First, while the Native population declined in the area, the American settler population was growing. The decision to build a bastion at Fort Vancouver came in 1845 for two reasons. Since the bastion was meant to be used for defense, the HBC managers at Fort Vancouver saw no reason to build one for many years. However, horrific epidemics in the 1830s, a consequence of the increased HBC presence in the area, had catastrophic effects on these local villages, greatly reducing their populations. Unlike at some other HBC posts in the Pacific Northwest, local Indigenous peoples near Fort Vancouver were interested in trading with the HBC, and in finding economic benefits for their villages or tribes through these new arrivals. It is possible that the fort had bastions in the early 1830s, but records from 1834 show that these were either torn down or had never existed.
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They typically had open slits or windows through which guns and cannons could be aimed at attacking enemies.įort Vancouver was a unique HBC post because it had no bastion for almost twenty years. The bastion was a common feature of HBC posts throughout North America.
From the top, Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) employees could keep watch over the Columbia River valley and its gently rolling hills. In the northwest corner of Fort Vancouver's protective palisade wall, a three-story tower called a bastion or blockhouse rose above the surrounding plain.
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