The Missionaries
The HBC men had been settled at Fort Vancouver, on the banks of the Columbia River, for decades before the first of the Missionaries came west to establish permanent settlements…
Read moreSamuel Black
Samuel Black was the oddest of all the HBC men. Black, born in 1780, was a young highlander of enormous size when he came to Canada and joined the fur…
Read moreThe S.S.Beaver sails to the Columbia River
In 1836, the S.S. Beaver sails east from the Sandwich Islands to the mouth of the Columbia River and, eventually, Fort Vancouver, the HBC headquarters on the Pacific Slopes. Here…
Read morePaul Kane’s Rocky Mountains
In late 1847, the artist, Paul Kane begins his hike across the Rocky Mountains from Boat Encampment to Edmonton House. This is not the time of year I would enjoy…
Read moreThomas Lowe: the London Ship
In our last Thomas Lowe blogpost, we ran with his account of the 1844 Fort Vancouver fire. This was not the only time that a fire threatened Fort Vancouver: there…
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