Fort William (Oregon)
Encyclopedia
Fort William was a fur trading outpost built by American Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth was an American inventor, ice harvester, and explorer and trader in the far west.-Early life:Wyeth was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Jacob and Elizabeth Wyeth...

 in 1834. It was located on the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...

 on Wappatoo Island
Sauvie Island
Sauvie Island, in the U.S. state of Oregon, originally Wapato Island or Wappatoo Island, is the largest island along the Columbia River, at 26,000 acres , and the largest river island in the United States...

 in what is now part of Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. It was the site of a murder and the first Euro-American trial in what is now the state of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

. After a few years the post was leased to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1837.

Background

The fort was built as part of the Pacific Trading Company, a joint-stock company formed by Wyeth to exploit the fur trade in the Oregon Country
Oregon Country
The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...

.
The island chosen was previously visited by the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and was previously inhabited by natives. However, by the time Wyeth established his outpost the island was void of any human habitation due to diseases
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations , communicable disease, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres . It was one of the most significant events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in all of human history...

 that had swept through the lower Columbia wiping out nearly 90% of the native inhabitants.

Location

Wappatoo Island, now Sauvie Island, lies just north of the main confluence of the Willamette
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...

 and Columbia Rivers, with the north end of the island being the location of the confluence with the Multnomah Channel. The post was built on the north end of the island, but was moved the next year towards the center of the island due to flooding.
Fort William was west of and on the opposite side of the river from the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District...

 that was established in 1822 on the north side of the Columbia. It was about 90 miles (144.8 km) upriver from the mouth of the Columbia and the Hudson's Bay Company post of Fort George (formerly Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...

).

Operation

Wyeth and crew attempted various commercial interests from their outpost in the Pacific Northwest. They cut lumber and exported it to the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

, built boats and canoes, and built a 60 feet (18.3 m) long building to use in processing fish.
Wyeth and his employees also attempted to trap animals in the Deschutes River watershed of central Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

. However, this proved unsuccessful and they young company was unable to overcome the competition of the Hudson’s Bay Company and, in the Rocky Mountains, the American Fur Company
American Fur Company
The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...

. John Ball, one of Wyeth's men, wrote that they were no match for the Hudson Bay's Company, which would bid up fur trade prices as much as ten to one whenever any American trader appeared on the lower Columbia River. The post also had difficulties with its own operations when the first supply ship sent to the Northwest Coast wrecked, and the second ship was late. This first ship then only shipped out salmon. These problems led Wyeth to abandon the fort in 1836, but subsequently leased the installation to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1837. After Wyeth left the Pacific Northwest, John McLoughlin
John McLoughlin
Dr. John McLoughlin, baptized Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin, was the Chief Factor of the Columbia Fur District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. He was later known as the "Father of Oregon" for his role in assisting the American cause in the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest...

, the Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver, ordered Fort William demolished and a dairy farm to be built on the island.
Fort Hall
Fort Hall
Fort Hall, sitting athwart the end of the common stretch shared by the three far west emigrant trails was a 19th century outpost in the eastern Oregon Country, which eventually became part of the present-day United States, and is located in southeastern Idaho near Fort Hall, Idaho...

 in present day Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

, the other outpost in the enterprise, was sold off to the HBC the following year.

Murder

Fort William also served as the backdrop to the first public trial by Europeans in Oregon.
This situation occurred in 1835 when the post’s gunsmith, Thomas J. Hubbard
Thomas J. Hubbard
Thomas Jefferson Hubbard was an Oregon pioneer and politician who was acquitted of murder charges in the first American murder trial in what is now the state of Oregon. At the trial the murder was determined to be justifiable homicide....

, attacked and killed the fort’s tailor in an argument over a young native
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 girl. The case was overseen by Wyeth’s friend and naturalist John Kirk Townsend
John Kirk Townsend
John Kirk Townsend was an American naturalist, ornithologist and collector.Townsend was born in Philadelphia and trained as a physician and pharmacist. He developed an interest in natural history in general and bird collecting in particular...

who was appointed magistrate. The gunsmith, Thomas Hubbard, was acquitted by a jury when they ruled the death was justifiable homicide. This verdict was likely the result of evidence about the tailor's alcohol-induced rages.
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