The Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon

End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
History 101

The British In Oregon

Sitting on the banks of the Columbia River at Vancouver, Washington, on the 4th of July, one can sit back and enjoy one of the largest fireworks displays in the Pacific Northwest. It is ironic that the explosions are directly over the fort that for 24 years administered Oregon for Britain.

The North West Company was started in Canada in 1779. The owners were known as Montreallers and the traders were called Wintering Partners or Nor'westers. An 1804 treaty specified that any Canadian could trade in US territory simply by complying with American laws, and as a result, NWC employees rushed into the upper Missouri Valley. American Indian agent Pierre Choteau objected that they were not complying with a law that allowed only one trader per tribe. Governor Wilkinson of Louisiana issued a proclamation in 1805 that barred foreign residents from his territory.

The NWC came to the Oregon Country under David Thompson, an astronomer and map maker who led a party of five Company voyageurs and two Iroquois Indians down the length of the Columbia River in 1811. On July 9, he placed a small wooden sign at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers that stated, "Know hereby that this country is claimed by Great Britain as part of its territories and that the N.W. Company of Merchants from Canada do hereby intend to erect a factory."

For two years the NWC trapped side by side with Astor's Pacific Fur Company. Both companies at that time were unsupplied from home, and while they sometimes cooperated when serious problems arose, the competition hurt both companies. When confronted by a British warship in 1813 and informed of the War of 1812, Donald McKenzie surrendered Fort Astor to the NWC. Rebuffed by Astor, McKenzie returned to the fort, renamed Fort George in honor of the British king, in 1816 to work for the NWC.

The Hudson's Bay Company was originally chartered by King Charles II in 1670 -- it was a long-standing joke that the initials HBC stood for "Here Before Christ" -- and was confined to British territory around Hudson's Bay. After the French and Indian War in 1763 settled the question of colonial primacy in Canada, the HBC spread throughout eastern and central Canada. Some trappers took it upon themselves to unofficially extend the HBC charter over the Rockies into Oregon.

As early as 1819 there were some Nor'westers eager to consolidate with the HBC. They realized that competition between the two companies would soon deplete the populations of the animals they were trapping, bringing disaster upon everyone involved. Early in 1821, an agreement to unite with the HBC was reached, and that summer an act of the British Parliament amended the HBC charter to allow absorption of the NWC.

The Hudson's Bay Company came to Oregon legally and in force. Governor Simpson administered a vast territory that stretched from Alaska to California to the Rockies. The entire Columbia River watershed came under the sub-jurisdiction of Chief Factor John McLoughlin, a 6'4" white-haired trader from Eastern Canada. Fort George at the mouth of the Columbia was abandoned in favor of Fort Vancouver, completed in 1825 five miles from the confluence of the Columbia and its major tributary, the Willamette River.

Peter Skene Ogden was assigned to Fort Vancouver as Chief Trader in 1825. McLoughlin immediately sent him to Montana to replace Alexander Ross, who was unsuccessfully trying to implement a policy of excluding American free trappers. Most of Ogden's men deserted him in Montana and became mountain men. Ogden himself would spend the next several years engaged in exploring. By the 1830s, Ogden probably knew more about the West than anyone save Jed Smith.

Ogden and McLoughlin were responsible for maintaining all of the forts along the Oregon Trail past Fort Bridger, which was maintained as a private enterprise by mountain man Jim Bridger. Fort Hall was originally built by Wyeth and later purchased by the HBC; Fort Walla Walla was originally a NWC fort; Forts Boise and Vancouver were built by the HBC.

British fur trapping in Oregon began to decline in 1833, and many trappers retired to farm the French Prairie region of the Willamette Valley. The Puget Sound Agricultural Company was established near Fort Nisqually to encourage farming in that area, as well. John McLoughlin had claimed the area around Willamette Falls in 1828 for the HBC and purchased it for himself in 1845.

Throughout his career, McLoughlin was beset with problems caused by Americans who questioned his authority and resented his presence as the representative of the former colonial masters of the United States. Hall Jackson Kelley, Nathaniel Wyeth, Ewing Young, Jedediah Smith, and Jason Lee were particular problems. Adding to his troubles, McLoughlin's boss would constantly drop in on whirlwind inspection tours.

McLoughlin was under orders to discourage American settlement. When it became obvious that they could not be kept out, McLoughlin encouraged them to settle in the Willamette Valley, probably hoping that he could contain the American presence. He was moved by the plight of newly-arrived immigrants, and many destitute and broken families got their start in Oregon thanks to supplies and equipment he loaned them. At the time of his death, thousands of dollars were still owed to him by American settlers.

Because he defied orders, he was demoted and forced to retire by the British; because he represented the British, his land was confiscated by the Americans. McLoughlin died in a home to which the title had been taken away. His land claims and citizenship were honored posthumously, and today he is considered the "Father of Oregon."