I’ve written a lot about Fort Vancouver on this blog, but what is the deal with it anyway? Fort Vancouver was a British fur trade post from 1825-1860 in what is now Vancouver, Washington. (Read about the fur trade and fur trade posts in previous blog posts). There were two forts: the first 1825-1829 Fort Vancouver and the second 1829-1860 Fort Vancouver. Sometimes people think there were three Fort Vancouvers because the US Army established Vancouver Barracks (also known as Camp Vancouver and Columbia Barracks) in the vicinity of the second Fort Vancouver in 1849. From 1853-1879 the army barracks was called Fort Vancouver creating the confusion that there were three forts, when really there were just two fur trade forts.

Before Vancouver

The American-owned Pacific Fur Company established Fort Astoria at the mouth of Columbia River on its southern shores in 1811. During the War of 1812, the British North West Company took over operations (although not ownership) of the fort, and changed its name to Fort George.

When the war ended in 1814 with the Treaty of Ghent, territorial disputes remained unsettled for the land west of the Rocky Mountains, which was claimed by both Great Britain and the United States. In 1818, both countries agreed on joint occupation of the land with a plan to renegotiate the boundary in ten years’ time. The United States hoped to eventually set the boundary between the two countries along the 49^th parallel from the Rockies to the Pacific, while Great Britain proposed that the boundary be along the 49^th parallel until it met the Columbia River, and would then follow the Columbia to the Pacific.

In 1821, the British Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company merged retaining the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) name. Fort George was used as the HBC’s principal base of operations in the west, increasing the political power and might of the Company and of Great Britain.

In 1823, with boundary negotiations drawing near, Great Britain decided its best hope for a resolution in its favor was to use the presence of HBC fur trade posts to anchor British claims to the land in the west. HBC governors analyzed operations at Fort George and found that the post was struggling economically because of over-exploitation of resources and mismanagement of personnel. Not only was Fort George not doing well, but disputes frequently arose because the fort was still technically owned by the Americans.

At Vancouver

The HBC realized establishing occupancy on the north side of the Columbia River could give them an advantage in upcoming boundary negotiations (basically claiming squatter’s rights) so Fort Vancouver was established in 1825 where Vancouver, Washington now sits. HBC governor George Simpson christened the new fort on March 19, 1824. He wrote in his journal:

“At sunrise mustered all the people to hoist the flag staff of the new establishment and in presence of the gentlemen, servants, chiefs and Indians, I baptized it by breaking a bottle of rum on the flagstaff and repeating the following words in a loud voice, ‘in behalf of the honorable Hudson’s Bay Company I hereby name this Establishment Fort Vancouver, God save king George the 4^th’, with three cheers. Gave a couple of drams to the people and Indians on the occasion. The object of naming it after that distinguished navigator is to identify our claim to the soil and trade with his discovery of the River and coast on behalf of Great Britain. If the Honorable Committee however do not approve the name it can be altered.”

Simpson immediately left Fort Vancouver to continue on across the continent from “the shores of the Pacific to those of the Atlantic,” leaving charge of the fort in the capable hands of Chief Factor John McLoughlin.

Even though Fort Vancouver was a strong and important presence in the Pacific Northwest, Great Britain’s hopes for the US/Great Britain border were not realized when, in 1846, the boundary between the two nations was established at the 49^th parallel. The decision immediately made Fort Vancouver a British outpost on American soil. This awkward situation became even worse when the US Army set up a post on the high land overlooking Fort Vancouver in 1849. An uneasy co-occupancy of the landscape lasted until 1860 when the HBC abandoned Fort Vancouver. In 1866 the remaining structures of the Fort burned to the ground in a mysterious fire.

Fort Vancouver today

If you visit Fort Vancouver now what you see is a reconstruction of the fort stockade and many of the buildings on the archaeological footprint of the 1829 fort. In the 1940s and 1950s archaeologists discovered exactly where the 1829 fort was, and archaeological evidence, documents, and photos were used to reconstruct the buildings as they were in the 19^th century. Fort Vancouver National Historic Site is a wonderful place to learn about history and archaeology, and as many area residents will tell you it’s also an amazing greenspace to walk, run, and explore.