Fort Astoria (also named Fort George) was the primary fur trading post of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company (PFC). A maritime contingent of PFC staff was sent on board the Tonquin, while another party traveled overland from St. Louis. This land based group later became known as the Astor Expedition. Built at the entrance of the Columbia River in 1811, Fort Astoria was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast of North America.

The inhabitants of the fort differed greatly in background and position, and were structured into a corporate hierarchy. The fur trading partners of the company were at the top, with clerks, craftsmen, hunters, and laborers in descending order. Nationalities included Americans, Scots, French Canadian voyageurs, Native Hawaiian, Kanakas, and various indigenous North Americans, including Iroquois and others from Eastern Canada. They found life quite monotonous, with the fish and vegetable diet boring. Venereal diseases were problematic. Types of fur taken in trade at the fort included beaver, sea otter, squirrel, and red fox.

The onset of the War of 1812 caused the PFC to fold as it was too isolated to expect any military protection or support from the United States. The Montreal-based North West Company (NWC) bought out the assets of the PFC in 1813, including Fort Astoria. They renamed it Fort George and utilized it as the headquarters of its most western operations, primarily based along the Columbia. In 1821, the Hudson's Bay Company incorporated Fort George into its collection of posts after absorbing the NWC. The opening of Fort Vancouver in 1825 was planned to allow for a better placed headquarters for the Columbia Department. While Fort George was abandoned in 1825, the arrival of American naval merchants on the Columbia necessitated the reopening of Fort George by the HBC.

Competition for control of Fort Astoria was a factor in the British and the Americans' resolving their disputed claims to the Oregon Country.

The Fort Astoria Site was added to the list of National Historic Landmarks on November 5, 1961. It is marked by a reconstructed block house.

Background

John Jacob Astor was a German American merchant who over several decades financed several successful mercantile missions to Qing China. He promoted the idea of a joint company with the Canadian North West Company to open trade posts in the Pacific Northwest. However, Astor was unable to convince the British subjects to join him in such a venture. This did not deter the ambitious financier, who went ahead with his plans by creating the American Fur Company (AFC) in 1808.

The Pacific Fur Company was established shortly afterwards as an AFC subsidiary to establish commercial stations on the Pacific Coast. Notably Astor was able to recruit several NWC partners and employees into the PFC, including Donald McKenzie, Alexander MacKay, and Duncan McDougall. To create these new fur trade locations, Astor planned to send detachments of laborers and officers both overland on a route similar to one taken by the Lewis and Clark Expedition and on merchant vessels that rounded Cape Horn for the Columbia.

The Tonquin was used to carry a detachment of employees to the Pacific under the command of Captain Jonathan Thorn. After several days were spent surveying the mouth of the Columbia River, 33 men disembarked on 12 April 1811. Among the PFC men were eleven Kanaka laborers from the Hawaiian Kingdom, including Naukane (also known as John Coxe). Notable among the early staff of Fort Astoria were two Scottish emigrants to Canada, Alexander MacKay, who had previously been with the North West Company, and Alexander Ross.

Operations Construction

By the end of May 1811, company employees built Fort Astoria out of bark-covered logs that enclosed a stockade and guns mounted for defense. Ross recalled that in almost two months, "scarcely yet an acre of ground cleared" due to the many initial difficulties the PFC employees faced in establishing Fort Astoria:

The place thus selected for the emporium of the west, might challenge the whole continent to produce a spot of equal extent presenting more difficulties to the settler: studded with many gigantic trees of almost incredible size, many of them measuring fifty feet in girth, and so close together, and intermingled with huge rocks, as to make it work of no ordinary labour to level and clear the ground.

By the time an overland party joined them in February 1812, the PFC laborers had constructed a trading store, a blacksmith's shop, a house, and a storage shed for pelts acquired from trapping or trading with the local Native Americans. The traders arranged cannons around the perimeter for defense. The post was to serve as an administrative center for various PFC satellite forts such as Fort Okanogan.

Activities On June 15, 1811, two unusual native visitors arrived: the two-spirit Kaúxuma Núpika (known in English as Man-like Woman or Bowdash, which is derived from the Chinook Jargon burdash) and their wife, both of the Kootenai from the far interior. PFC management suspected the two of being spies for the NWC, but at the same time welcomed their detailed geographical knowledge. A NWC employee, David Thompson, arrived about a month later after navigating the entire length of the Columbia River. Thompson knew the Kootenai couple and told the Astorians about Kaúxuma Núpika and their unusual life. Both the Astorians and Thompson's party ended up protecting the life of Kaúxuma Núpika, whose prophecies of smallpox among the local natives put his life at risk.

Thompson, who for months had been out of touch with the evolving politics between the fur companies, believed that the NWC held a one-third partnership with Astor's Pacific Fur Company. He carried a letter to the effect. The Astorians knew that the deal had fallen through but dealt with Thompson as if the deal were still on. The journals of Thompson and the Astorians are silent on the matter, yet both parties took steps to mislead or thwart the other, while at the same time remaining on friendly terms. It is likely that in this remote region, neither party knew for certain whether the two companies were to be allies or competitors.

In June 1812, the number of men at Fort Astoria were reduced to 11 Hawaiians and 39 European descendants. Fear of attack by Chinookans was high and drills were directed by McDougall frequently. A delegation of Chinookans visited Fort Astoria on 2 July quickly left after witnessing these military demonstrations. This fear by the natives convinced the Astorians that "they are not friendly disposed towards us..." having "a desire to harm us." According to Jones, this "latent distrust" of Chinookans by Astorians from this incident was probably unfounded, as they entered the post "for an innocent purpose" and were frightened by the drills.

Tonquin

Acting on the orders of Astor, Thorn and Tonquin departed for Russian America in June 1811. At Destruction Island a Quinault man with familial ties to Vancouver Island, Joseachal, was hired to serve as a translator. While at Clayoquot Sound off Vancouver Island, Thorn became frustrated with the prices set by the local Tla-o-qui-aht people there. He reportedly took an animal pelt and struck the elder appointed as the primary negotiator. This greatly offended the Tla-o-qui-aht, and while Joseachal advised Thorn of the danger, the captain refused to immediately depart.

Eventually a brisk trade commenced with the locals who had remained on board, with the pelts being sold primarily for American blades. Soon after receiving the weapons the Tla-o-qui-aht attacked and in the ensuing conflict Tonquin was destroyed. Josechal was the sole survivor and later returned to Fort Astoria to inform McDougall of the fate of the vessel. The loss of Tonquin caused a great deal of hardship for the personnel at Fort Astoria as it still held a large amount of the trade goods and foodstuffs intended for trade in the region.

First winter (1811–1812)

Many Tonquin passengers and crew members listed in Gabriel Franchère comprehensive travel log did not get to winter over after the initial fort was built, due to either being lost (deserting), drowning or perishing in the June 1811 Tonquin disaster (aside a single Indigenous interpreter survivor). New Kanaka passengers had also been added during the stopover on the Sandwich Islands and similarly, some did not winter over. One Kanaka was exchanged for an experienced voyageur that came with David Thompson during the summer before he returned. Two additions came during fall 1811 following an expedition to establish Fort Okanogan. Some members of that expedition did return by January 1812 along with the first arrivals of the Wilson Price Hunt overland expedition. The first "Astorians" to operate the fort during the first winter of 1811–1812 were:

Tonquin remaining passengers and crew members: George Bell, Antoine Belleau, Jean Baptiste Belleau, Russel Farnham, Gabriel Franchère, Paul Jérémie, Joseph Lapierre, Jacques Lafantaisie, Michel Laframboise, Olivier Roy Lapensée, Gilles Leclerc, William W. Matthews, Duncan McDougall, Donald McGillis, Thomas McKay, Donald McLennan, Ovide de Montigny, John M. Mumford, William (Guillaume) Perrault, Francis Benjamin Pillet, Alexander Ross, Augustus (Augustin) Roussil, Benjamin Roussel, David Stuart, Robert Stuart, William Wallace, and Henry Weeks. Kanaka additions: Harry, William Karimou, James Keemo, George Naaco, Dick Paow, Peter Pahia, Paul Pooar, Bob Pookarakara, Jack Powrowrie, and Thomas Tuana. Fall 1811 additions: Michel Boulard (in lieu of departing Kanaka Naukane alias John Coxe in June 1811 upon David Thompson return). Other 1811 Métis, Indigenous, and Iroquois additions: Régis Bruguier, Joseachal Shonowane, and Ignace Shonowane. January 1812 additions: First "Astorian overlanders" Reed party from the Wilson Price Hunt expedition - William Cannon, André Dufresne, Prisque Felax, Joseph Landry, Guillaume Leroux (dit Cardinal), Étienne Lucier, Donald McKenzie, Robert McLelland, John Reed, Michel Samson, and André Vallée.

Although based in Fort Astoria, Ross, de Montigny, Roussel, and Lafantaisie all wintered over around new Fort Okanogan. Robert Stuart, Pillet, McGillis, and Bruguier wintered around the Willamette River.

Beaver

Astor sent Beaver to resupply the fort which arrived in 1812. Besides additional American and British subjects, a further 26 Hawaiian Kanakas were transported to bolster the company workforce. From there the Beaver took the stockpiled animal pelts at Astoria on board and sailed for New Archangel. An agreement with the Russian American Governor, Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, was made for the exchange of foodstuffs and trade goods in return for Russian furs. From there Beaver sailed to the Chinese port of Guangzhou to sell the furs for highly valuable Chinese manufactured goods. Due to then ongoing War of 1812, Beaver remained at Guangzhou until the resolution of the conflict and only reached New York City in 1816.

War of 1812

The War of 1812 between the British and Americans brought tension to Fort Astoria, though not as a result of hostilities between the fur companies. On 1 July 1813, the fort officers of Donald Mackenzie, Duncan McDougall, David Stuart, and John Clarke, desiring to abandon the fort agreed to sell the PFC trading stations to the British-owned NWC, "unless the necessary support and supplies arrive with advice from John Jacob Astor of New York, or the Stockholders to continue the trade, the same shall be abandoned as impracticable, as well as unprofitable." NWC staff arrived at the coast after running low on food supplies in the Interior on 7 October, with the liquidation of the PFC assets being executed on 23 October.