Some days, you drive for what seems like 300 miles, even if it's only 100. Some days, you drive for what seems like 100 miles, even if it's only 25.
We're back in the city. Can you tell?
We spent the whole morning at Fort Vancouver, the last in a long series of forts that we have visited on this trip. The ranger there reminded us of something important. Although the word "fort" conjures military images, not all of the forts had any military involvement. They each had their purpose, with most simply being places of protection, in some cases from Indians (real or perceived danger), in some cases from theft of goods for trading, in some cases to serve as welcoming spots (with financial benefit to the proprietor, of course) for the weary emigrants. Fort Vancouver was actually a home base for the Hudson Bay Trading Company, the largest trader of furs (beaver, mostly) between the northwest and England.
The high walls there were to keep people out, mostly because of the extremely high value of the goods stored inside the fort. It was essentially a place of business. The towers in the corners were for protection--they do have cannons--but they were never used for protection. They were up high for the view, and the cannons were fired as a welcome when a ship from England arrived in the nearby port.
We learned a lot of interesting little facts about the fur trade here. We learned that the Hudson Bay Company, in order to have a monopoly, sent out huge numbers of trappers, and effectively eliminated the beaver population in the northwest. We learned that the beaver pelts were used for many things, but most notably the undercoat was used for very fine and expensive top hats in Britain. We learned that nearly every trapper had a Native American wife. We learned that there was a large village immediately adjacent to the fort, where the employees lived, and that a significant portion of the employees were Hawaiian (!!!). And perhaps most interestingly, we learned a LOT about blacksmithing from a real blacksmith who was demonstrating period methods.
It was Phoebe's favorite part of the fort--she got to hold and examine a hand-made axe blade and she got to set off a handmade beaver trap (with a wooden stick). Shows you the power of real experience--after the snap, it was the first time that she said "Wow, that must have HURT".We also spent some time in the clerk's office, where they kept all of the records of the Hudson Bay Co. They had a great setup for kids in there, where they had child-sized clerk jackets and activities to see what it was like to keep the books in those days for such a big operation. The only downside was that, while we were in there, we inadvertently interrupted the work of a busy clerk, who was more than a bit indignant.
We made our apologies and made a hasty departure, as you can well imagine.And then....and THEN....we made our way down the congested road to....OREGON CITY! We got here pretty late, so we just took a look around, and promised to come back and "do the town", the museum, and the sights tomorrow. So we'll leave those exciting details until tomorrow's entry.
We're here. We made it. And, as Phoebe says, "Nobody died!". Yay!
More tomorrow from the promised land....
4 comments:
My goodness--that clerk looks like she ate three sour lemons (as opposed to the sweet ones...). Good idea to high-tail it out of there! The blacksmithing sounds like it was a total blast.
How did Hawaiians end up in the workforce there? Weird!
Congrats on the trail, oh intrepid ones! Let us know all about the museum tonight! (Maybe just a miniature version.)
Congratulations to the best pioneers I know! (Oh...wait...the only pioneers I know.) Still, the best! You worked really hard to get where you are, took the road less travelled (literally), discovered lots of new places,learned many new things you didn't know before, and had some scary experiences - sounds like pioneers to me! And it was easy to imagine how triumphant the original pioneers must have felt when they came upon Mt. Hood as you did. (That was a magnificent photo, Robin!!) Can't wait to hear about Oregon City tomorrow. This is kind of like a great book...where you want to know what happens at the end, but you don't want it to end!
I know exactly what you mean, Susan. I don't want the book to end, either.
Interesting question, Audrey (about the Hawaiians). I was interested in that too, as you might imagine. I found two explanations, that I suspect have some overlap. The first is that nearly ever ship that sailed to the northwest made a stop in Honolulu, where they recruited labor. By 1845-46, half of Hudson Bay's labor force was Hawaiian. Many (most?) of them never went home to Hawaii--there is even a town in the area called Kalama that is apparently named after one of the men.
The other report I heard was that through a deal with the Hawaiian king, the Hudson's Bay Company took on several hundred Hawaiians for three years as indentured servants. They worked as trappers, laborers, millers, sailors, gardeners, and cooks. In fact, they just about ran the place.
Many of the Hawaiians worked in the sawmill. Lumber was shipped to the islands, along with wheat, potatoes, flour, smoked salmon, and other trade goods. In fact, Honolulu and most of the other major towns in the Hawaiian Islands were built with lumber from the Columbia River and Puget Sound areas.
There was even a story on NPR (on Day to Day) about it at some point, apparently. I put a link to it in the links section, for anyone who is interested.
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