The Columbia River . e site of a flourishing city andof the United States Fort Headquarters for the North-west, generally conceded to be the finest fort locationin the United States. Fort Vancouver was estab-lished in 1825 upon a superb bench of land gentlysloping back from the River for two miles. Greattrees fringed the site, Mt. Hood lifted its pinnacledmajesty sixty miles to the eastward, the sinuousmazes of the Willamette Valley stretched out farsouthward, while the lordly River w^as in full view adozen miles up and down. Efvery natural advantageand delight which wild nature could offer w^
The Columbia River . e site of a flourishing city andof the United States Fort Headquarters for the North-west, generally conceded to be the finest fort locationin the United States. Fort Vancouver was estab-lished in 1825 upon a superb bench of land gentlysloping back from the River for two miles. Greattrees fringed the site, Mt. Hood lifted its pinnacledmajesty sixty miles to the eastward, the sinuousmazes of the Willamette Valley stretched out farsouthward, while the lordly River w^as in full view adozen miles up and down. Efvery natural advantageand delight which wild nature could offer w^as here infullness. Ships could readily ascend the hundredmiles from the ocean to unload their merchandise andtake on their cargoes of precious furs, the furs col-lected at the outlay of so much toil and suffering overthe area of hundreds of miles. Every species of gameand fish abounded in the waters and along the banksof the River. Deer and elk tossed their antlers be- f - • •g?,,v „? .^i% .?«;??:?. Fort Vancouver in 1845. The Fur-Traders and their Stations 129 tween the stately firs of the upland, and pheasant andgrouse whirred among the branches. Geese, cranes,ducks, and swans, in countless numbers, darkened thelagoons amid the many islands enclosed by the mouthsof the Willamette and the adjacent waters of thelarger stream. Fish of many varieties, the royalChinook salmon, king of food fish, being at the headin beauty and edibility, though surpassed in size bythe gigantic sturgeon, which sometimes weighed athousand pounds, abounded in the River. No epicureof the w^orlds capitals could command such viands asnature brought to the doors of the denizens of FortVancouver. The fort itself was laid out on a scale of ampli-tude suitable to the spaciousness of the site. It wasenclosed with a picket wall tw^enty feet high, w^ith mas-sive buttresses of timber inside. This enclosure wasa parallelogram seven hundred and fifty by five hun-dred feet. Inside w^ere about forty build
Size: 2048px × 1220px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyorkandlondongp
