Fort Vancouver National Historic Site

Fort Vancouver was established as the Pacific headquarters of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1825. At the time, it was believed that the Columbia River would become the southern boundary of Britain’s territory in the contested terrain that was the Pacific Northwest. John McLoughlin was assigned the task of moving the fur trading empire’s office from Astoria, an American post on the south side of the river, to a more agriculturally self-sufficient location on the north side. He chose Vancouver Point, named several decades earlier by Lt. William Broughton in honor of British Captain George Vancouver.

Called 'the New York of the Pacific' by some visitors, Fort Vancouver was more than the center of the region’s fur trade. In addition to the fort itself, which housed British military officers and high-ranking company men, a village of as many as 600 residents grew, including agricultural and dairy operations, a shipyard, a distillery, a tannery, a sawmill, and a gristmill. The fort somewhat reluctantly became a supplier of goods and services for American immigrants arriving on the Oregon Trail.

Not more than a quarter-century after the establishment of Fort Vancouver, the Oregon Treaty of 1846 established the border at the 49th parallel. The Hudson Bay Company gave up the fort in 1860 and relocated once again to Victoria, British Columbia—but not before the village it spawned became officially incorporated Vancouver.

The U.S. Army took over the fort, adding it to the recently created Vancouver Barracks and helping advance American settlement of the northwest. Congress designated the fort a National Historic Monument in 1948, and the site assumed its current name in 1961. Today the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, operated and maintained by the National Park Service, is part of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve, a collection of related historic sites in Vancouver that are cooperatively managed by the city, state, National Park Service, and the U.S. Army. The National Park Service offers exhibits, films, and interpretive talks.