Fort Colvile

This article is about the Hudson's Bay Company trading post. For the US Army post, see Fort Colville.
Fort Colvile
Fur Trade Outpost
Indian camp at Fort Colvile by Paul Kane
Indian camp at Fort Colvile by Paul Kane
Fort Colvile is located in Washington (state)
Fort Colvile
Fort Colvile
Coordinates: 48°37′42″N 118°5′31″W / 48.62833°N 118.09194°W / 48.62833; -118.09194
CountryUnited States
StateWashington
PlaceKettle Falls
Constructed1825
Founded byHudson's Bay Company
Abandoned1871

The trade center Fort Colvile (also Fort Colville[1]) was built by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) at Kettle Falls on the Columbia River in 1825 and operated in the Columbia fur district of the company. Named for Andrew Colvile,[2] a London governor of the HBC, the fort was a few miles west of the present site of Colville, Washington. It was an important stop on the York Factory Express trade route to London via the Hudson Bay. The HBC for some time considered Fort Colvile second in importance only to Fort Vancouver, near the mouth of the Columbia, until the foundation of Fort Victoria.

Under the Treaty of 1818, the Great Britain and the United States of America both claimed rights to the Oregon Country. The contentious Oregon dispute for ownership of the land was ended by the Oregon Treaty in 1846. The boundary between British North America and the United States was extended to the Pacific Ocean on the 49th Parallel, with all of Vancouver Island considered British. During the gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s, Fort Colvile in 1860 especially became an important centre for mining activity and supplies. Abandoned in June 1871,[3] some buildings stood until they burned July 6, 1910.[4]

The construction of Grand Coulee Dam resulted in the site being flooded in 1940, as was Kettle Falls. When Lake Roosevelt was drawn down for construction of Grand Coulee Dam's Powerhouse #3 in the late 1960s and early 1970, Fort Colvile and Kettle Falls were revealed. After archaeological work was performed by Washington State University and the University of Idaho, the Fort Colvile site was again inundated by Lake Roosevelt. In 1974, Fort Colvile was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its historic significance.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference tucker was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Lewis, S. William. Information concerning the Establishment of Fort Colvile. The Washington Historical Quarterly 16, No. 2 (1925), pp. 102-107
  3. ^ Barman, Jean and Bruce M. Watson. Fort Colvile's Fur Trade Families and the Dynamics of Race in the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 90, No. 3 (1999), 140-153.
  4. ^ "The Colville examiner. (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, July 16, 1910, Image 4". 16 July 1910. p. 4.
  5. ^ Currents and Undercurrents:, An Administrative History of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, National Park Service