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United States: Vancouver, Washington

Captain George Vancouver, an English officer of the British Royal Navy, explored the Pacific Ocean from New Zealand and Australia to Hawaii and North America and Canada's Pacific Coast regions between 1791 and 1795.

Sailing with two ships, he mapped and surveyed the area that is now downtown Vancouver, giving various parts British names. He returned to his native England little imagining that is less than one hundred years his name would be immortalized in that rugged wilderness. Various cities and regions are named for him: Vancouver Island, the city of Vancouver in Canada and in Washington.

Puget Sound, Albert Bierstadt.

In 1870, Albert Bierstadt painted one of the most novel subjects of his career: Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast. The canvas resulted from newly reawakened interest in a region the artist had visited only briefly seven years before. Although Bierstadt claimed to have painted "a portrait of the place," he had never actually made it to Puget Sound in 1863 and the painting has long been dismissed as another "superb vision of dreamland." This book reveals the fact-within-the-fiction of Bierstadt's spectacular, eight-foot-wide view of Puget Sound. It follows his travels around the Washington Territory in 1863, travels that were far more extensive than previously known.

George Vancouver was an important explorer of Puget Sound. He served for 25 years in the British Navy, and commanded the 1791-1792 British expedition to the North Pacific. In April 1792, George Vancouver entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca and commenced his exploration of Puget Sound. He named every island, mountain, waterway, and point of land in sight -- 75 in all.

December 20, 1853, Daily Alta California, San Francisco, California

LETTER FROM VANCOUVER.

Discovery of Gold in the Cascade Mountains

Hudson Bay Company's Fort — Indians, Kanakas, Canadians — Railroad Expedition — Election of Delegate.

We translate the following from the correspondence of the Freie Presse of this city. The writer, in speaking of McClellan's report on the practicability of a Railroad over the Cascade Mountains does not agree with the Oregon and Washington papers, and is probably wrong.

Vancouver, Washington Territory, December 5, 1853

The old Hudson's Bay Fort is yet standing where it stood before any Yankee had ever placed his foot on this blessed shore, It is in the centre of the present city of Vancouver, to which it gave its name. To the south is a row of old houses, built by the company for their mechanics, and now half fallen, and the other half tenanted by half-breeds. To the north are the barracks and the quarters of the officers of the American garrison.

Hudson's Bay Company Forts. 1849

The Indians here and in the vicinity are a miserable mixture of many tribes, rendered effeminate by intercourse with the whites. "Lum," as the Chinook Indians call intoxicating liquors, is their divinity, and they give every thing for it. None of the manly games practiced by the Indians of the interior are in vogue here.

A large proportion of the population of this place consists of Kanakas, who were brought here as laborers many years ago by the Hudson's Bay Company, in whose occupation they yet remain. They are in every respect superior to the Indians and some of them are skilful mechanics. Although many can speak English they stick to their rude northern tongue. With the exception of some Americans, Canadian French compose the remainder of the population. These, who were likewise induced to immigrate hither by the Hudson's Bay Company, live with the Indians and are little superior to them.

The Pacific Railroad surveying expeditions, sent out by the general government to examine the northern route, have all arrived here, ami have made our little place very lively during the last week Gov. Stevens, who examined the eastern portion, reported very favorably; but Captain McClellan, who examined the Cascade mountains, reports that they are impracticable for a railroad.

But a railroad was not what the people of Washington hope from the expedition, but a description of the land and, information of the discovery of precious metals, and this hope is gratified. It is now known that the Cascade range contains many different metals, from gold to copper and lead. Stone coal is plenty, and at no distant day Vancouver will be the centre of the mining district of Washington Territory.

There is considerable political excitement in regard to the election of a Delegate to Congress. Half a dozen disinterested patriots are fishing for the position, but not one of them can be said to have a good prospect of being elected.

August 29, 1897, Sacramento Daily Union, Sacramento, California, U.S.A.

FORT  VANCOUVER.

NOTED SOLDIERS WERE ONCE QUARTERED THERE. Rich, in Legendary Lore and Having Future Prospects That Are Brilliant.

(Special Correspondence of Record-Union.)
PORTLAND (Oregon), August 20—In the early part of the present century the Members of the Hudson Bay Company, after driving from Astoria John Jacob Astor's men, who had settled there some time previously, came to the present site of Vancouver and erected the first fort on the northern bank of the Columbia River across from Portland, Oregon.

In May 1792, American trader/sailor Robert Gray became the first non-native to enter the fabled “Great River of the West,” the Columbia River. Later that year, British Lt. William Broughton, serving under Capt. George Vancouver, explored 100 miles upriver. Along the way, he named a point of land along the shore in honor of his commander.

In 1806, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark camped at what is now Capt. William Clark Park at Cottonwood Beach just east of Vancouver on the return leg of their famed western expedition. Lewis characterized the area as “the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.”

In 1825, Dr. John McLoughlin decided to move the northwest headquarters of the Hudson’s Bay Company from Astoria, Oregon to a more favorable setting upriver. He named the site after Point Vancouver on Broughton’s original map.

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.

For many years, Fort Vancouver was the center of all fur trading in the Pacific Northwest from its vital location on the Columbia River. Vancouver was also a center of British dominion over the Oregon Territory. In 1846, American control was extended north to the 49th parallel. The northwest became part of the United States and Captain Vancouver moved north to Canada, where a new city was born named Vancouver. The Canadian city was incorporated 29 years later.

There is a story extant to the effect that in excavating for the foundation of the deaf and dumb school, on Harney Hill, many evidences were found to confirm the fact that this spot was the site of the first fort; however, no authenticity can be attached to the tale, it is merely handed down as one of the many legends with which the early history of this great Northwest territory abounds. Dr. McLaughlin, whose name is intimately connected with the early history of this part of the country, was the first Governor of the fort.

The fort was under semi-military organization, and was the headquarters for the Indian, in his fantastic blankets, who traded his furs and ponies for the white man's beads and what other gaudy bauble attracted his savage fancy; the fur trappers, that race of hardy, fearless men, who are at the present day nearly extinct, and who brought with them the spoils of many a daring adventure over the hills and dales of the then unexplored country, voyagers, explorers bearing with them the latest news of the the movements of the Indians, traders with valuable furs for sale, here they all gathered, and under the influence of the rich, red wine told tales of their adventures and quaffed many a bumper to their future successes.

It was the Intention of the Hudson Bay people to prevent the American settlers, if possible, from holding any land north of the Columbia River and much ill feeling existed amongst the Americans against the autocratic British. This land, it seems, was held by a joint-treaty enacted in 1840 and was so worded that neither the English nor the Americans could have military protection there. Already on the disputed land besides the English, were French Canadians, Kanakas from the Hawaiian Islands and many other aliens.

Several intrepid Americans had attempted to settle there, but were always driven away. Finally a man named Amos Short, with his family, succeeded in making a permanent settlement. The Hudson Bay Company refused to sell him goods or provisions and he was therefore obliged to go as far away as Oregon City to do his trading. One day, while absent on one of these trips the men of the Hudson Bay Company entered his house, and after destroying his fence and other property set his wife adrift in the middle of the river in a "batteau." With a broken oar which she managed to pick up the brave woman paddled to shore after many hairbreadth escapes, and returned in safety to her home. Her husband was shortly after this arrested for murdering one of the Hudson Bay Company's men, but the case never came to trial, the unanimous verdict being that the deed was justifiable.

In June, 1846, the treaty of joint occupation came to an end and England recognized the right of the United States to the forty-ninth parallel, and the Hudson Bay Company were given ten years in which to evacuate before the steadily increasing hordes of hardy American pioneers, who planted upon the spot, where before had waved the red flag of the English, the glorious stars and stripes.

Known by a variety of names, including Camp Vancouver (1849-1850), Columbia Barracks (1850-1853), Fort Vancouver (1853-1879), and finally Vancouver Barracks (1879 to present), the United States Army established this post in 1849 on a low ridge above the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver to provide for peaceful American settlement.

As the first U.S. Army post in the Pacific Northwest, Vancouver Barracks served as a major headquarters and supply depot during the Civil War and Indian War eras. Some seventy officers who attained the rank of general were stationed here, including Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, George Pickett, George Crook, Oliver O. Howard, and Nelson Miles. Later, it served as a recruitment, mobilization and training facility for the Spanish-American War, the Philippine War, and other foreign engagements.

General Phillip H. Sheridan was also stationed at old Fort Vancouver in 1855. The first fight in which the famous General was ever under fire was an outbreak of the Indians at the Cascades, some forty or more miles of Vancouver, for the possession of a log house held by the whites. The news of the uprising came down late at night, or rather early in the morning, and Sheridan, at the head of his company, started to the rescue at 2 a m. They made all possible speed up the river in the dim gray light and as the boat touched the shore the company were greeted by a shower of Indian arrows and bullets. Sheridan ordered his men to start for the block house at once. As he stepped ashore a young Sergeant in his company stood beside him: just at that moment a bullet, aimed by a crafty redskin, grazed Sheridan's cheek, entering the Sergeant's head, killing him instantly. Sheridan would never have made that famous ride "'from Winchester, twenty miles away," which won for him the plaudits of a nation, had that bullet struck him, and the ride up the Columbia River to the rescue of his people was only another evidence of the indomitable courage he displayed on the occasion of that famous ride.

An interesting relic of these early days still stands in the garrison grounds. It is a large, square loghouse, which was built by the first soldiers stationed there and now used by the officers as a clubhouse. In its day it was a fine building and was the headquarters for the Commanding General.

On Jan. 23, 1857, the City of Vancouver was incorporated. Through the rest of the century, Vancouver steadily developed. In 1908, the first rail line east through the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge reached Vancouver. In 1910, a railroad bridge was opened south across the Columbia. In 1917, the first span of the Interstate Bridge was completed.

The Vancouver of today is totally unlike that of the Vancouver of half a century or more ago. The deeds of bloodshed and violence, or rapine and ravage live only on history's tablets, or in the minds of a few feeble pioneers, all that remains of the once sturdy pioneers who helped to make Vancouver the pleasant, prosperous little village that she is to-day.

Soon after the whites took possession of the town a public school was started. This building has since been replaced by three more modern structures, but the old log-house still stands as a lasting monument to American progression in the field of learning. It is now used by the volunteer fire department as a storehouse for their engine. M. R. Hathaway, was the first teacher. He was afterwards a famous General in the Indian war.

Around the vicinity of Vancouver are large fruit orchards, in high states of cultivation. Clarke County is one of the largest prune centers in the State of  Washington. A large fruit packing business is done here and there are several fruit dryers in active operation which gives employment to numbers of men. This season some twenty-five carloads have been shipped to Chicago, New York and other large cities on the Eastern coast.

The growth of the town is slow but steady. It may not be possessed of the scenic beauties of other places in this great Northwest, but it is rich in its past associations, in its legendary lore, and its future prospects.

BESELENA.

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Spirit of the First People: 
Native American Music Traditions of Washington State 
Willie Smyth
Spirit of the First People is a collection of personal narratives, stories, and essays on the music of the First People in the region that now encompasses Washington State. From tribe to tribe and reservation to reservation across the state, a wide range of musical genres and individual styles have developed, including social dance songs, game songs, and hymns.

Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest
Linda Carlson
University of Washington Press
"Company town" evoke images of rough-and-tumble loggers and gritty miners, of dreary shacks in isolated villages, of wages paid in scrip good only at price-gouging company stores, of paternalistic employers. But these stereotypes are out-dated, especially for those company towns that flourished well into the twentieth century. The author provides a look at these "intentional communities." Many of the later towns attracted professionals as well as laborers; houses were likely to be clapboard Victorians or shingled bungalows; and the mercantile store carried work boots and extended credit even to striking workers. Company owners built schools, power plants, and movie theaters. Drawing from residents' reminiscences, contemporary newspaper accounts, company newsletters and histories, census and school records, and site plans, the book looks at towns in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, considering who planned the towns and designed the buildings. It examines how companies went about controlling housing, religion, taxes, liquor, prostitution, and union organizers. It tells what happened when people left when they lost their jobs, when the family breadwinner died or was disabled, when mills closed.

The Mapmaker's Eye
David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau
Jack Nisbet
David Thompson was a fur trader, explorer, and meticulous geographic surveyor. He was, and is, the English and Canadian counterpart of Lewis and Clark. He visited the Mandan villages on the Missouri River in 1798. He crossed the Continental Divide in 1807 and spent five winters on the west side of the divide trading with the Indians. He explored the Columbia River from its origin to the Pacific Ocean. He kept complete journals. He was a better writer than Meriwether Lewis, although not Lewis' equal as a naturalist. He took astronomical readings and did his own computations of both latitude and longitude. Because of this, his maps were much more accurate than those of William Clark. Later in his life, Thompson helped survey the boundary between Canada and the United States.