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| {{Stub}}
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| [[Category:Washington Forts]]
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| [[Category:Undeveloped]]
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| [[Category:Private Property]]
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| [[Category:Hudson's Bay Company Forts]]
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| [[Category:Northwest Company Forts]]
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| '''Fort Walla Walla (1) (1818-1860)''' - Originally, this was [[:Category:Fort Nez Perce|Fort Nez Perce]], one of the main stops on the Oregon Trail. This area was also the site of a Wallula Indian campsite at which the Lewis and Clark Expedition stayed in 1806.
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| In 1818, the Northwest Company made the decision to shift the center of trade from Spokane House to Fort Nez Perce, and appointed [[Alexander Ross]] to take charge of this new center. It was a natural center of the immense fur-bearing region drained by the Snake River flowing in from the southeast. Several incidents between whites and Indians around this time, especially one with the Cowlitz, really impacted the western areas available for trapping.
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| Ross with a group of nearly 100 men traveled from [[:Category:Fort George|Fort George]] and arrived on the Walla Walla on July 11th, without incident. "On that day McKenzie, myself, and ninety-five effective men encamped on the site pitched upon for new establishment of Fort Nez Perces, about half a mile from the mouth of the little river Walla Walla."
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| The new fort was 100-feet square, with an outer wall 20-feet high, armed with four cannon and ten swivel guns. Donald McKenzie supervised the erection of a pallisade of planks, 20 feet high and six inches thick. Bastions at each corner housed cannon and 200 gallons of water apiece in the event of seige. The establishment was dubbed The Gibraltar of the Columbia and was considered to be the strongest fort west of the Rockies. Alexander Ross was the first factor for the post.
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| Fort Walla Walla remained a Northwest Company fur post until 1821 when the Hudson's Bay Company acquired the North West Company, in 1831 HBC rebuilt Fort Nez Perce. In 1841, the fort burned down and was rebuilt out of adobe brick. The post was abandoned during the Indian War of 1855-56. The site became the town of Wallula.
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| '''Location:''' The actual site is now under the waters of Lake Wallula behind the Columbia River's McNary Dam. A historical marker is located beside U.S. Hwy 12, 1 mile north of the crossing of the Walla Walla, 15 miles south of Pasco.
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| '''Links:'''
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| * [http://www.trailtribes.org/umatilla/establishment-of-fort-nez-perces.htm Trail Tribes]
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| * [http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=F6A8332B-99C4-6A9D-DB54C6E7817A2698 The Oregon History Project]
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| * [http://www.washingtonwars.net/Guide.htm Washington Wars]
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| '''Publications:'''
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| *Bennet, Robert A. ''Walla Walla, Portrait of a Western Town: 1804-1899'' (Walla Walla: Pioneer Press Books, 1980), 13-17
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| *Stern, Theodore. ''Chiefs & Chief Traders: Indian Relations at Fort Nez Percés, 1818-1855'', Vol. 1. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1993.
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