“In the Garden of Eden: the founding of Astoria, April 1811.” On April 22, Duncan McDougall wrote in his daily log: “People employed at different work, the carpenter & his Gang working constantly at squaring & hewing the frame of the store…” Watercolour painting courtesy Mark Meyers.
Establishment of Astoria
The Tonquin Arrives
After a two week stay in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), where food and water were obtained and native Hawaiians were recruited, the Tonquin arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River on March 22, 1811. In early April, she anchored off the south side of the estuary to unload the men, who began building Fort Astoria. Duncan McDougall, a native of Scotland who had joined the North West Company (NWC) as a clerk in 1801, assumed command. William Price Hunt later took over this command.
PFC Goes Inland
The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) expanded its operations with the construction of several satellite posts upriver at Okanagan (at the junction of the Okanogan and Columbia Rivers), at Spokane and at Kamloops (in what is now British Columbia).
Astor’s partner David Stuart left Astoria with three canoes and only eight men, including two Hawaiians, and after establishing Fort Oakinacken (Okanagan), followed an Aboriginal trail north through the Okanagan Valley to the Thompson River and She-Whaps (Kamloops).
Native Americans
Native Americans had lived along this trade route for many hundreds of years. Cooperation with them was integral to the success of the fur trading companies. At Astoria, the Chinook people dominated the trade with the PFC. To ensure a peaceful relationship, Duncan McDougall married Chief Concomly’s daughter. Upstream, along the Columbia River, lived the Sahaptin-speaking peoples, the gatekeepers of the portage around the cascades — rapids that the traders had to circumvent. Still farther upstream lived the Syilx (Okanagan) people. Ross described them as “steady, sincere, shrewd and brave.” At She-whaps, or Thompson River Post, the Secwepemc (Shuswap) people held sway. In 1812, both the PFC and the NWC traded extensively with the local native population.
“Smoking Star.” The Great Comet of 1811 was seen in the daytime sky as the Astorians travelled up the Okanogan in September. Oil painting courtesy Don Nutt.
