Fort Vancouver Cultural Landscape Report

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The Landscape Beyond Fort Plain

The following is a discussion of the features within this historic period of the plains no longer within the park's boundaries.

Lower Plain

Lower Plain was bounded on the east by a stretch of forest and undergrowth extending from the forests of the north to the riverbank, immediately west of Fort Plain and Kanaka Village, about a mile and one-half from the stockade. It ran for about three-quarters of a mile in a narrow band along the river, and then broadened to three or more miles in width, to the southern tip of Big (Vancouver) Lake. A string of narrow lakes formed the northerly border of this narrow band, north of which was an open meadow on which the Company, fairly early on, established a farm called West Plain Farm, generally considered part of Lower Plain. The plain encompassed two smaller lakes beyond Big Lake--Chalifoux and Wapato Lakes--and continued north in a narrow strip to the mouth of the Cathlapootl (Lewis) River. Even Company employees were not certain of the extent of their claim on Lower Plain: in later testimony Dugald Mactavish said at one point that the frontage of Lower Plain ran for ten miles down river, and at another time, said five miles. seems likely that the Company considered any land south and east of the Lake River within its boundaries.

Several visitors gave vivid descriptions of the plain. William Tolmie, who accompanied a riding party on Vancouver Plain--as he called it--in May of 1833 later recorded:

After half an hour's dangerous scrambling through brush & brake & numerous stumps, entered plain, which extends for about 15 miles down river & is generally a mile in breadth. Its surface is diversified with clumps of trees & lakes of water & profusely bedecked with beautiful flowers, amongst which noticed particularly a large species of lupin, a blue orchideous looking plant called Kamas.. .Rich &luxuriant grass afforded an abundant pasturage to 3 or 400 cattle which in different herds were met with as we cantered along. At 1 P.M. reached a lake 3 or 4 miles in circumference bordered by trees in full foliage. On its shores flocks of wild ducks feeding & swallows in thousands skimming its surface. Passed several smaller lochs in returning...All around were herds of beautiful cattle cropping the rich herbage or listlessly lolling under trees--horses, goats & swine seen in every direction attending to the cravings of Nature--on the lochs wild duck abundant & now & then the solitary heron could be seen, standing motionless in shallow water...In traversing pine wood the Governor pointed out to me a tall slender tree having a profusion of large syngenesious flowers called here Devil's Wood...Sugar maple also grows in this wood. [704]

Charles Wilkes, in 1841, said "This was one of the most beautiful rides I have yet taken, through fine prairies, adorned with large oaks, ash and pines. The large herds of cattle feeding and reposing under the trees, gave an air of civilization to the scene...The water was quite high; and many of the little knolls were surrounded by it, which had the appearance of small islets breaking the wide expanse of overflowing water. [705]

Functionally, the Lower Plain had two uses in its early years of development: the West Plain farm, which contained cultivated fields, and the remainder of the plain, which was used to pasture cattle, horses, some sheep and pigs, and, apparently, goats. By 1844, the narrow stretch of the plain just west of the forest separating Lower Plain from Fort Plain had been developed to include cultivated fields, a piggery and a dairy.

On both the Peers map and the 1846 Covington farm map, Upper Mill Road extended through the forest to the east: in 1833, as William Tolmie described earlier, it was still a very rough road, with dense underbrush, and as late as 1845, Vavasour described it on his map as a "Bush Track." En route to Fort Vancouver via the "Callapuya River" Charles Wilkes noted in 1841 how in May, "This branch forms an extensive range of lakes, which reaches to within a mile of Vancouver. The river was now high enough to make it convenient for us to take this route... it becoming necessary to make a short portage within a mile of Vancouver, we concluded to walk thither by the road. In this march we first entered a wood of large pines, which had an undergrowth of various flowering shrubs. The old stumps in the road were overgrown with the red honeysuckle, in full blossom. Lupines and other flowers grow even in the roadway." [706]

By the mid-40s, Upper Mill Road had become a good wagon road, as noted by Archibald McKinlay, In 1844, it skirted to the north of a narrow band of fields, and headed north to the west edge of the West Plain farm, east of the chain of lakes. A road branched off to the south, leading to a dairy located along the river. By 1846, another road skirted the west edge of the lakes, north towards Big Lake, with several additional roads or paths continuing west and north across the plain. By the early 1840s, Alexander Anderson later testified, "A long line of fence was formerly erected immediately above the head of the lower plain, in order to confine the cattle on the lower ranges; there was a gate upon the road, at which a gate keeper was stationed night and day, in order to prevent estrays..." [707] The gate and what must have been the gatekeeper's house can be seen on the 1846 Covington farm map where Upper Mill Road splits into two paths.

West Plain Farm

In 1838 James Douglas inventoried the land at Fort Vancouver, In his report, he noted that the West Plain farm had 76 acres of good land "always available," 52 acres of good land subject to flooding, and 37 acres of "poor shingly land never flooded." [708] This term almost certainly encompassed all cultivated areas west of the stockade on Lower Plain, but it appears that the portion of the farm in Lower Plain first cultivated was the 76 acres of good land, "always available," northeast of the small chain of lakes. By 1841, the fields were planted in wheat, according to George Emmons, and Archibald McKinlay later said the fields were planted in wheat and "other grains" in 1840. [709] The 1844 Peers map shows three fenced fields, and a structure with a small enclosure around it, and the line of fire, which on Lower Plain reached the fields, and consumed the west fence line as it headed south towards the pastures and Company livestock. James Douglas later reported he was able to direct Indians and employees in extinguishing the fire along a two mile line, when it was between the lakes, "preserving the South side of the Plain from its ravages." [710]

The structure shown on the 1844 map is probably the barn to which James Douglas and Thomas Lowe referred when describing the fire in the Lower Plain: it was saved from destruction during the fire. Merchant M.T. Simmons, who was at the fort in 1844, listed the farms at the post, and noted that "the fourth farm was then unenclosed, the fences and buildings having then been recently destroyed by fire. This was a pretty good sized farm." [711] If there were structures damaged by the fire on Lower Plain, it is not evident from the descriptions of the fire, nor from the map. By 1846, according to the 1846 Covington farm map, the contiguity of the fields had been split, with open pasture between two sections of cultivated fields, so perhaps more fences were damaged in 1844 than indicated by the McLoughlin to the directors. There were, according to the Covington map, three barns in the vicinity of the single barn shown on the 1844 map, and Vavasour's 1845 map shows one barn and two sheds in the same general location. However, in the 1846-47 inventory, only one barn, one hundred by twenty feet, is listed for Lower Plain. Dugald Mactavish later testified that new buildings were put up in the mid 1840s "...at the dairies, on Sauvie Island and below Fort Vancouver." [712]

From the 1844 Peers map it appears that the thirty-seven acres of "poor shingly soil" was located in the vicinity of the West Plain farm. As with other areas of the Fort Vancouver Farm, the common practice of improving the soil was to fertilize it by "...folding the cattle upon the impoverished land," as James Douglas reported in 1838, [713] Charles Wilkes noted that the dairy he visited in 1841 was "...removed every year, which is found advantageous to the ground, and affords the cattle better pasturage." [714] Covington's large 1846 map shows a cattle pen and a house between the fields of the West Plain Farm, which are not shown on the 1844 Peers map.

Pastures

It is not known when cattle were first located on Lower Plain--certainly by 1833 when William Tolmie saw them, and probably earlier. In 1829 Laurent Sauve dit Laplante was on the Company rolls as a cowherd, and later as a dairyman or cowherd, but it is not clear whether he tended his charges on Lower Plain or elsewhere, in the early years. Many employees and visitors attested to the presence of cattle on Lower Plain; Dugald Mactavish later said the cattle ranged as far as the mouth of the Cowlitz River.

In describing the plain, Mactavish later said that the "great bulk" of the Company's cattle and horses were pastured on the "alluvial lands of the Columbia River" when it was not under water. [715] When the water was high, the livestock was driven inland to higher ground; some herds were moved to the Back Plains. William Crate and Mactavish later testified that like Fort Plain, the lands along the river had been "throughout seeded with timothy and clover." [716] In 1838 James Douglas told the governor and committee in London that the only "tolerable" pasture on the entire farm was in the marsh lands near the river, and he sent the bulk of the Company's cattle to the Cowlitz, the Tualatin plains, and to Sauvie Island, keeping only enough at the post that could be sustained by the limited pasture in that year of flooding.

James Douglas said that in 1844, horses cattle and sheep were located on the plain, and in early '40s, at least, pigs were allowed to forage on it. George Emmons noted in 1841 that it was on Lower Plain "...that I first learned that pig would voluntarily dive under water, Dr. McL- assuring me that he had frequently witnessed this curious anamoly and watched them until they reached the shore & dispatched their prize which was nothing more or less than a species of clam or oyster." [717] Dugald Mactavish later said "a great number of hogs kept fat there rooting in the soft ground after the waters receded." [718]

Lower Plain was also used for recreational purposes. George Emmons reported in 1841 that near Big Lake, his riding party was "refreshed with some lemonade, one of the Cos. servants having arrived with the necessary ingredients." [719] Thomas Lowe reported Captain Baillie, of the Modeste, hosting a picnic on Lower Plain in 1845.

Indians also camped on the plain: in 1841 Emmons noted "Several large families of Indians encamped under the shade of large oaks on the prairie, the boughs of the latter being their only covering..." [720]

Lower Plain Farm

It is fairly evident that until 1838 what became known as Lower Plain Farm was included in West Plain Farm. This area of land, at the easternmost end of the plain near the river, encompassed about fifty acres, as can be approximately scaled on the 1844 Peers map, and is probably the fifty-two acres which James Douglas reported in 1838 as being "subject to flooding." It is not known when the farm buildings and enclosed fields were developed in this narrow strip of land just west of the woods.

There were at least two dairies on Lower Plain by 1840, according to Archibald McKinlay, and Wilkes also reported two dairies in 1841, where "they milked upwards of one hundred cows." [721] When they were established is not known: Narcissa Whitman reported visiting "the dairy" in 1836, in which she said between fifty and sixty cows were milked, and James Douglas reported in 1838 that the dairy had produced 58 kegs butter "plus needs of depot." [722] In March of that same year Herbert Beaver wrote regarding his alleged treatment at the hands of McLoughlin: "...as with regards to the fresh butter, none of which we have had all the winter, though nearly one hundred cows were in milk last summer." [723]

Narcissa Whitman noted the dairy produced an "abundance" of cheese and butter and that she: "Saw an improvement in the manner of raising cream Their pans are of an oblong square, quite large, but Shallow. Flareing a little, made of wood and lined with tin, in the center is a hole with a long plug. When the cream has all arisen to the surface, place the pan over a tub or pail, remove the plug and the milk will all run off leaving the cream in the pan only. I think these in a large dairy must be very convenient." [724]

Charles Wilkes reported that "They churn in barrel-machines, of which there are several. All the cattle look extremely well, and are rapidly increasing in numbers. The cows give milk at the age of eighteen months. Those of the California breed give a very small quantity of milk; but when crossed with those from the United States and England, do very well. I saw two or three very fine bulls, that had been imported from England." [725]

By 1844 the dairy was located along the river, a mile or so west of the edge of the woods: all three maps of the mid 1840s show two structures at the dairy, although their functions are not identified. Since Wilkes noted that the dairy was managed by a "Canadian and his wife," it is possible one of the buildings was a dwelling. The 1846-47 inventory notes there were three houses on Lower Plain, each twenty by eighteen feet. At least one of them was probably located here, and the second, as noted in the 1846 Covington farm map, in the vicinity of the West Plain farm. The location of the third, was just west of the gate to the Lower Plain, before Upper Mill Road split into two paths to the north, and served, presumably, as the gatekeeper's lodge. The inventory also lists only one dairy, a twenty by eighteen foot structure, which had to have been the second structure noted in the dairy complex; the location of the second dairy is not noted on any of the maps, although as noted above, a "cattle pen" is indicated in the vicinity of the West Plain farm, and there are several unidentified structures on the Covington map near the gate to the Lower Plain. It was apparently this dairy which was destroyed by a falling tree in a strong windstorm in October of 1846. [726]

M.T. Simmons noted that in 1844, the "third farm below the fort" had "good and sufficient farm buildings," with "soil here better than either of the other farms [Mill Plain or Fort Plain]." [727] There were cultivated fields located on either side of the dairy, along the river. By 1846 they were probably at least partially planted in potatoes, since the 1846-47 inventory lists 1,090 yards of fencing "...of potato fields below dairy." On both the 1844 and 1846 maps, a small area of about twenty acres is shown as cultivated and enclosed, west of the dairy.

To the east of the dairy, the 1844 map shows a large cultivated field, beyond which is an enclosed field with a small structure, labeled "piggery." It is shown in the same location on the 1846 Covington farm map, and is listed in the inventory as a structure, sixty by eighteen feet

In February of 1845 what appear to be the first assaults upon Company lands by American squatters commenced. One of the squatters was Henry Williamson, who attempted to lay out a claim from the "men's houses," apparently at Kanaka Village, to the Lower Plain. James Douglas wrote to Simpson that "If he comes to build upon it, we are determined to eject him at all hazards, otherwise they will go on with their encroachments until they take possession of our very garden..." [728] Williamson had, according to McLoughlin, erected "a few logs of wood in the form of a hut" and posted a claim notice. McLoughlin had the logs dismantled and the tree on which the claim notice posted cut down, and later, after a confrontation with Williamson, and an appeal to the provisional government of Oregon, Williamson was evicted. [729]