The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-08-21
No Trace Left Of Fort NisqualIy
Crops Now Grown Over Site. in Washington Where
Until Within Few Years There We're Ruins
Of Old Fur Traders Settlement


! If the keynote of Fort Colville was
potatoes, that of Fort Nisoually was
sheep and cattle. Yet it was the same
Archibald Mcdonald who, in 1882.
prior to his Colville experience, went
down the Columbia river As miles and
across a succession of prairies dotted
with clumps of magnificent maple and
oak trees for 60 miles to the lower
sound, which had been chosen as the
site for the new fort.
Over the Cowlitz trail with McDon-
aid went young English doctor, just
arrived from London and under ap-
pointment for one Of the northern
forts, to watch the building operations
until his ship came. And 1t is to the
unpublished journal of DR.. William
Fraser Tolmie that the first record is
credited.
On May 80, 1888, they reached the
proposed site on the bank of a
"streamlet," the Coe, with good mill
Sites on low plateau about 50(paces
broad, on the shores of Puget sound.
Mcdonald was uncertain whether to
erect the fort at the mouth of the
streamlet or $50 yards above, where u
log storehouse had been completed al
ready. But one thing was certain
potatoes and peas were to be planted
at once. Already, in a small garden,
planted earlier in the spring, onions,
v-<fc fttrt ,iyaC ND IN1~a "a
sprouting.
Beauty of Location
1t was a location of wonderful
beauty, with the broad waters of Pu-
get sound in front, view to the
northeast of the white capped Olym-
pic range, and around the grassy spot,
hundred yards square the line of
tall pines, except to the northeast,
which gave full view of prairie COW
cred with wild flowers. Mount Rain
Ter lowered white-crowned above all.
In this location rose the fort-as yet
pen for the oxen and the still I'M
rooted storehouse. 1t was the half
way house between Fort Vancouver
and the forts on the upper waters Of
the sound.
DIR. Tolmie botanized among the
| flowers on the prairie, the men
worked at the building under the su-
pervision of Mcdonald, and in their
fodd moments the two gentlemen"
discussed the authenticity Of Ossian
and read Cowper's poems, new to
both. -Tolmie comments also on IAN
able cfitique son Chateaubrland's LIE
Genia Sdu Christianism,' in the latest
/ issue of Blackwood's Magazine"
4 And all this was in 1888, the year
Parker started westward, two years
before Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spald-
| ing, with their husbands, crossed the
Rocky mountains into the unknown
wilderness of the Oregon country.
! Perhaps there is nothing that shows
| the underlying strength of the Hudson
| Bay. company more than just such
| items as these, encountered in journ-
ais such as this, and in the personal
correspondence of the old fur traders.
o. Buildings Completed
BY the goth of June the French
Canadians were. building dwelling
for their own use, the storehouse and
dwelling for the gentlemen" being
completed. All was to be surround
| ed by pickets, leaving only room for
a. path between the stockade of the
fort and the high water mark of the
little Coe.
Fur trading was carried on when
| the Indians came in, and the garden
was weeded and watered carefully.
Later in the month Mcdonald was
sent to take charge at Colville, and
the chief trader. Heron, appeared to
superintend Fort Nisqually. He was
a tall, stout Irishman, displeased with
his appointment at Nisqually after ex-
periencing the comforts of Colville.
| The location was not the right one,
in his estimation, and he started on q
survey of the surrounding country.
Alone, in some trepidation, and hav-
| ing given his dog to man much more
agitated than himself, Tolmie pre-
pared for a nights sleep; he had five
loaded guns in one corner of his room
and a rifle and pistols at the head of
his bed But the Indians. not yet
aware of the power of the company,
were thoroughly convinced of it the
following noon, when Heron was still
exploring A slight seismic disturb
ance and the Indians declaration,
"The chiefs (Heron) medicine is
strong; he has gone up the hill to
white mems anxieties.
Heron decided to move to the
"Shutes" probably the Tumwater--
and took his goods there, only to find
Clallam Indians would not go beyond
| the first fort. Back were sent the
goods until Mclaughlin could be con-
suited. The argument continued
about the fort all summer, perhaps
the most exciting experience old Fort
Nisqually ever had.
| The fort as definitely located in
later years was nine miles north of
the Nisqually river a place not suit
able for trade. 1t was on a high hill,
and there was only a limited anchor
age for vessels in front. But the fur
trade was limited, and the later or
ganization of the Puget Sound Agri-
cultural company, Differed by Hudson
Bay company men, a wheel within a
wheel, made it almost entirely an
agricultural place. Commodore Wilkes
reported in 1S41 that 5000 sheep, 500
head of cattle and 400 horses could be
maintained there. But cattle strayed,
became Wild on in years afterward
were shot down by American settlers
as carelessly as if they were buffalo.
| A Methodist missionary had their