Fort Vancouver and the Origins of the Rural American West

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

While usually portrayed as a fur trading post, Fort Vancouver was established because of the agricultural potential of its surrounding prairie. The large company farm established there was modelled after English manorial farms combined with unique fur trade elements. Its products supplied the forts and posts of the Pacific Northwest and to Alaska and California. A village of 40 to 60 cottages housed the racially distinctive population, including Native Americans and Hawaiians, supporting this farm and other company endeavors. The Fort Vancouver farm and village and its landscape contrasted with independent American immigrant farms as the territory became increasingly Americanized. As one of the first rural communities in the colonial Pacific Northwest, the archaeology of Fort Vancouver demonstrates how this original community contrasts with the rise of the American community of Vancouver, providing a nuanced look at how racialization and nationalization changed the rural landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow