Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

Furnishings

As with the other warehouses, the "furnishings" of the Beef Store were largely the items stored therein. No separate inventory of "articles in use" in the Beef Store has been found. Therefore it must be assumed that a certain number of the items listed as being "In Stores" in the 1844 and 1845 inventories already reproduced (see pp. 258-59, vol. I) were assigned to the warehouse for meat, but which ones is not evident.

The Fort Vancouver account books reveal that preserved meats were packed in barrels and casks of several different sizes. For example, when the inventory for Outfit 1840 was taken (during the spring of 1841) there were on hand in the Fort Vancouver Depot the following pertinent items listed among the "Country Produce":

During Outfit 1844 the Company shipped the Russians salt beef from Fort Nisqually in 215-pound casks, while from Fort Vancouver the preserved meat was charged by the hundredweight (112 lbs.), though evidently it was packed in tierces. [57]

Some idea of the quantities of preserved meats on hand in the Fort Vancouver Depot can be gathered from inventories, but of course they reflect conditions only on particular dates. Total production figures have not yet been encountered by the writer. For what they are worth, the following statistics are presented:

1. At the opening of Outfit 1845 on June 1, 1845, the following quantities of preserved meats were on hand at the Fort Vancouver Depot:

In addition, the following items may have been kept in the Beef Store, although there is no information to that effect:

2. In the spring of 1846 the annual inventory listed the following items of "country produce" that almost certainly were kept in the Beef Store:

The following products may also have been stored in the building: