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This HBC post was built in 1825 on the north side of the Columbia just
up river from the mouth of the Wallamette River.
This post was the hub of the HBC's Columbia Department, supplying all of the
other posts in the Colubia Basin and Puget Sound. the Snake Country Brigade and
Southern Brigade operated out of Fort Vancouver.
The post had over 1200 acres under cultivation, plus a substantial garden and
orchard. There was a sawmill and grist mill as part of the operation located on
the falls of the Wallamette at what is today Oregon City, Oregon. The post had a
blacksmith shop that made traps and other ironwork items for the furtrade. The
trade goods and other supplies were brought by ship once a year from England.
The fort kept one years extra supplies on hand in case of a shipwreck.
Most of the furs, beaver and sea otter, were shipped to Canton (China).
There, the furs were traded for tea, opium, silk and spices which in turned were
shipped to England. The ships would stop at the Sandwich Islands for fresh
water, fruits and repairs.
The HBC had an agreement with the Hawaiian King to supply laborers for the
HBC posts. As far as we know these were voluntary contracts for given lengths of
time for each worker, with pay standard for the times. These workers were called
"Owyhees". Their name for themselves was "Kanakas". Tropical fruits were also
shipped to Fort Vancouver from the Sandwich Islands.
After 1843 the fort did a considerable business supplying immigrants taking
up homesteads in the Wallamette Valley.
After 1843 the Oregon Territory was ceded to the US, and the boundary was set
at the 49th parallel. The fort continued to operate until 1856, when operations
were moved to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island.
This post replaced Spokan House in 1825. It was located just above Kettle
Falls on the Columbia River.
The Kettle Falls area was the largest Indian fishing center on the Columbia,
with tribes from the Columbia Plateau annually coming to the falls to fish.
The Post did a very profitable trade in beaver pelts and other furs until
around 1840. The post had some 300 acres under cultivation, along with a grist
mill and sawmill.
The fort continued to operate after the Oregon Territory was ceded to the US
in 1846. Its main activity was supplying settlers, and miners coming into the
Colville area. The fort was abandoned in 1871. Angus McDonald was the last
district manager. The US military established a post by the same name in what
today is the town of Colville, Washington.
 In 1818, just north of where the Walla Walla and Columbia Rivers merge,
Donald Mackenzie built a fort that was to become one of the most important key
strategic posts in the Pacific Northwest. The fort was christened Fort Nez
Perce, but later took on the name Fort Walla Walla, after the nearby river. The
fur companies, trappers, and explorers navigating the rivers played a major role
in discovering and mapping the region.
In 1821, the Northwesters' merged with the Hudson Bay Company. By then, the
Fort already played an active role in providing horses to the trapping parties
venturing into the rich fur areas of the Cascades, Snake and Great Salt Lake
Regions. The Fort also played a vital role in controlling the area, due to
conflicts with the local Native American population struggling to keep their
lands. Fort Walla Walla was known as the "Gibraltar of the Columbia." Without
it's presence the course of history in America would certainly have been
changed.
There were six forts in all to bear the name "Fort Walla Walla". Three of the
forts were near the river and part of the early fur trade. Fire and
deterioration destroyed the first two forts. Then in the mid-1850's, the United
States Army advised the few remaining Hudson's Bay men to vacate the third Fort
Walla Walla due to Indian uprisings. A fourth fort was built near Blue Creek,
located about 38 miles up the Walla Walla river to protect a new settlement from
Indian attacks. A fifth fort was built closer to the new town of Walla Walla.
That fort was also short-lived. In 1858 the fort was moved west to the city and
became the final site of Fort Walla Walla.
Close to the Fort was the infamous Whitman massacre, while related more to
the Oregon Trail than the fur trade, both the Whitmans and Spauldings were
observers and participants in the furtrade era.
In the early 1830's a young businessman of New England named Nathaniel Jarvis
Wyeth become interested in the trade possibilities of the Pacific Northwest. In
1832 he visited the annual get-together of trappers, traders, and Indians known
as the Rendezvous. He participated in the battle of Pierre's Hole. There he made
an agreement with representatives of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to bring
$3,000 worth of trade goods for them at the 1834 Rendezvous. This he did, but
the company, being in financial difficulties, refused to accept the goods.
Wyeth, not seeing any other way open to him, moved on westward with the men and
the goods until he reached "The Bottoms" of the Snake River on July 15, 1834.
There on the 18th of July he started the construction of a trading post, which
he named Fort Hall in honor of the oldest member of the New England company
financing his enterprise. On August 4th he finished the log structure. The next
morning, August 5, he raised a homemade United States flag, saluted it with a
salvo of guns, and thus, as the result of a broken agreement, Fort Hall came
into existence, an event whose historical significance can not be overrated.
In an effort to undermine the new competition, the Hudson Bay Company built
Fort Boise near the junction of Boise River and the Snake. The effort succeeded
and Hudson Bay bought out Wyeth in 1837. The HBC remained in control of the post
until it was abandoned in 1855 because of declining profits and increased Indian
hostility.
This information came from Fort Hall's webpage, which can be found at http://poky.interspeed.net/forthall/
Info provided by Mark Morain, Montana, from the book The Columbia
River by Ross Cox, and the State of Washington Park Service.
Fort Okanogan, established in 1811 by David Stuart for the Astor Fur Company,
was the first settlement in what is now the State of Washington. While I'm still
looking into it's history, I believe it transferred to the Northwest Company
during the war of 1812, then converted to a Hudson Bay Company post in 1821 when
the NWC and HBC merged. The name of the fort is a derivative of the word the
local Indians had for themselves, "Okinakane".
Fort Okanogan (spelled Oakinagan by Ross Cox) was located on the East bank of
the Okanogan river just above it's entrance into the Columbia River. Joseph
McGillivray (1790-1832) became a partner in the North West Company in 1813 and
from that year on was in charge of Fort Okanogan. In 1821 he became a chief
trader and seven years later (1828?) was transferred to New Caledonia.
Ross Cox writes "that before the month of September (1816) we had erected a
new dwelling house for the person in charge, containing four excellent rooms and
a large dininghall, two good houses for the men, and a spacious store for the
furs and merchandise, to which was attached a shop for trading with the natives.
The whole was surrounded by strong palisades fifteen feet high, and flanked by
two bastions. Each bastion had , in its lower story, a light brass four-pounder;
and in the upper, loop-holes wre left for the use of musketry"
Also-"The immediate vicinity is poorly furnished with timber, and our
wood-cutters were obliged to proceed some distance up the river in search of
that necessary article, which was floated down in rafts. We also derived
considerable assistance from the emmense quantities of drift-wood which was
intercepted in its descent down the Columbia by the great bend which that river
takes above Oakinagan."
"The point of land upon which the fort is built is formed by the junction of
the Oakinagan River with the Columbia. The point is about three miles in length
and two in breadth. At the upper end is a chain of hills, round the base of
which runs a rocky pathway leading to the upper part of the river."
"The climate of Oakinagan is highly salubrious. We have for weeks together
observed the blue expanse of heaven unobscured by a single cloud. Rain, too, is
very uncommon; but heavy dews fall during the night."
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