Fort Vancouver

After the McLoughlin House I drove across the Columbia river into Washington - my state #45, whooo hooo! I then spent a couple of wonderful hours at the rebuilt Fort Vancouver, a completely reconstructed version of the old trading station. The site was completely destroyed when the British left, and was nothing but a field for decades. However, the Hudson's Bay Company, which built and owned it, kept very, very good records of the inventory and this has enabled a more or less complete reconstruction.

Originally Fort Vancouver had thousands of acres of land, with crops, vegetable gardens, orchards and lots of livestock. Most of the skilled workers were there for a few years, on contract, and it was a multinational environment - French and English Canadians, English, Scots, Irish, Germans, Scandinavians and even Hawaiians. The fort exported salmon and fur to Hawaii in return for sugar.

I absolutely loved the place - they have several highly dedicated volunteers showing working life and social life - there's a woman baking bread in the kitchen, there are a couple of blacksmiths making hooks, there are carpenters, and one woman playing the part of John McLoughlins half French-Canadian, half Cree-Indian wife. There's a beautiful garden just outside the Fort and you'll probably see lots of bunnies jumping around both inside and outside.

Despite the name and the protective palisade, Fort Vancouver wasn't really a military site although British warships would occasionally visit. It was privately built and operated and served mainly as a trading post (mainly for fur).


The kitchen, well equipped for the times. While I was there the bread was taken out of the oven and handed out warm, with butter. I recommend you be there shortly after noon, that's when it's usually done. Yummy!


The outhouses. (Norwegian readers should go here for comparison).


A blacksmith at work, using a bellow in the ceiling to stoke up the heat.


A wascally wabbit...


The office, where all official documents were written out. Being the only administrative center for hundreds of miles, the clerks here were overworked most of the time.


Some very nice furniture in these rooms in the main house. This would be the home of the McLoughlins. The whole place was apparently Britain in miniature with the higher ranking officers observing British customs and fashions; there were always 6-7 course dinners, there was brandy and cigars and the womenfolk and children were not allowed to do any manual labor - all that was done by servants.


The lovely garden just outside the entrance. Smells mighty purdy.


All the pics from the Douglas County Museum, the McLoughlin House and Fort Vancouver can be found here.