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It was right about this time exactly 200 years ago when work began on what would become It became a busy regional headquarters for fur trade conducted by the Hudson鈥檚 Bay Company and an enduring British presence in what would, ultimately, become American territory. Bicentennial observances will begin at the historic fort in early 2025 and continue through much of the coming year.

If there鈥檚 one takeaway from all the stories about the past that we try to tell on 成人X站 Newsradio and MyNorthwest, it鈥檚 that history is complicated, and is often full of subtleties and nuance.

With Thanksgiving here, it鈥檚 worth thinking about the over-simplified way that Americans once observed the holiday and celebrated its history with well-meaning pageants featuring brave pilgrims and stoic Indians feasting in gratitude in New England. Looking back even just a few decades to what many remember from their childhood, subtlety and nuance aren鈥檛 exactly the words that come to mind.

Much closer to home, Fort Vancouver was an incredible crossroads of commerce, religion, morality, and politics, as well as a clash between Indigenous cultures and European and American colonial aims. It鈥檚 a place where so many threads of Pacific Northwest history cross and tangle and get all twisted up; it鈥檚 about regional history, to be sure, but with international ramifications as far as where the international boundary would be set, and how far Great Britain and the United States would go to achieve their territorial goals.

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When the centennial for Fort Vancouver was celebrated in 1925, it was truly 鈥渃elebrated鈥� 鈥� not 鈥渙bserved鈥� or 鈥渃ommemorated鈥� the way we might say today. A hundred years ago, it was a festive occasion about what was considered an American triumph, with a commemorative coin and even a pageant called 鈥淭he Coming of the White Man.鈥�

It鈥檚 not 1925 anymore when it comes to Fort Vancouver, and it鈥檚 not the old days of pilgrim and Indian pageants when it comes to Thanksgiving. The way that many museums, college professors, and even cable TV channels depict history is much more sophisticated. The 鈥渂lack and white,鈥� or 鈥済ood guys versus bad guys鈥� approach is mostly gone, including for the upcoming Fort Vancouver bicentennial.

Meagan Huff is curator for the National Park Service at Fort Vancouver. 听She agrees that standards for history are just higher nowadays.

鈥淧eople are less tolerant of only getting that side or any one side of a story,鈥� Huff told 成人X站 Newsradio. 鈥淎nd I think that’s kind of fabulous. I think we shouldn’t be satisfied with just a simplified version of the story. We should always want to dig a little deeper and learn a little more.鈥�

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Huff says Fort Vancouver National Historic Site has been operated by the National Park Service since 1947. It鈥檚 east of I-5 just north of the Columbia River. The centerpiece is a re-construction of the 1820s wooden fort, which was built about 50 years ago.

March 19, 2025 will mark the actual bicentennial of the official dedication of Fort Vancouver 200 years ago.

In 1825, what鈥檚 now Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia was jointly occupied by the British and the Americans under a treaty signed in 1818. The big wooden fort was a foothold not just for the British-chartered fur company, but also for staking claim to possession of the territory. This was during a time when the British thought they would ultimately get sole control of the land north of the Columbia River 鈥� which is why the Hudson鈥檚 Bay Company moved operations from what鈥檚 now Astoria (on the south side of the river) to what they named Fort Vancouver (in honor of the British explorer) on the north side.

Meagan Huff says that many of the events in 2025 will be centered around the re-constructed fort structure 鈥� including lecture programs and new exhibits 鈥� but she clarified that the original fort in 1825 was actually built in a slightly different location.

鈥淭he original Fort Vancouver, the first Fort Vancouver, was actually built starting around this time of year in 1824 ,up on a bluff to the northeast of where you see the reconstruction today,鈥� Huff explained. 鈥淭hey originally built it up on that bluff because they thought the view was very majestic and this would be a good position or area for a fort.鈥�

That turned out to be a mistake, Huff says, because 鈥渋t was very difficult for them to bring in goods and supplies from the river.鈥� Thus, a new fort was built in 1829 on a camas prairie nearer to the Columbia where the reconstructed fort now stands.

When the boundary was settled by treaty at the 49^th parallel in 1846, Hudson鈥檚 Bay moved most of their operations to Victoria on Vancouver Island. However, Meagan Huff says the British stayed on at Fort Vancouver for more than a decade after 1846. Eventually, the U.S. Army moved in, and then the old fort burned down under mysterious circumstances in the 1860s.

Huff says that much of what鈥檚 known about Fort Vancouver comes from archaeological research done there on-site going back to 1947. The initial focus of excavations was on the big wooden fort because it was the easy-to-understand, giant artifact. That research helped do the reconstruction in the 1960s.

But, says National Park Service curator Meagan Huff, the archaeology evolved to look beyond the structure to take in the bigger picture of the entire community.

鈥淭he focus was on the Fort Vancouver village, which was an employee village located to the west of the fort, where most everyone lived in the 1830s and 40s,鈥� Huff said. 鈥淭his is where the working class lived, where women and families lived, so being able to locate where village houses were, being able to see the kinds of things that people threw away, the kinds of things that people used, was extremely helpful.鈥�

Information gleaned from those archaeological studies has been informing exhibits and programming at Fort Vancouver for decades, and will do the same for the 2025 bicentennial.

However, even though the way the history is told has evolved to encompass the larger and broader story of everyone in and around Fort Vancouver, it鈥檚 still important to understand the role of at least one of the larger-than-life characters there.

is the individual most associated with site selection for Fort Vancouver, and for overseeing Hudson鈥檚 Bay operations there for decades.

McLoughlin was French-Canadian. He was tall with long white hair, and some Indigenous people called him the 鈥淕reat White Eagle.鈥� McLoughlin was in charge of Fort Vancouver for the Hudson鈥檚 Bay Company, and in that role he met all the important Americans who shaped or who tried to shape Oregon Country history from the 1820s to the 1840s. Part of his likely unspoken job description was to be a physical presence to help the British assert claim to land north of the Columbia River. But he was also generous to Americans, too 鈥� for which he was sometimes criticized by other Hudson鈥檚 Bay officials.

It鈥檚 not that simple, of course, says Meagan Huff. For example, John McLoughlin鈥檚 treatment of Indigenous people was complex. He married a Native woman, and encouraged the Hudson鈥檚 Bay employees who worked for him to do the same.

However, says Huff, 鈥渢here were times in his time at Fort Vancouver where he was ordering attacks on Clatsop villages because he believed that they had done harm to a company ship.鈥�

鈥淪o there were times where, you know, looking back, we’re like, 鈥榤y goodness, that seems unjust and bad,鈥欌�� Huff continued. 鈥淏ut there were also ways in which he really saw indigenous leaders in the area as people to be esteemed and respected.鈥�

McLoughlin ultimately left Hudson鈥檚 Bay Company and settled in Oregon City, in what had become Oregon Territory, officially part of the United States. He鈥檚 been known for more than a century as the 鈥淔ather of Oregon.鈥�

Meagan Huff says observances will kick off officially in March 2025, and that more details will be coming in January. But she says there鈥檚 no need to wait for the bicentennial to officially begin to pay a visit.

鈥淲e certainly welcome the public to come to Fort Vancouver in the bicentennial year,鈥� Huff said, 鈥渂ut at any time beyond this as well, because the story will continue, and our understanding of it will continue to change and be shaped. And we’re always looking for new perspectives.鈥�

鈥淭hat’s kind of how I see my job,鈥� Huff continued. 鈥淒oing my research and then asking, 鈥楤ut what about that? But what about that?鈥� And trying to find more and more stories and bring those forward.鈥�

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle鈥檚 Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O鈥橞rien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks .

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