Fort Colville

This article is about The U.S. Army post. For The Hudson's Bay Company trade center, see Fort Colvile.
Fort Colville
Near Colville, Washington in United States
Fort Colville is located in the United States
Fort Colville
Fort Colville
Location in the United States
Fort Colville is located in Washington (state)
Fort Colville
Fort Colville
Location in Washington
Coordinates48°34′19″N 117°52′44″W / 48.57194°N 117.87889°W / 48.57194; -117.87889
Site information
OwnerUnited States Army
Site history
BuiltDecember 19, 1859
In use1859–1882
MaterialsTimber
FateAbandoned in 1882
Garrison information
Past
commanders		Pinkney Lugenbeel (1859–1861)
James F. Curtis (1861–1862)
William R. Abercrombie (1871–1872)

Fort Colville was a U.S. Army post in the Washington Territory located three miles (5 km) north of current Colville, Washington. During its existence from 1859 to 1882, it was called "Harney's Depot" and "Colville Depot" during the first two years, and finally "Fort Colville". Brigadier General William S. Harney, commander of the Department of Oregon, opened up the district north of the Snake River to settlers in 1858 and ordered Brevet Major Pinkney Lugenbeel, 9th Infantry Regiment to establish a military post to restrain the Indians lately hostile to the U.S. Army's Northwest Division and to protect miners who flooded into the area after first reports of gold in the area appeared in Western Washington newspapers in July 1855.[1][2]

It was common practice to use existing Indian trails to develop military roads, and only make necessary improvements for the movement of artillery or supply trains.[3] Brevet Major Lugenbeel followed the long established Hudson's Bay Company Brigade Trail from the Fort Walla Walla area to Fort Colvile (Hudson's Bay Company), but had to leave the trail at current Orin-Rice Road, two miles south of Colville, when the southernmost land claims of the Hudson's Bay Company started. Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens and the U.S. Army were ordered by the U.S. Department of State to honor land ownership claims by the Hudson's Bay Company.[4][5] The road became the Fort Walla Walla Fort Colville Military Road.[6] Lugenbeel's command arrived from Fort Walla Walla on June 20, 1859.[7]

Major Lugenbeel was appointed special agent for the Indians in the region located near Fort Colville.[8] After Lugenbeel departed, the Indian agent was a civilian. U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and the U.S. Congress to reduce corruption in the handling of Indian Affairs created, in 1869, the Board of Indian Commissioners[9] The Indian agent for the Colville, Sinixt, Sanpoil, Syilx, Spokane, and early on the Pend d'Oreilles moved from the fort to Chewelah, Washington by 1872.[8][10]

  1. ^ Graham 2006, p. 2.
  2. ^ "Washington Secretary of State - Washington History: Historical Newspapers in Washington - Washington State Library". www.sos.wa.gov. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  3. ^ W. Turrentine Jackson, Wagon Roads West, p. 1, New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, ISBN 0803294026.
  4. ^ Isaac Stevens correspondence held at Yale University, copies viewed at Washington State Archive Olympia.
  5. ^ Department of State, Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitration, RG 7C No. 15, Treaty of 1946, Group B, map L, of Hudson's Bay Company's land claim at Colville. W. T.
  6. ^ Stevens County Historical Society, The Fort Walla Walla Fort Colville Military Road Project, Colville, Washington, September 3, 2014.
  7. ^ National Archives 2014.
  8. ^ a b Office of Indian Affairs 1860.
  9. ^ Durham, N. W., "History of the City of Spokane and Spokane County Washington From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Illustrated Volume I, p. 96, 1912, Spokane, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
  10. ^ "Guide to the John A. Simms Papers 1858-1881 1858-1881". ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu. Retrieved August 22, 2019.