1843 Fort Nisqually: The Fort that was Never a Fort

In 2016 the Oregon California Trail Association held their Fall meeting in the City of Dupont, Washington. The group took a tour of The Archaeological Conservancy’s Fort Nisqually with noted local author and historian Drew Crooks as their guide. Original black locust trees planted in the early 1850s near the Factors House shaded the group as they explored the property.

Learning the History of the 1843 Fort Nisqually, with scholar Drew Crooks. Photo Credit: Carol Estep, DuPont Historical Society.

Fort Nisqually was the first European settlement on Puget Sound. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) of London, a vast fur trading enterprise chartered by King Charles of England in 1670, established it in 1833. The original site was on the beach and plains above the Nisqually River delta in the present town of DuPont, Washington. Scottish gentlemen, Native Americans, Kanakas (Hawaiians), French-Canadians, West Indians, Englishmen and American settlers operated this trading center. Gradually, Fort Nisqually grew from a remote outpost to a major international trading establishment. The Puget Sound Agricultural Company, a subsidiary of Fort Nisqually, was formed to establish new sources of revenue for the HBC. Crops and livestock became important commodities for local consumption and export to Russian America, Hawaii, Spanish California, Europe, and Asia. Native Americans were welcomed at Fort Nisqually as friends, customers, fur traders, farm and livestock employees, and as spouses.

Fort Nisqually never had a military purpose, but the palisade does resemble those found at some frontier army stockades. The location was occasionally visited by American and British military personnel until the 1846 treaty between the United States and Great Britain. This act established the boundary between the two country’s claims at the 49th parallel, which left Fort Nisqually on American soil. As time passed, fur trade profits declined and the fort faced increasing competition from American settlers and mounting harassment from American revenue agents and tax collectors. Fort Nisqually was closed in 1869.

(Source: History of Fort Nisqually website)

Viewing the Site Today 1843 Fort Nisqually, with scholar Drew Crooks. Photo Credit: Carol Estep, DuPont Historical Society.

Although the fort’s first two location have no visible remains on the surface, but are still protected archaeological sites. Today there is also a park and living history museum of Fort Nisqually at Point Defiance Park, with two of the original buildings preserved. The museum open to the general public and has tons of activities and events for the whole family.

“Fort Nisqually is a living history museum where volunteers and staff, in period clothing, demonstrate the crafts of the 19th century and engage visitors in historic dialogue. Discover what life was like in the 1850s at Fort Nisqually, the region’s premier living history museum. This Hudson’s Bay Company trading post was the first non-Native settlement on Puget Sound. Explore the award winning restoration of the fort’s National Historic Landmark buildings, try your hand at 19th century games, and discover what life was like before electricity!”

(Source: Fort Nisqually Living History Museum website)