Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, in Vancouver, Washington, rests on the original site of Fort Vancouver. The fort, established in 1825, served as a supply post and western headquarters for the Hudson’s Bay Company, a British fur trading company.
The Hudson’s Bay Company held a royal charter giving it exclusive rights to trade furs over a large area of what is now Canada and the northwestern United States. Fort Vancouver served as headquarters for the company’s operations west of the Rocky Mountains. At that time, both the United Kingdom and the United States claimed the region that later became the state of Oregon. Citizens of both countries traded and settled there.
At the height of company operations in the area, Fort Vancouver was a busy supply and trading post. The fort was a miniature city with its own farms, livestock, and mills. Many people from diverse backgrounds lived in or visited the fort. British company officers and supervisors directed the daily business of the fort. French and Scottish trappers traded furs there. The Hudson’s Bay Company brought Polynesian workers from Hawaii to staff farms, mills, and lumbering operations. Indians traded with the fort’s inhabitants for iron goods and other supplies. American pioneers settled around the fort, which was the last outpost on the Oregon Trail.
By 1846, the growing number of American settlers in the Oregon region caused the British to abandon their hopes of keeping the area. In the Oregon Treaty of 1846, the United Kingdom gave up its claim to all of the Oregon territory south of the 49th parallel, except for Vancouver Island. That line later became the boundary between the United States and Canada, placing Fort Vancouver well inside the United States. American immigrants to the area began to outnumber French Canadian settlers. In 1849, the U.S. Army established a post north of the fort. The Hudson’s Bay Company abandoned the fort in 1860.
Although the original fort no longer stands, visitors to the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site can tour parts of the fort that have been reconstructed. Rebuilt structures include the stockade that surrounded the fort as well as a bakehouse, washhouse, blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, Indian trade shop, fur store, and the house of an official called the chief factor, who directed the operations of the fort. Exhibits focus on the many different ethnic groups who lived in the fort and the role the fort played in the settlement of the region.
Fort Vancouver became a national monument in 1948 and a national historic site in 1961. The fort is part of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve, a group of sites that preserve the history of European settlements along the Columbia River.
