Category:Fort Walla Walla (1)

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Fort Walla Walla (1) (1818-1860) - Originally, this was Fort Nez Perces, one of the main stops on the Oregon Trail. It was a Northwest Co. fur post at the confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia Rivers until 1821 when it was aquired by the Hudson's Bay Co. It was once considered to be the strongest fort west of the Rockies. Its size was 100-feet square, with an outer wall 20-feet high, armed with four cannon and ten swivel guns. The British abandoned the wooden fort, and it later burned down.

In 1818, the NWCo made the decision to shift the center of trade from Spokane House to Fort Nez Perces, 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" (Nielsen: 1940 p.169). Several incidents between whites and Indians around this time, especially one with the Cowlitz, really impacted the western areas available for trapping. Everything near the coast focused on the Willamette. This made it all the more important that trade be established with the Shoshone…via the Snake River Brigades.

Ross with a group of nearly 100 men traveled from 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."

This area was also the site of a Wallula Indian campsite at which the Lewis and Clark Expedition stayed in 1806.

Location: The actual site is now under the waters of the Columbia River's McNary Dam.

Links:

• Trail Tribes

Publications: