The Fur Trade Exploits the Region
As members of the Lewis and Clark expedition complained their way through the soggy and dark months at Fort Clatsop during the long winter of 1805-1806, they probably never imagined that within five years the first permanent white settlement in the region would be established at nearby Astoria. Why would anyone want to live in such a remote, dreary, and godforsaken place? Fashion, of course, would provide the answer. No self-respecting European or American gentleman of the times would be without a beaver fur felt top hat, which was more highly prized than hats made of wool or other types of fur. And since much of the Pacific Northwest was teeming with beavers, laws of supply and demand soon led both investors and trappers to cast their gaze on the region.
Pacific Fur Company
John Jacob Astor, spurred by reports of the Lewis and Clark expedition and by the promise of profit, engineered an ambitious American toehold at Astoria in 1811. Workers for his Pacific Fur Company soon built a fort which, according to Ross Cox, looked quite substantial: "The buildings consisted of apartments for the proprietors and clerks, with a capacious dining-hall for both, extensive warehouses for the trading goods and furs, a provision store, a trading shop, smith's forge, [and a] carpenter's workshop," all located within the walls of a log stockade.(1) Despite the initial appearances, the next year brought great privations. After eventually learning of the War of 1812, the Astorians chose to sell the post to a British company rather than risk having it seized by a British naval vessel. While the sale ended a chapter of American involvement in the region, the construction of the fort bolstered U.S. claims to the Oregon Country after the war.
Hudson's Bay Company
Other American fur traders would ply the region in the coming decades, but none would rival the dominance of the British Hudson's Bay Company. The company named George Simpson to oversee field operations and he assigned Dr. John McLoughlin to serve as chief factor (manager) in the vast Columbia River watershed. Simpson and McLoughlin set up a hub and spoke system as the basis for operations. Fort Vancouver, which was built in 1825 near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, was designated as the hub. The spokes reached to distant points in the region such as Fort Umpqua in southwestern Oregon; Fort George at the mouth of the Columbia River; Fort Walla Walla and Fort Okanogan in present-day Washington state; and Fort Boise in present-day Idaho. These posts bartered trade goods for furs brought by local Indian tribes. To augment this operation, the company also sent brigades of 20 to 50 employees and their families into the field to trap and trade furs for months at a time.
The company developed an extensive infrastructure centered around the Fort Vancouver stockade, which measured 750 feet by 450 feet and stood about 20 feet high. Within its walls were 40 buildings including a school, library, pharmacy, and chapel as well as houses, warehouses, and a manufacturing operation. Outside of the walls stood more housing in addition to other facilities such as a tannery, sawmill, distillery, and dairy. While ships could bring trade goods and tools, food was too expensive to transport, leaving company workers to provide for themselves.They responded by planting vegetable gardens, starting orchards, and raising livestock at Fort Vancouver and other posts in the region. These efforts offered some of the early evidence of the agricultural potential of various parts of the Oregon Country. At its peak, the company oversaw 34 outposts and 600 employees in the region while Fort Vancouver was by far the largest settlement of non-natives west of the Great Plains.
Politics and the decline of the fur trade
International geopolitics played an important role in the operations of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Oregon Country. The British and Americans agreed to joint occupancy of the region beginning in 1818, acknowledging that both nations asserted claims on the land and maintaining a political status quo. Meanwhile, the jockeying continued for advantage in what was assumed to be the endgame—the eventual division of the region into separate British and American territories. This reasoning led Simpson to order brigade leader Peter Skene Ogden to eradicate the fur-bearing animals in the upper Snake River area. The plan had the short-term advantage of maximizing fur production and the long-term goal of making the area less desirable to the growing numbers of American trappers crossing the Rocky Mountains. Simpson assumed that any final negotiated division would leave the land in American hands so he had every reason to extract all he could from it.
While George Simpson developed plans and strategies, it was Chief Factor John McLoughlin who would be the towering daily presence over the region for over two decades as he presided at Fort Vancouver from 1825 to 1846. His role was de facto the closest thing to government in the region until the early 1840s. McLoughlin's instructions were to monopolize the fur trade, keep peace with Indian tribes, and discourage agricultural settlement in the region. He succeeded for a time and earned the name "White Headed Eagle" from Indians. Over the years, however, fur trading declined at the same time that missionaries and pioneers moved into the region from the United States beginning in the 1830s. Faced with this reality, and much to the chagrin of company officials, McLoughlin provided assistance, advice, and supplies to settlers—in the process sealing the fate of the Hudson's Bay Company in the region. The 1846 Oregon Treaty between Great Britain and the United States set the boundary between British and American territory at the 49th parallel north. While the treaty respected the property rights of the Hudson's Bay Company in the new American territory, the operations soon became unprofitable and were closed. By that time, beavers were harder to find and changes in fashion had reduced the demand.