Fort Vancouver

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Fort Vancouver was an early 19th-century British fur trading post in the disputed region of Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest. The factory was the principal settlement of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in what was known as the Columbia Department. It was built in the winter of 1824–1825 and named for Captain George Vancouver, a Royal Navy officer and explorer who lead the Vancouver Expedition through this part of the Pacific Coast in the late 18th century. The HBC fort, which was located on the northern bank of the Columbia River, was the center of the regional fur trade. Every year trade goods and supplies from London arrived by mercantile shipping from across the Pacific Ocean or overland from Hudson Bay via the York Factory Express. Indigenous people would trade fur pelts at the fort for these supplies and trade goods. Furs from Fort Vancouver were exported globally. Some were shipped to the Qing dynasty via Guangzhou where they were traded for Chinese manufactured goods for sale in Britain. At its peak, Fort Vancouver controlled 34 outposts, 24 ports, six ships, and 600 employees. In 1846 Great Britain signed the Oregon Treaty which ceded the land around Fort Vancouver to the United States. Although the treaty permitted the HBC to continue trading, it effectively ended operations resulting in the closure of Fort Vancouver. The fort, which is now in present-day Vancouver, Washington, has been preserved as the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. The park contains a full-scale replica of the Hudson Bay Company outpost which is open to the public.