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2 unusual facts about Fort Vancouver


Fort Vancouver

After a brief stop at Fort Edmonton, they were guided by Maskepetoon, the chief of the Wetaskiwin Cree, via Lake Minnewanka to the present site of Banff, Alberta where the Spray River joins with the Bow River; and then south up the Spray River valley where the reservoir now lies.

Sinclair Pass

He discovered and used the pass in 1841, while leading an expedition of over 100 Red River Colony settlers across Rupert's Land to Fort Vancouver on the north bank of the Columbia River (across from present day Portland, Oregon), in an attempt to hold the Columbia District for Britain.


Alexander Roderick McLeod

He was highly active in solidifying the HBC role in the Pacific Northwest and was instrumental in George Back’s Arctic expedition, as well as in establishing the Siskiyou Trail between Fort Vancouver and the Sacramento Valley of California.

Boat Encampment

Boat Encampment was an important waystation during the twice-annual HBC "Express" overland trade route between Fort Vancouver and York Factory on Hudson Bay then via ship to London.

Fort Langley

Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, realized that Fort Vancouver built near present day Portland, Oregon might be lost to the Americans if the border did not follow the Columbia River.

Fort Nisqually

In 1824, Fort Vancouver was built a few miles from the Columbia River to the south and Fort Langley was built in 1827 on the Fraser River to the North.

French Camp, California

French Camp was the southernmost regular camp site of the Hudson's Bay Company southern fur brigades sent from Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver, Washington), established by Michel Laframboise in 1832.

John D. McCarty

Soldiers across the Columbia River at Fort Vancouver knew Reverend McCarty from his service as a brigade chaplain in the Mexican War.

Ozette, Washington

In 1997, a delegation from Mihama came to Ozette to commemorate the souls of three Japanese sailors whose ship ran aground in the area in 1834, and who were held briefly by the Makah before being released to Fort Vancouver.

Palliser Expedition

Unable to find passes to the Pacific north of the 49th Parallel they reunited with Hector in Fort Colvile, and traveled 598 miles downstream on the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver and the Pacific Coast, then onto Fort Victoria, then returned by ship through San Francisco and Panama, then to Montreal and back to Liverpool.

Point Defiance Park

Fort Nisqually is a replica of Hudson's Bay Company's presence in the region in 19th century when the English trading company had trading forts stretching from Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, Fort Nisqually on south Puget Sound near the Nisqually River and continuing to the Far North to Fort Yukon on the Yukon River in Canadian territory which later became the state of Alaska.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon

In response to this petition, missionary priests, Rev. Francis Xavier Norbert Blanchet and Rev. Modeste Demers arrived at Fort Vancouver on November 24, 1838.


see also

2nd Regiment California Volunteer Infantry

Left Fort Vancouver July 26, 1862, and arrived at Alcatraz Island July 31, then left there August 3, 1862 for Fort Humboldt, arrived on August 7, and moved on to Camp Curtis on the 9th.