01Summary
A Hudson's Bay Company post on the Snake River. From here, the trail climbed into the Blue Mountains, the last major obstacle before the Columbia.
02History
The Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Boise in 1834 near the confluence of the Boise and Snake rivers in present-day Canyon County, Idaho, partly to compete with Fort Hall and partly to extend HBC trade into the Snake plain. It was a smaller, simpler post than Fort Hall.
Snake River floods repeatedly damaged the fort. In 1853 a major flood washed it away entirely, and the HBC abandoned the site rather than rebuild. From then until the U.S. Army founded a new Fort Boise in 1863 about 40 miles north (in what is now downtown Boise), there was no fort at all on this stretch, and emigrants made their own way to the Blue Mountains.
From Fort Boise the trail climbed into the Blue Mountains of Oregon: heavy timber, steep grades, and the first real risk of being caught by snow. The 1843 train had to saw a road through the timber by hand.
03Today
The original 1834 site is preserved as Old Fort Boise Park in Parma, Idaho, with a replica post and a small museum. The 1863 Army post survives as Fort Boise Veterans Affairs Medical Center in downtown Boise.
05Stops nearby
The Oregon Trail ran roughly 2,170 miles from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City. The stops immediately before and after this one are linked below; show Fort Boise on the interactive map for the full route.