Fort William (Oregon)
| Fort William | |
|---|---|
| Fur Trade Outpost | |
| Constructed: | 1834 |
| Built for: | Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth |
| Location: | Sauvie Island, Oregon |
| Continent: | North America |
| Later Ownership: | Hudson's Bay Company |
| Abandoned: | unknown |
Fort William was a fur trading outpost built in 1834 by the American Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth, a Boston merchant, backed by American investors. It was located on the Columbia River on Wappatoo Island near the future Portland, Oregon. After a few years, in 1837 Wyeth sold the post to the British Hudson’s Bay Company, which had much more power in the region from its base at Fort Vancouver on the north side of the Columbia River near Fort William.
In 1835 the fort settlement was the site of a murder and the first Euro-American trial to be held in what is now the state of Oregon.
The fort was built by Wyeth and his company as part of the Pacific Trading Company, a joint-stock company formed by Wyeth to exploit the fur trade in the Oregon Country. Henry Hall of Boston's xx He also held Fort Hall in southeastern Idaho, to take advantage of trade in the Rocky Mountain region. His intention was to establish a fishery at Fort William, and export salmon to the East and Hawaii. The island chosen was previously visited by the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and was previously inhabited by Native Americans. By the time Wyeth established his outpost, the island was void of any human habitation due to epidemics of infectious diseases that had swept through the lower Columbia region. As the Natives did not have any immunity to the new Eurasian diseases, nearly 90% of them died from smallpox, measles and other illnesses following European contact.
Wappatoo Island, now Sauvie Island, lies just north of the main confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. The north end of the island is at the confluence with the Multnomah Channel. The post was built on the north end of the island, but was moved the next year toward the center of the island due to seasonal flooding. Fort William was west of and on the opposite side of the river from the Hudson’s Bay Company’s (HBC) Fort Vancouver, established in 1824 on the north side of the Columbia. It was about 90 miles (140 km) upriver from the mouth of the Columbia and the HBC post of Fort George (formerly Fort Astoria).
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