- Hours: Open daily, closed Thanksgiving, December 24-25, January 1
- Reservations: Not Required
- Cost: Admission Fee, or use your National Parks Pass
- Location: Visitor center at the park entrance on Evergreen Blvd. just west of E. Reserve Street, driving directions below
- How Long: Allow
- Best Time to Visit: Any time, but try to visit during their candlelight tours if you can
Fort Vancouver Review
At first sight, Fort Vancouver looks like the typical Western fort, built with high, log walls to protect its inhabitants from attackers, and staffed by the United States Army. However, this fort is different. Built in 1829 as headquarters and main supply depot for the Hudson Bay Company's fur trading operations, this outpost became the center of political, cultural, and commercial activities in the Pacific Northwest under the leadership of John McLoughlin.Fort Vancouver existed primarily to support the fur trade. Here, Native Americans brought furs, baskets, moccasins and boat paddles and exchanged them for trade goods brought in from London: beads, clothing, blankets, muskets and tobacco.
Fort Vancouver was abandoned shortly after the United States and Great Britain fixed the international boundary between Canada and the United States further north, leaving the British-owned fort in United States territory.
Today, park rangers lead visitors on daily tours of a reconstructed version of the fort, which burned to the ground in the 1860s, describing the life of the fur trappers, local natives and Hudson's Bay Company employees. Areas open to the public include the fur-processing room, the Indian trade store and the director's house. Once a year in September, Fort Vancouver hosts candlelight tours, when re-enactors carry out the daily life of the Fort Vancouver residents.
Getting to Fort Vancouver National Historic Reserve
Fort Vancouver National Historic Reserve612 E. Reserve Street
Vancouver, WA
(360) 696-7655 ext 10
Fort Vancouver website
From I-5, take the Mill Plain Boulevard exit and turn left on Fort Vancouver Way. You can find detailed driving directions from I-5 or I-204 at the Fort Vancouver website.
