Simpson to Fort Nisqually

This drawing of Fort Nisqually was done by Steve A. Anderson and is used with his kind permission

So, in August 1841, Governor (now Sir George) Simpson arrived at Fort Vancouver, on the lower Columbia River. The date of arrival was August 25, and he and his party left this headquarters on September 1. It is difficult to know what he did in that week, but this is what he said in his book, An Overland Journey Round the World:

At Vancouver we found two vessels of the United States Exploring Squadron, under the command of Commodore [Charles] Wilkes, which had come hither with the view of surveying the coast and river, and we here spent a week all the more agreeably on this account. As I should afterwards have a better opportunity of noticing this fort in connection with the neighbouring country, I left my journal untouched till I resumed my voyage, in order to inspect our own parts to the northward, and to visit the Russians at Sitka.

On the 1st of September, my party, now strengthened by the accession of Mr. [James] Douglas, took leave, on the beach, of Commodore Wilkes and his officers, with mutual wishes for safety and success; and by eleven in the forenoon we were under way in a large and heavy batteau, with a crew of ten men.

When they reached the mouth of the Willamette River they ascended the river in their boat, “rounding Multonomah, or Wappatoo Island,” on their way to visit the Fort Vancouver dairy, which happened to be on that same island in the river. In Canada, at least, “Wapato” is a Chinook jargon word that generally refers to “Indian potato.” The actual plant name is broadleaf arrowhead, and its Latin name Sagittaria latifolia. It produces an edible tuber that is consumed by First Nations and Indigenous peoples everywhere. I would presume that would be as true for the Pacific Northwest as it is in western Canada.

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“At the dairy,” Simpson wrote, “we found about a hundred milch cows, which were said to yield, on an average, not more than sixty pounds of butter each in a year; and there were also two or three hundred cattle that were left, merely with a view to their breeding, to roam about at will. The whole were under the charge of three or four families that resided on the spot.” Question: was one of these families named “Roguor’s,” (or some variety of that name), as that is the name that Governor Simpson wrote in his quick list of his journey, as you will see below:

“Roguor’s [?]” [The question mark is mine.]

Cowlitz Farm

Puget Sound

5 Sept.– Nisqually — beautiful scenery.

6 Sept. — Embarked in Beaver Steam.

So we don’t have anything to quote from his “Rough Notes,” or, put it this way, I have already quoted what his “Rough Notes” say in the above quote. That’s all we have to go on for this part of the journey.

However, we do have Simpson’s book, An Overland Journey Round the World. While his party were at the dairy, Simpson heard a story that he considered amusing enough to include in his book. Near the dairy there stood a pillar — a standing rock — that both Indigenous peoples of the region, and the HBC men who worked at the dairy, believed was sacred: that any person who brought down the pillar would “bring down on himself the vengeance of its tutelary deity.” [Tutelary means “guiding.”] Douglas apparently told Simpson the story of his own attempt to move the pillar a year or two earlier. “On returning to the dairy to sleep,” Simpson wrote, “he got into bad bread with the Canadian who was in charge, for having thus dared the demon of the stone to do his worst; and, after a good deal of argument, they parted for the night, the master as skeptical, and the man as credulous as ever. The darkness, however, decided this drawn battle in the Canadian’s favor, for a fearful storm, the work, of course, of the indignant goblin, almost pulled down the house over the impious head of Mr. Douglas.” The meaning of the word impious (pronounced imp-ee-ous) is “showing a lack of respect or reverence.” I have found in my research many occasions where both of these words could be applied to James Douglas. (Sorry, descendants. I know a few of you will read this, but it is, in some respects, true!)

About sunset Simpson’s party re-entered the Columbia River and proceed west once again, toward the mouth of the Cowlitz which flowed into the Columbia from the north. They ate supper on the river bank, and the gentlemen wrapped themselves in blankets to sleep in the boats, while the men kept rowing. On the morning of September 2, the gentlemen awoke to find themselves on the Cowlitz River. Simpson said of this river that, 

As a proof of the occasional height of the waters of this narrow and rapid river, driftwood and other aqueous deposits were hanging, high and dry, on the overshadowing branches, at an altitude of thirty or forty feet above the present level of the stream. When the Cowlitz thus fills its bed, it ceases to be navigable, at least for upward crafts, by reason of the violence of the current…

Even at present, the current was so powerful, that our rate of progress never exceeded two miles an hour. When I descended the Cowlitz in 1828…

I have found occasions where the Fort Nisqually men did not head down the Cowlitz River toward Fort Vancouver — and of course they did not say why because everyone knew the reason. But see below: here is another thing I just learned. in 1828, Governor Simpson came down the Fraser River to Fort Langley. He could easily have travelled on to Fort Vancouver in the HBC’s schooner Cadboro, but now we know he did not!

When I descended the Cowlitz in 1828, there was a large population along its banks; but since then the intermittent fever, which commenced its ravages in the following year, had left but few to mourn for those who fell…

So he didn’t travel to Fort Vancouver in the Cadboro. Then I thought he was probably delivered to Fort Nisqually by the Fort Langley men, and the Fort Nisqually men brought him down to Fort Vancouver. But that didn’t happen: Fort Langley was built in 1827, but Fort Nisqually did not exist before 1833. The Fort Langley men might have brought him all the way to Fort Vancouver in 1828. But then, maybe they didn’t. He came downriver in his own canoe and with his own men: maybe they delivered him to Fort Vancouver, in his own canoe?

Well, either way, there are problems with this question. Did the canoe that carried Simpson across the continent in 1828 carry him to the beginning of the Cowlitz Portage, and return to Fort Langley? Nope: The Cowlitz Farms didn’t yet exist, so they could not have provided horses for his return journey, nor canoes for his journey to Fort Vancouver. Simpson must have walked across the portage, while his men carried the canoe to the Cowlitz River, and on to Fort Vancouver. Perhaps they paddled up the Nisqually River and then carried the canoe to the Cowlitz?? I don’t have any other suggestions, but if you do, let us all know.

Anyway, we will drop this interesting problem. After all, this is the story of his 1841 journey up the Cowlitz River, to the Cowlitz Farms, and on to Fort Nisqually:

Our batteau carried as curious a muster of races and languages as perhaps had ever been congregated within the same compass in any part of the world. Our crew of ten men contained Iroquois, who spoke their own tongue; a Cree half-breed, of French origin, who appeared to have borrowed his dialect from both his parents; a North Briton, who understood only the Gaelic of his native hills; Canadians, who, of course, knew French; and Sandwich Islanders, who jabbered a medly of Chinook, English, and their own vernacular jargon. Add to all this that the passengers were natives of England, Scotland, Russia, Canada, and the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territories; and you have the prettiest congress of nations, the nicest confusion of tongues, that has ever taken place since the days of the Tower of Babel.

Russian? You will remember that an employee of the Russian American Company travelled west with Sir George Simpson. His name was Nicolas von Freymann, and he was on his way to Sitka. And “members of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territories” would mean that Dr. A Rowand, the Métis son of John Rowand, was also here. 

So, coming back to their upriver journey to Fort Nisqually in 1841: James Douglas travelled ahead of the rest of the party in a light boat to fetch horses to meet the party at their next stopping place, ten miles from Cowlitz Farm. By the time Simpson’s party reached the meeting spot on September 2, at noon, Douglas was already there with the horses. “Right glad were we to leave our clumsy batteau after an imprisonment of eight and forty hours,” Simpson said. So, they spent two days in the batteau, and that works out as to date. Simpson also tells us that between the Cowlitz River and Puget Sound was a distance of about sixty miles, “an alternation of plains and belts of wood.” 

According to Simpson, in 1841 there were two farms established on this portage: one, the Cowlitz Farm, with a thousand acres of land under the plough, a large dairy, a horse park with good grass, and fields that grew extensive crops of wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, and (likely) corn. “The other farm was on the shores of Puget Sound; and as its soil was found to be better fitted for pasturage, than tillage, it had been appropriated almost exclusively to the flocks and herds, so that now, with only two hundred acres of cultivated land, it possessed six thousand sheep, twelve hundred cattle, besides horses, pigs, &c.” This second farm was, of course, Fort Nisqually itself.

They visited Cowlitz Farm but cannot have spent a lot of time there, as they began their ten mile horse ride to the farm at noon or shortly after, and camped that night five miles beyond (Brigade horses travelled about fifteen or twenty miles a day, but of course they were heavily laden.) [I have changed m mind on this date, as you will see below, although I admit it is possible they spent more time at the Dairy than Simpson admits.] Early the next morning, at 4 am on September 3, they began their day’s ride toward Fort Nisqually, which they would reach on September 5, according to Simpson’s “Rough Notes.” It will be interesting to see of the dates work: and as it happens, they don’t. Simpson’s book, An Overland Journey, continues with a description of this part of the journey:

The belts of wood which separated the plains from each other were composed of stately cedar and pines, many of them rising without a branch or a bend to a height of a hundred and fifty feet. Some of these primeval children of the soil were three or four hundred feet high, while they measured thirty in girth at a distance of five feet from the ground; and by actual measurement, one fallen trunk, by no means the largest that could have been selected, was found to be two hundred and fifty feet long, and to be twenty-five round at eight feet from the root.

They found another mysterious standing stone along this route: “This rudely carved block, the only thing of the kind in the neighbourhood, was carried to its present position from a considerable distance by a mighty man of old times, who could lift a horse by stooping under its belly and carry about the brute, all alive and kicking, for a whole day.” I think it is more likely that the stone was a glacial erratic, “differing from the type of rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word Errare (“to wander”) are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundred of kilometers.” [Source: Wikipedia, Glacial_erratic.] But the other story is more fun, I admit: and as you see below, it becomes even more interesting.

Simpson’s party breakfasted on the banks of the “Checaylis” River, which is probably the Chehalis: this puts them up by modern-day Chehalis or perhaps Centralia. The “Checaylis” flows northwest and west into Gray’s Harbour, Simpson says: and yes, it does. But look at this: the erratic rock that Simpson has just spoken of was called the Skookoom, and there is today a Skookumchuk River in this immediate neighbourhood of the Chehalis River! Skookumchuck is Chinook jargon for “big rapids,” the word “chuck” being water. This pretty much determines where these men are at the moment. 

A sidenote: if you think Chinook jargon is gone, it is not. I grew up on Cortes Island, in the Discovery Islands. We used the word “saltchuck” for the salt water of Desolation Sound. I bet my old schoolmates still use the word there.

Onward: the date is September 3, I hope. North of the Chehalis River the plains became more extensive, Simpson remarked. “Towards the ‘Squally, or, as the whites term it by way of elegance, the Nisqually River, we passed over a space of ten or twelve miles in length, covered with thousands of mounds, or hammocks, all of a perfectly round shape, but of different sizes. They are from twelve to twenty feet in diameter, and from five to fifteen in height; and they all touch, but barely touch, each other. they must have been the work of nature; for if they were the work of man, there would have been pits adacent whence the earth was taken; but whatever has been their origin, they must be very ancient, inasmuch as many of them bear large trees.” The HBC men called this Butte Prairie: the word “butte” meaning “mound.” Today these are the Mima Mounds, and they are only one set of numerous sets of mounds that can be found in Washington State and elsewhere. I wrote about them many years ago, and my ancient blogpost can be found here, at https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/indian-mounds/ 

So, September 3. Right? Wrong! In his An Overland Journey Round the World, Sir George Simpson wrote:

After crossing the ‘Squally River we arrived at Fort Nisqually on the evening of our fourth day from Fort Vancouver. Being unwilling to commence our voyage on a Sunday, we remained here for six and thirty hours inspecting the farm and dairy and visiting Dr. Richmond, an American missionary stationed in the neighborhood.

The surrounding scenery is very beautiful. On the borders of an arm of the sea of about two miles in width, are undulating plains of excellent pasturage presenting a pretty variety of copses of oak and placid lakes, and abounding in chevreuil [deer] and other game. 

So here is one correction we can make immediately: Governor Simpson actually arrived at Fort Nisqually on the evening of September 4. On September 5, he toured the fort and its grounds, and on September 6, he boarded the Steamer Beaver and sailed away from Nisqually.

As for the other missing day, I believe that he stopped at the Cowlitz Farm and stayed the night of September 3. He then toured the farm before his departure on September 4, when he set up camp five miles beyond the farm. He didn’t actually say that: we just have to presume that is what happened.

I knew that establishing the exact dates would be a problem: I have already tried to establish the dates that he was at the various places on the northwest coast, and got so confused I gave it up. We are just going to have to take a flying guess at those dates: we know when he left, and I think we know when he returned. All other dates will have to be juggled.

And when we start that delightful chore of sorting out Sir George Simpson’s dates as he travelled up and down the northwest coast, it will appear here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/simpson-at-fort-nisqually/  

To return to the first post in this series, go here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/simpsons-rough-notes/ 

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. All rights reserved.

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