Fort Vancouver

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Site
Fort Vancouver in 1845
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Location	Vancouver, Washington, United States
Coordinates	45°37′21″N 122°39′45″W / 45.62250°N 122.66250°W / 45.62250; -122.66250
Built	Winter 1824–1825
NRHP reference No.	66000370[1]
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966

Fort Vancouver was a 19th-century fur trading post built in the winter of 1824–1825.^[2] It was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was located on the northern bank of the Columbia River in present-day Vancouver, Washington. The fort was a major center of the regional fur trading. Every year trade goods and supplies from London arrived either via ships sailing to the Pacific Ocean or overland from Hudson Bay via the York Factory Express. Supplies and trade goods were exchanged with a plethora of Indigenous cultures for fur pelts. Furs from Fort Vancouver were often shipped to the Chinese port of Guangzhou where they were traded for Chinese manufactured goods for sale in the United Kingdom. At its pinnacle, Fort Vancouver watched over 34 outposts, 24 ports, six ships, and 600 employees. Today, a full-scale replica of the fort, with internal buildings, has been constructed and is open to the public as Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.