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AN OVERVIEW OF ARCHAEOLOGY AT FORT VANCOUVER

Mike Mason

Salt Lake Community College

ANTH 2969: CRM
Mar. 8, 2016

From its beginning as a trade post and depot in the 1820s to its use as a motor pool and
barracks in the mid to late 20th century, Fort Vancouver has played in important role in the
economy, politics, and settlement of the Northwestern United States. Initial archaeological
excavations which yielded large amounts of artifacts spanning the forts history were done in
1947, shortly after the end of the Second World War (Caywood 1948). The great amount of data
and artifacts, have led to the continued study of the site, which has in present day become home
to an Archaeology Field School and what is considered a premiere historical archaeology site in
the Pacific Northwest (National Park Service 2015).
Fort Vancouver was founded in 1825, as a post for the Hudson Bay Company, who
needed a depot for the storage and exchange of western goods and the products of the early 19th
Century fur trade. While there were several more practical locations that the Hudson Bay
Company could have chosen, the man in charge, Governor George Simpson, considered it more
important to have a post on the Colombia River in order to place an unofficial boundary between
the American and British interests in the Oregon Country (Sage 1948). The unfinished fort was
dedicated on March 19th, 1825, and a larger, better constructed fort had construction begin in late
1828 (Caywood 1948). A visitor in 1839 described the fort as

. . . an oblong square 250 yards in length, by 150 inbreadth, enclosed by pickets

twenty feet in height. The area within is divided into two courts, around which
are arranged thirty-five wooden buildings, used as officers dwellings, lodging
apartments for clerks, storehouses for furs, goods, andgrains; and as workshops
for carpenters, blacksmiths, coopers, furriers, wheel wrights, . . . One building
near the rear gate is occupied as a schoolhouse; and a brick structure for

a powder magazine. (Caywood 1948)

While the fort served its purpose and brought in many traders such as French Metis,
Chinook Jargon speaking Native Americans, and even Native Hawaiians; one of the greatest
legacies of the fort was its role in the settlement of the Oregon Country by American settlers in
the mid-19th Century. By 1846, the American influence in the region (both through settlement
and international treaties), necessitated the move of the depot from Fort Vancouver to a more
convenient location in Victoria in British Colombia (Sage 1948). By 1860, the fort had been
completely abandoned, and the surrounding area was taken over by the United States Army. The
land continued to be used as a military post, as well as a lumber mill and an airfield until the U.S.
Army handed over the last barracks to the Park Service in 2012 (National Park Service 2015)
The first series of excavations at the site were carried out from 1947 to 1954 by Lewis
Caywood. Subsequent excavations were carried out in 1966 By John D. Combes prior to the
reconstruction of the fort, along with further excavations in the 1970s onward. Caywoods initial
8 year excavation uncovered large portions of the second, later fort beginning with the walls.
Over the course of the next several years, archaeologists uncovered features relating to
agriculture, trade, and defense, including store houses, a jail, a bakery, a powder magazine, and
many other buildings that revealed Fort Vancouvers importance not just as an outpost, but as a
center of the regions economy (Caywood 1955).
In addition to the features uncovered, Caywood and later more detailed excavations
found a site rich in artifacts from all over the world. Coral from Hawaii, glass and ceramic from
China, Italy, and Central Europe were all found at the site (Langford 2001), showing not only the
forts regional significance, but also its importance in the increasingly global economy of the 19th

Century. Artifacts from less unusual places included blankets, firearms, and various trapping and
other frontier oriented gear from the UK, Quebec, and New England (Sage 1948). As the fort
became better situated over time, luxuries made it to the Pacific Northwest as well. The
collection at Fort Vancouver includes tea sets, and what is the largest collection of recovered
Spode ceramics in the world (Langford 2001). After the eventual abandonment of the fort by the
Hudson Bay Company, the US Army would also leave behind many artifacts. Military artifacts
ranging from the late 19th Century when the site was visited by African American Buffalo
Soldiers to its 20th century use as a motor pool and airfield are all present (National Park Service
2015).
While current archaeological work seems to focus most on the forts history as an outpost
during the settlement of the west, the long history of Fort Vancouver still likely has much more
to offer. Much of the forts nearly 200 years of history still remains in situ (Langford 2001), and
a Field School run through the cooperation of Portland State University, Washington State
University Vancouver, and the National Park Service will likely continue to make to make the
most out of the site, not only as a rich source of data concerning the spread of Western culture
and economics, but also as an invaluable source of experience for those wishing to pursue a
career in archaeology.

References
Caywood, Lewis R.
1948 The Archeological Excavation of Fort Vancouver. Oregon Historical Quarterly,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20611859, accessed Mar. 6 2016.

Caywood, Lewis R,
1955 Final Report: Fort Vancouver Excavations. U.S. Department of Interior, National Park
Service, http://www.nps.gov/fova/learn/historyculture/upload/Caywood%20final.pdf,
accessed Mar. 6 2016.

Langford, Theresa E.
2001 OHQ Research Files: Vancouver's Treasure of Material Culture: "The Archaeological
Collection at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site". Oregon Historical Quarterly,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20615116, accessed Mar. 6 2016.

National Park Service: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site

2016 Archaeology and Collections. Webpage,
http://www.nps.gov/fova/learn/historyculture/archaeology-and-collections-a.htm,
accessed Mar. 6 2016

Sage, Walter N.
1948 The Place of Fort Vancouver in the History of the Northwest. The Pacific Northwest
Quarterly, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20698168, accessed Mar. 6 2016.