During the War of 1812, the Pacific Northwest was a distant region of the conflict. Two rival fur trading outfits, the … See more

Fort Vancouver was established on the north bank of the Columbia River in the winter of 1824–1825. The London-based Hudson's Bay Company established it to serve as the headquarters of the Company'… See more

An employee of the HBC, wrote a general description of Fort Vancouver and its structural composition as it was in 1843:
The fort is in the shape of a parallelogram, about 250 yards long, by 150 broad; enclose by … See more

Fort Vancouver was supplied in part through the overland York Factory Express. It originated from a route used by the NWC between Fort George to Fort William on Lake Superior. Each spring two brigades were sent, … See more

The HBC, which controlled the fur trade in much of what Americans styled the Oregon Country, had previously discouraged settlement because it interfered with the lucrative fur trade. By 1838, however, American s… See more

The signing of the RAC-HBC Agreement with the Russian-American Company pushed the HBC into creating an agricultural subsidiary, the Pugets Sound Agricultural Company in 1840. Herds of sheep and … See more