Fort Vancouver Cultural Landscape Report

Site
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Fort Plain (continued)

Fields and Pastures

The development of the fields north of Upper Mill Road has already been discussed. This section covers the acreage south of the road, to the river. Fort Plain's park-like appearance struck many visitors, beginning with George Simpson, as noted earlier. On his first visit to Vancouver in 1834-35, Cyrus Shepherd noted that he and Jason Lee "walked out" from the fort "...and passed an agreeable season in conversation on various subjects and gathered some crab apples which grow plentifully hereabout..." [625] His wife, Susan Downing Shepherd, who arrived with other methodist missionaries in the spring of 1837, wrote in April that they were "...safe and sound in our little log hut" at Fort Vancouver. In a May letter, she said of Fort Plain: "...the lupines grow wild here a large field front of the house is blue with them they are very troublesome to the farmers we have had several delightful walks in the edge of the woods and came home loded with flowers we find our own little red cullendine here and the blue violet and likewise red and yellow violets the hills all around us are a perfect flower garden..." [626] In 1846 artist Paul Kane visited the fort. Although he did not specifically mention Fort Plain, he said the camas and the wappatoo "...are found in immense quantities in the plains in the vicinity of Fort Vancouver, and in the spring of the year present a most curious and beautiful appearance, the whole surface presenting an uninterrupted sheet of bright ultra-marine blue, from the innumerable blossoms of these plants." [627] At some unspecified time, probably the mid 1840s, but possibly earlier, the Company seeded areas along the river with timothy and clover to supplement the native grasses for livestock pasturage. [628] Against this background of wildflowers and lush grasses, were the cultivated fields of wheat, peas, barley, clover, oats and potatoes.

⁶²³There is another type of nineteenth century fencing composed of split rails, fastened to posts with iron hooks or pins, which would avoid the at least five foot bed width required by a zigzag, since all rails would be in line with the posts; constructing such a fence would be much more labor intensive than the zigzag. A third type of fence would be a pole fence, where pre-bored poles are set in a straight line; pins are driven diagonally into the posts, and the poles are laid in place. This type of fence usually had diagonal bracing at every post. Pole fences were also sometimes connected using withes of saplings or slender limbs, twisted to make a loop which fits over the butt ends of diagonally placed poles.

Cultivated Fields and Pastures

With the information available at present, it is only possible to conjecture regarding the development of the fields and pastures of Fort Plain. Because the stockade was moved in the winter of 1828-29 to what became known as Fort Plain, it seems likely that if fields were not cultivated on the plain up to that time, they probably were by the spring of 1829, simply because logistically cultivation of the plain after the move would make sense. [629] In addition, if one looks at the minimum number of acres that could have been in grain production during the early years, based on the harvest figures for those years, it is evident that between 1827 and 1828 the amount of land under cultivation at least trebled. As discussed earlier, it seems possible that cultivation began in the immediate vicinity of the stockade, and in later years moved farther across the plain.

The earliest known report which contains a definite count of acres of land under cultivation was an inventory of the farm made by James Douglas in 1838, and sent to Sir George Simpson. [630] In this letter he said Fort Plain had 76 acres of good land and 178 acres of "poor shingly land" that never flooded, and 203 acres of good land subject to flooding. In 1838, then, it seems that Fort Plain had, at the most, 457 acres of cultivable land--poor, good, and subject to inundation. Counting all cleared or clear land on the farm--including acreage on the Back Plains, Douglas reported a total of 861 acres, only half of which he said was planted each year. [631] In later testimony, Dugald MacTavish said that at the time of the 1846 treaty, the farms on both Fort Plain and Lower Plain consisted of 500 acres "under fence." [632]

Cultivated fields were enclosed with fences, as shown by the 1844 Peers map, almost certainly to keep livestock out during the growing season, and possibly to keep them in during the fallow periods, when the fields were fertilized with manure. In 1834 John Kirk Townsend, who along with botanist Thomas Nutall, arrived with Nathaniel Wyeth on September 16, 1834, said: "He [McLoughlin] has already several hundred acres fenced in, and under cultivation, and like our own western prairie land, it produces abundant crops, particularly of grain, without requiring any manure. Wheat thrives astonishingly; I never saw better in any country..." [633] Fencing used to enclose these fields was probably one of two types, judging from later illustrations and photographs. The 1846-47 painting attributed to John Stanley shows post and rail or pole fencing enclosing the field immediately adjacent to and northeast of the fort. This type of fencing can be seen in other illustrations, principally sketches by George Gibbs of Kanaka Village enclosures, and the 1854-55 illustrations of the enclosure west of the Catholic church. An 1851 sketch by George Gibbs looking east from the vicinity of the quartermaster's house shows that the potato field south of the stockade was enclosed with zigzag fencing.

In 1838 James Douglas reported to Simpson that the soil was not the best for agriculture, even with crop rotation--grain alternating with "occasional row crops, keeping the soil in good heart," fallowing and "manures, the latter operation being most commonly performed by folding the cattle upon the impoverished land." Douglas also noted in 1838 that "...the average produce from an acre of our best ground seldom exceed 20 bushels Wheat or 30 Bus Pease or 50 Bus Oats or 40 Bus Barley and the poorer soils yield 100 percent less. [634] These figures help provide some kind of rough idea of the amount of acreage in production in any given year.

It seems reasonably certain that by 1830 Fort Plain was in field crop production; in October McLoughlin reported that flooding injured the crop, indicating some fields were by then located within the flood plain of Fort Plain. In 1832, clerk George T. Allan said, "On the east side of the fort there is a beautiful plain, great part of which is under cultivation and about sixty miles further to the eastward we have a splendid view of Mount Hood, which is covered with snow more or less all the year round." [635] In 1833, William Tolmie described Fort Plain's appearance when he went riding with McLoughlin "...to see the farm which extends along bank of R[iver] to E[ast] of fort--there several large fields of wheat & pease & one of barley--with rich & extensive meadows." [636] Dr. Tolmie also noted this year that cattle, goats and "swine" were "cropping the rich herbage" in the vicinity of the Lower Plain, which indicates that at least some, if not most, of the livestock had by this time been moved downriver.

By 1838 at least eighty acres were cultivated on Fort Plain, where a second spring flood destroyed that amount of crops, as reported by James Douglas. He also reported, in October, that he was ploughing one hundred acres of summer fields to plant a wheat crop, which may have been on Fort Plain. [637] By 1839 Douglas was telling Simpson that there was no more cultivable land available on the farm--additional lands were either too heavily forested to be cleared with the men and tools available, or were subject to flooding. Douglas recommended expanding cultivation at the Cowlitz Portage," on the Cowlitz River. By that date, then, it seems as if all land that, in Douglas' opinion, could be put to plough on Fort Plain was in production.

On September 24, 1844, fire broke out east of Fort Plain, and swept through the forests, threatening various areas of the farm. The "line of fire" was indicated on two maps apparently prepared for McLoughlin to send to London. It is reasonable to assume the fields indicated on the two "line of fire" maps for 1844 are more or less accurate, although they do not agree in details. In general, the organization of agriculture on Fort Plain at that time appears to have centered around the stockade, with fields to the north, east and south of it. The maps indicate that approximately 131 to 218 acres were in cultivation on Fort Plain--including the area north of Upper Mill Road--in 1844. [638]

The Peers map, which shows the entire Fort Plain area, although in very small scale, delineates a group of fields surrounding the stockade, laid out in a fairly regular pattern to the northeast, southeast, and southwest. The 1844 stockade area map shows a field of clover, about 20-25 acres, in the northeast quadrant, and potatoes in the the area south of the stockade, although the separate fields delineated on the Peers map are not indicated. The Peers map indicates the potato field area was cultivated to the vegetation along the river shore, but the 1846 Covington maps show the area south of Lower Mill Road as not cultivated; the 1844 stockade area map is vague. If the south end of the field was cultivated, the total acreage would be between 66 and 72 acres; if only the area north of Lower Mill Road was in potatoes, then the field would be between 28 and 31 acres. [639]

Adjacent to the northeast field, where, in 1844, clover was grown, the Peers map shows a much larger, roughly rectangular cultivated field which extended to the nearer of the two lakes on the plain, north of Lower Mill Road, consisting of about forty-five acres. In the 1844 stockade area map, it indicates that barley was growing on the west side of this field, between twenty-five and thirty acres, and cole seed was planted to the east, about seventeen or eighteen acres.

The Peers map shows an irregularly shaped field east of the southeast section of the potato field, bordering the south edge of Lower Mill Road, consisting of between thirty-nine and forty-six acres. The 1844 stockade area map does not indicate any field south of the barley field above Lower Mill Road. However, during the fire, clerk Thomas Lowe reported he and "a good many men and Indians" burned a "broad strip in the stubble fields from the Barn to the Waters edge, to prevent the fire which was approaching from the Old Fort Hill from running into the clover field next the Fort." [640] This would have been the barley field, already harvested by September, and indicates that the field south of Lower Mill Road, shown on the Peers map, was also planted in barley; on the map, that field is depicted as extending almost to the river.

The Peers map also shows an irregularly shaped field of sixteen to twenty acres in the far southeast area of the plain, below Lower Mill Road, near the river; the small scale makes it hard to discern if the field were subdivided, although it appears that there may have been at least two, and possibly four separate fields within the cultivated area there. The smaller map does not show any cultivation in that area, although it does show a shed which was located to the west of the fields shown on the larger map.

Fort Plain is mentioned indirectly by Joel Palmer, who visited in 1845. He noted that the fences had been washed away for a three mile stretch of "..the prairie along the river" and that this area had been abandoned for cultivation. North of this stretch, Palmer said, the area extending "nearly down to the fort" was farmed. [641] That spring Thomas Lowe had noted in his journal that: "The River appears to be falling a little the last 3 days. When high it was within 75 yards of the Fort Gate." [642] Vavasour noted on his large scale map of the site that the plain was partially inundated in the spring, with the exception of a tract in the approximate location of the field shown in the southeast corner of the plain on the 1844 map.

In the 1846-47 inventory prepared to establish the value of the Company's holdings, it stated 457 acres were under cultivation: this included potato fields below the dairy in the southeast corner of lower plain. If both fields at the Lower Plain farm shown on the 1844 Peers map were potato fields, they would have covered about 50 to 60 acres of land, indicating about 400 acres was under production on Fort Plain proper, according to the inventory. The approximate amount of acreage under fence, calculated from the 1844 Peers map and the 1846 Covington farm map, including the area north of Upper Mill Road, totalled somewhere between 131 and 218 acres. The difference between the two figures is due primarily to whether the Peers map was accurate in the depiction of fields south of Lower Mill Road. Chief Factor Dugald Mactavish later testified that Fort Plain's land "was under cultivation 200 acres, was under wheat or other grain," and that the remainder was planted in timothy and clover grown "from seeding before my time," of which "very little...[was] under fence, it being used for pasturing horses and cattle so that the plain itself at the period mentioned must have been most productive." [643] He also said that "Every portion of this plain, high or low land, where a plough could be used, had been cultivated." [644] Archibald McKinlay later testified that at the time of the treaty, "the fort plain" had "two or three hundred acres of enclosed land." [645]

The inventory for Fort Plain included 11,090 yards of fencing, 8,362 of which were "fencing adjoining the fort." Thomas Lowe and other witnesses said later there was more land in cultivation than was listed on the inventory, but that it was not fenced. [646]

The 1846 Covington stockade area map shows similar patterns of cultivation when compared with the 1844 maps, however, the relative sizes of the fields have altered somewhat. Like Vavasour, he shows the fields east of the stockade as extending as far as the small westerly lake on Fort Plain; the 1844 map shows the field stopping well short of it The field in the southeast corner appears as a rectangle in Covington's map, rather than irregularly shaped. In addition, there is another, small cultivated field in the far southeast corner of the plain, as well as additional fields north of Upper Mill Road, which run along the base of the bluff. It is quite possible neither map is entirely accurate; certainly the shoreline and the position of Vancouver Lake and the river are incorrect on both maps. It is also possible that after the flooding of 1845, the fields near the river were altered to some extent, and perhaps additional acreage was added to the easternmost field adjacent to the fort. It is not known what was planted in the fields shown on the Covington farm map. In later testimony, James Douglas said that on the entire farm, 5,000 bushels of wheat, 2,000 of peas, 3,000 bushels of oats, 200 of barley, and 6,000 bushels of potatoes were raised, and that 240 acres of land were planted in colewort and turnips as food for cattle and sheep in the winter. [647]

It appears that as the herds of cattle and horses and the flocks of sheep increased, most were shifted to Lower Plain and Mill Plain during this period. However, there is evidence that livestock was never entirely absent from Fort Plain. In 1837, McLoughlin later said, cattle were penned on Fort Plain during the night to manure the soil. [648] In 1838 James Douglas gave an assessment of cattle management to the Governor and Committee: the land near the fort, he said, was "not adapted for herding, on a large scale." When the only "tolerable pasturage," near the river, was flooded, or beaten down by rain and snow, the cattle had to be fed straw stored in the barns, or driven to the Back Plains. [649] Dugald Mactavish later stated that in bad winters the cattle were brought into the barns on Fort Plain, Lower Plain, and Mill Plain "...wherever there was cultivation and fed with hay and straw..." [650] Later testimony refers to the Company's livestock being excluded from former pastures on Fort Plain by squatters fencing the land. Even before the treaty was signed, squatters had been attempting to lay claims on various parts of the farm; perhaps Douglas decided some livestock on the Lower Plain would be safer closer to the stockade.

Timothy and clover were sown along the river edge, probably by the early 1840s. Several witnesses on behalf of the Company to the British and American Joint Commission noted the presence of timothy grass. Merchant M.T. Simmons, who had a farm above Fort Vancouver in 1844-45, later said the "farm...adjoining the fort..." was "...laid down principally in timothy..." [651] Dugald Mactavish said timothy and clover seed had been sown "before my time," and that it had come up well. Very little of it, he said, was under fence, "...being used for pasturing horses and cattle..." William Crate also said the Company had sown "a good deal of land above and below the fort with timothy grass, and it was several years before it came to anything." [652] Dr. Henry Tuzo said that by 1853 land on Fort Plain and Lower Plain "...had been enclosed and sown with timothy grass by the Company..." [653] While there is no known reference to exactly when the timothy and clover were sown at Fort Vancouver, there is a reference to it at the Nisqually farm, when, in 1842, James Douglas told Angus McDonald to have timothy seed and clover sown on a wheat field. [654] Also, a map of the Cowlitz Farm, dated 1844-45, shows enclosed fields sown with timothy and clover. At both places, these pasture crops were planted to replace the rank native grasses, which the Company considered were not nutritious enough for sheep.

Structures

As mentioned earlier, at least one barn was built on Fort Plain in 1829, probably the barn north of Upper Mill Road. By 1838, as noted above, there were some sheds or barns in existence on Fort Plain from which livestock were fed during severe winters. One shed is shown on the southeast area of the plain on the 1844 Peers map, probably the same structure shown on Vavasour's 1845 map, listed as a barn, "not inundated." Also in 1844, McLoughlin noted the presence of wheat sheds on Fort Plain in conjunction with the fire, so presumably at least two barns or sheds--the terms appear interchangeable--were on Fort Plain by that time. [655] Thomas Lowe, in describing the fire in his journal, noted that he encountered George Roberts and a party of men at the end of Fort Plain, "stationed to protect the shed, as the first was only a short distance back in the woods." [656] The shed to which Lowe refers is not shown on the Peers 1844 map, but it can be seen in the 1846 Covington farm map at the very east edge of the plain, along Lower Mill Road.

The 1846-47 inventory prepared by the Company offers very little information regarding structures on Fort Plain, and what is listed must be determined by process of elimination. If one eliminates the known structures from the listing which were within the stockade, just outside the southeast corner of the stockade, in Kanaka Village or at the river front, there were, perhaps, three root houses, three barns, and a corn kill. It has been demonstrated, however, that the inventory was not complete, and that some structures were not included--for example, the summerhouse in the garden, which can be seen on two illustrations and two maps post-dating 1846, is not listed. The root houses have already been discussed, in association with the stockade.

Four outbuildings which are or could be barns are shown on the 1846 Covington farm map, in addition to the Modeste stable near the river. The inventory of 1846-47 lists only three barns on Fort Plain, two 100 by 30 foot barns, and one 120 by 30 foot barn. The reason for the discrepancy between the map and the inventory, executed about the same time, is unknown, unless one of the structures shown on the Covington farm map was the corn kill (kiln), a root house, the ice house, or a dwelling. One of the outbuildings, located at the east end of the plain above the smallest cultivated field, is labeled as a barn on the Covington map. Another outbuilding, in the cultivated field north of Upper Mill Road, is probably a barn; it can be seen on several 1850s sketches. The two additional structures on the Covington farm map are west of the large cultivated field near the southeast end of the plain; they are not labeled. One of these was labeled "barn" by Vavasour in 1845, and "shed" in the 1844 Peers map; the function of the other is not known. In 1846, James Douglas referred to straw sheds about which cattle and horses had grouped during the severe winter; although this reference seems to be to Lower Plain, perhaps the unknown structure was a straw shed for whatever livestock was on Fort Plain. [657] Perhaps a new barn/shed was built after the inventory was prepared, and before the map was drawn, although there is no reference to it in historic documents, and it is believed the Covington map was probably prepared to accompany the inventory.

Among the structures not listed is the inventory, but shown on the 1845 Vavasour map is one of the piggeries on Fort Plain. The 1846 Covington stockade area map shows the long-established company pig sheds near the river front, and this is assumed to be the one piggery mentioned in the inventory. As noted earlier, there was another piggery, according to Vavasour's 1845 map just east of the fields east of the stockade, which appears to have been located below the site of the old stockade on Old Fort Hill.

The Modeste stable was apparently built by the crew or officers of that ship. There are several references to horse races between and among the officers of the ship and the Company, both by Thomas Lowe and by artist Paul Kane, who was at the fort in the winter of 1846-47. At least one of these affairs was quite elaborate, with a rough mile track laid out south of the fort, and a pavilion erected for refreshments. [658] Beginning in November of 1849, and for about two years, or until the quartermaster's depot stables were completed, the army rented the Modeste stables, presumably to house their horses. The 1846 Covington stockade area map shows two dwellings near the river, near the Modeste stables. One is labeled "servant's house," and the other "Drake's House." Both could have been built by the crew of the Modeste, posted at Fort Vancouver between November of 1845 and May of 1847. They were in the same vicinity as the structure labeled "Modeste stable," and neither are shown on either the 1844 Peers map or the 1845 Vavasour map.