Fort Okanogan

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Fort Okanogan - also known as Fort Okanagan - was a trading post in Okanogan County in what is now Washington State . It was named after the Okanogan Indian tribe . The trading post at the confluence of the Okanagan and Columbia Rivers was an important stop on the Okanagan Trail .

history

The fur trading post was founded in 1811 by the Pacific Fur Company of Johann Jakob Astor , but it was transferred with all other property to the North West Company as early as 1813 , when the latter bought its competitor. In 1821 this company was again merged with the Hudson's Bay Company .

From the 1820s to the 1840s, the York Factory Express route , a Hudson's Bay Company trading route between the York Factory on Hudson Bay and Fort Vancouver , passed the fort.

The development of alternative routes through the Thompson River and Fraser River valleys during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush years led to the fort's closure in 1860 as the volume of transport on the Okanagan Trail had declined sharply.

In 1959, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission acquired a small area near the long-derelict fort. Archaeological investigations uncovered the remains of the fort (or the two forts, an older and a newer one). The site of the remains of the fort was flooded in 1967 after the construction of the Wells Dam . In State Park is a small museum called was Fort Okanogan Interpretive Center built. In 2011, Washington State gave up the visitor center and state park for cost reasons, they were taken over by the Colville Indians and will continue under their leadership.

Fort Okanogan has been listed in the NRHP since 1973 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Colville Tribes: Fort Okanogan Interpretive Center
  2. ^ Extract from the National Register of Historic Places . Retrieved March 13, 2011

Web links

Coordinates: 48 ° 5 ′ 59 "  N , 119 ° 43 ′ 6"  W.