Wrangell, Alaska
Taking advantage of the agreement's terms immediately, the HBC sent James Douglas north in the "Beaver" in 1840. Douglas explored the Taku River and built Fort Durham (or Taku) on the coast just south of the river's mouth. He also took possession of Redoubt San Dionisio (Fort Saint Dionysius), which lay off the mouth of the Stikine River on Etolin Island, near today's Wrangell, Alaska (and renamed it Fort Stikine), which the Russians had agreed to transfer to the HBC under the 1839 lease agreement.