and Committee in London] sent us last summer was a Clergyman and with him his wife the Rev'd. Mr. Beaver a very appropriate name for the fur trade, also Mr. & Mrs. Coppindale [Capendale] to conduct the Farming Establishment & by the Snake country we had an assortment of Am. [American] Missionarys the Rev. Mr. Spaulding & Lady two Mr. Lees & Mr. Shephard surely clergymen enough when the Indian population is now so reduced but this is not all there are also five more Gent. [gentlemen] as follows 2 in quest of Flowers 2 killing all the Birds in the Columbia & 1 in quest of rocks and stones all these bucks came with letters from the President of the U. States and you know it would not be good policy not to greet them politely they are a perfect nuisance... [153]

During this period, Fort Vancouver served as the principal outpost of civilization in the North Pacific. It was the initial destination for almost all American and European visitors to the Pacific Northwest, including American missionaries and foreign scientists, and later American immigrants.

Scientists and Explorers

Fort Vancouver served both as the destination and home base for British, American and other foreign naturalists, many of whom became internationally-recognized scientists, with reputations based in part on their research from Fort Vancouver. To all Chief Factor McLoughlin extended assistance and aid. Among them, as noted earlier, botanist David Douglas, whose first visit in 1825-27, was followed by a second in 1829-30. Douglas was accompanied on his first trip by physician and scientist Dr. John Scouler. Botanist Thomas Nuttall, who travelled with the Nathaniel Wyeth Expedition in 1834-35 to Fort Vancouver, was recognized as the discoverer of many new genera and species of plants: his association with the Pacific Northwest is memorialized by the name given to the native flowering dogwood, Cornus nuttalii. With Nuttall was John Kirk Townsend, a Philadelphia ornithologist, who later acted as a temporary physician at Fort Vancouver.

William Brackenridge, at the post in 1841 with the U.S. Exploring Expedition, collected botanical data which was later published, including an important study of ferns. In fact, many members of the U.S. Exploring Expedition were guests of the Hudson's Bay Company, at Fort Vancouver and at other posts; some of the specimens from the collections of the expedition's naturalists and anthropologists, and the elaborate drawings, many of which were published in following years, were made at and near Fort Vancouver; the collections led to the establishment of the first federally supported museum, in the National Gallery of the Patent Office; later, they were lodged at the Smithsonian. John C. Fremont's overland exploring expedition from the United States, arriving at Fort Vancouver in November of 1843, included a collection of plants later described in a Smithsonian publication.

As noted earlier, the London Horticultural Society maintained close ties with Fort Vancouver via the Company's London office, and many native plants and trees from the Fort Vancouver region found their way into the Society's gardens at Chiswick. [154]

Missionaries and Immigrants

"...Vancouver the New York of the Pacific Ocean." missionary Narcissa Whitman recorded upon her arrival at the post in September of 1836. [155] Fort Vancouver, with its supplies of imported goods, agricultural produce, seed and livestock--not to mention its permanent buildings offering comparative comfort to recover from the rigors of travel--became the goal of missionaries, and later settlers, who began to filter into the Pacific Northwest in the 1 830s. The missionaries, despite the implications their arrival harbinged, were received hospitably.

A brief sketch of the role Fort Vancouver and John McLoughlin played in the settlement of the Oregon Country has been discussed. The operations of the post were, of course affected by immigration. Probably the most significant effects occurred during the latter years of this period, from around 1842 to 1846, when the numbers of immigrants and existing settlers in the Willamette Valley reached a certain critical mass. Taking the broadest view, it is obvious that the influx of Americans--some of whom were extremely vocal and had the ear of the likes of Horace Greeley and imperialistic politicians in Washington D.C.--was eventually bound to tilt the balance in the claims of the United States to the disputed territory. It was apparently hoped by McLoughlin that by steering settlers to the Willamette Valley, the British might yet retain their hold on the lands north of the Columbia River.

In 1837 U.S. Navy purser William Slacum assisted Willamette Valley settlers in driving a herd of cattle from California to the valley, a move which began to wean the settlers from the assistance of Fort Vancouver, at least in terms of livestock. More sheep, cattle and horses were brought north from California in 1842; the policy McLoughlin had established of obtaining repayment on his livestock loans with the increase of the settler's herds began to unravel. Settlers could no longer be relied upon to supervise herd increases for the Company. Until 1842-43, the immigrants had to rely on Fort Vancouver for supplies of clothing, seed and manufactured items. But around 1842-43, certain enterprising settlers in the Valley began to establish their own stores, loosening the monopoly on imported goods offered by the Company shop at Fort Vancouver, and one opened later at Oregon City. However, general merchandising from Fort Vancouver continued to be profitable for the Company into the 1850s, until American merchants became firmly established in the towns of Portland and Oregon City. [156] Also in the early '40s, some Americans began to establish their own flour mills, cutting into the milling operations at the post, although the Company remained the biggest purchaser of wheat in the Valley for a few more years, scrambling to fulfill its sales commitments to the Russian American Company in Alaska.