01Summary
Hudson's Bay Company headquarters on the north bank of the Columbia. Many emigrants resupplied here under Dr. John McLoughlin's hand before settling in the Willamette Valley.
02History
The Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Vancouver in 1824 and 1825 on the north bank of the Columbia River, opposite the mouth of the Willamette. From 1825 to 1846 it was the company's western headquarters, the most powerful European institution in the Pacific Northwest, with a sawmill, a flour mill, a salmon fishery, a dairy, and a 1,500-acre farm supplying every other HBC post on the coast.
Chief factor John McLoughlin ran it from 1825 to 1846. London's policy was to discourage American settlement. McLoughlin's practice was to extend food, seed, credit, and shelter to exhausted emigrant families arriving down the Columbia from The Dalles. He filled this role on his personal authority, and was eventually forced out of the HBC for it.
After the Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled the boundary at the 49th parallel, the post was south of the new line and the HBC withdrew. The U.S. Army built a separate Vancouver Barracks here in 1849, which remained an active Army post into the 21st century.
03Today
Fort Vancouver National Historic Site preserves a full-scale reconstruction of the 1845 stockade with 11 reconstructed buildings inside, plus the original Vancouver Barracks parade ground.
04People connected here
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 Vancouver on the interactive map for the full route.