The incoming Brigades pass through the Cascade Mountains
The two brigades leaving Fort Vancouver for the interior have had different experiences at Portage Neuf, a cluster of islands and rapids upriver from Fort Vancouver, and a few miles…
Read moreJames Birnie and the 1826 York Factory Express
We, who are descendants of James Birnie of Spokane House and Fort Vancouver, have known he went out in the 1826 York Factory Express to Hudson Bay. What we did…
Read moreThe incoming New Caledonia brigades leave Fort Vancouver, Columbia River
At Fort Vancouver, William Connolly prepared to take in the New Caledonia brigade to Fort St. James. In fur trade parlance, “Incoming” always meant that the horse and boat brigades…
Read moreJames Birnie, 1828-1836
James Birnie had joined the free wheeling North West Company in 1818, and when in 1821 it merged with the Hudson’s Bay Company under the latter’s name, he came with…
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