Fort Vancouver, WA

As the administrative center and principal supply depot of the British Hudson’s Bay Company’s vast "Columbia Department," Fort Vancouver served as the hub of an extensive fur trading network utilizing two dozen posts, six ships, and about 600 employees during peak seasons, with an extensive geographic range of 700,000 square miles stretching from Russian Alaska to Mexican California, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Hawaiian Islands.

The fort quickly became a center of activity and influence, supported by a multicultural village with inhabitants from over 35 different ethnic and tribal groups. The first hospital, school, library, grist mill, saw mill, dairy, shipbuilding, and orchard in the region were all centered at Fort Vancouver. The fort also served as the early end of the Oregon Trail for American immigrants, and later became a U.S. Army post. Today, demonstrations, exhibits, and archaeology digs help visitors connect to the site's people, stories, and resources.

The subsequent U.S. Army post at the site - known as Columbia Barracks, Fort Vancouver, or Vancouver Barracks depending on the era - was equally surprising. Its goal was to provide for peaceful American settlement of the Oregon Country, yet it did so, in part, by battling and dispossessing the native American Indian inhabitants. For more than 150 years it housed and supported thousands of soldiers and their families, yet it also incarcerated American Indian families and Italian prisoners of war.

Fort Vancouver is the heart of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve. The Reserve brings together a national park, a premier archaeological site, the region's first military post, an international fur trade emporium, one of the oldest operating airfields, the first national historic site west of the Mississippi River, and a waterfront trail and environmental center on the banks of the Columbia River.

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