In post 22. A Tale of Two Forts, I talked a little about the 1825 Fort Vancouver. Here is some additional information about the first Fort Vancouver.

The image above shows one page of an undated report, thought to have been written around 1825 by an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The report describes several Columbia Department forts, and one entry talks about the first Fort Vancouver at its beginning. (FYI: Punctuation was not a strong suit of the author!) It says:

Fort Vancouver is built on the north side of the Columbia about three miles above the Mult-no-mah on a high Bank one mile from the River between the Bank and the River there is a low plain two miles in length in years of High water this plain is overflown which obliged us to Build at such a distance from the River. The Fort is two hundred fifty feet in depth by one hundred and fifty in breadth surrounded by a Stockade seventeen feet above ground and flanked by two temporary Bastions with three pieces of Artillery in Each

The Buildings at present erected are two Stores of forty by thirty feet one dwelling House of sixty by forty feet an Indian House thirty by twelve and tradesmens work shop and a temporary powder magazine

While we know of no sketches of blueprints of the first fort, through this description we can imagine fairly well what the fort might have looked like. George Simpson, HBC Governor of the Columbia Department, noted the fort also included “temporary quarters for the people.” These quarters were most likely tents constructed at Fort Vancouver made of Russia sheeting, as noted below, and housed a diverse set of employees, including many Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. Materials used for the first fort are hinted at in an 1825 letter from Chief Factor McLoughlin where he says that clerk “Thos [Thomas] Mckay and a party of Canadians and Kanakas [Native Hawaiians] were sent to Ske-Chew-twa [the plain where Fort Vancouver was built] to cut the lumber necessary for building the new Fort” and that Native Americans in the vicinity were engaged to gather cedar bark to be used as roofing shingles. Flooring was brought from Fort George, in present-day Astoria, Oregon. The blacksmith William Cannon from Astoria is said to have set up a forge “under a majestic fir tree during the construction of Fort Vancouver.”

John Scouler notes in his 1825 journal that the new fort resembled Fort George, and indeed supplies and stores were said to be moved from Fort George to Fort Vancouver by lighters and canoes. However, Scouler’s observation likely meant the fort had a stockade with structures inside, not that it was exactly like Fort George.

Getting water up to the fort on the bluff was a huge feat. Attempts at digging wells on top of the bluff were unsuccessful, and primary sources recall that a man named “old La Pierre” was charged with hauling water up from the Columbia River twice a day. La Pierre filled two casks which he then lashed to a wagon pulled by two oxen named Lion and Brandy. La Pierre was apparently not shy with the whip, as he urged the oxen to struggle up the steep bluff with the heavy load of water.

The HBC kept extensive inventory lists of its forts and these lists can give us great insight into the activities and people at the fort. In the Inventory of Merchandise Provisions: The Property of the Hudson’s Bay Company Remaining on Hand at Fort Vancouver Columbia River 15th March 1826, some interesting items are noted. We can infer that a cooper, someone who makes barrels, was working at the fort because the inventory notes several coopering tools. Blacksmithing and carpentry tools were inventoried, as well. Indeed, Jedediah Smith, an American trapper, spent the winter of 1828-1829 at Fort Vancouver, and wrote that the fort had blacksmiths, gunsmiths, carpenters, coopers, a tinner, and a baker. The 1826 inventory lists many medicinal items, including spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, pewter syringes, corked vials, and a mortar and pestle, among many other items. I imagine these belonged to Dr. McLoughlin, Chief Factor of the fort. Clay pipes, bottles of rum, and playing cards indicate recreational and social activities. Paint, in colors black, blue, Spanish brown, green, dry white lead, and yellow, was used at the fort.

Its easy to assume that the fort occupants were all adult males at this time, but this may be because women and children are not always included in the documentary record. Interestingly, the 1826 inventory list suggests women and children indeed held some sort of presence at the fort. Inventoried were women’s beaver bonnets, youth fine bonnets, children’s blue bonnets, women’s white cotton fabric, and women’s pumps (a type of shoe).

John McLoughlin’s dream was for Fort Vancouver to eventually be almost completely self-reliant, with most food and many goods made at the fort. The 1826 inventory lists many “Columbia-made items,” made at Fort Vancouver rather than shipped in from England. Included are smithed tools like adzes, axes, beaver traps and chains; sewn items like flour bags and capotes, which are a type of blanket-coat; oak kegs; flat-bottom kettles; and tents made of Russia sheeting which is a type of canvas made of hemp linen and was most likely oiled to be waterproof. By 1826, Fort Vancouver seemed to be off to a great start in self-reliance.

McLoughlin wasted no time in starting his agricultural experiments. Crops were planted almost immediately; adjacent to the fort on the upper prairie a potato and vegetable field were planted by the spring of 1825. The spot was also renowned for its beauty and even Governor Simpson seemed awed by this place which he noted was “possessing so many natural advantages and where ornament and use are so agreeably combined.”

The crops planted in the spring of 1825 yielded 900 barrels of potatoes and 9 ½ bushels of peas in the first year. In 1826 McLoughlin planted the first wheat in Washington State and also corn, and these crops did so well that he wrote that by 1828 Fort Vancouver would be able to supply the entire Columbia Department with all the corn and flour HBC posts needed. Additionally, apple trees and grapevines were growing by 1828. Livestock and other animals also thrived at the Jolie Prairie. In 1825 over 100 horses grazed on the lower plain below the fort; by November 1828 the prairie supported over 150 head of cattle; and by 1829 about 200 hogs, 50 goats, and various domestic fowl occupied the landscape. The four years of occupation at the first fort saw the landscape metamorphose into a bastion of civilization and industry.