Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

Construction details

The flagstaff erected on December 21, 1844, is shown in several pictures of Fort Vancouver drawn during the next few years. None of these views is large enough in scale to provide all the details one could desire, but at least they all agree on one point: the flagstaff was a single pole without any visible bracing at the base (see plates IX, XII, XVIII, XXII). As has been seen, Thomas Lowe recorded that the pole was "103 ft. in length." These words seem to indicate that this was the total length of the staff before erection; thus the above-ground height would have been somewhat less due to the base being buried in the soil.

The original pencil sketch of Fort Vancouver made in late 1845 or early 1846 by Lieutenant Henry J. Warre appears to show a round ball at the top of the flagstaff. [7] This same feature very definitely is indicated in the lithograph of the same scene published by Warre in 1848 (plate IX). [8] However, Warre's water color sketch, which evidently was sent to the engraver as a basis for the lithograph, shows no such ball atop the staff (see plate X).

The Coode water color view of the fort, which must have been painted between June, 1846 and May, 1847, perhaps gives the best representation of the flagstaff. This picture seems to show a fairly large device or decoration on the top of the pole. As nearly as can be made out, this object most resembles a modern wind gauge, but the small scale of the drawing permits no definite conclusion on this score (see plates XI and XII). No other known picture showing the pole adds any significant information. It should be noted, however, that it was fairly common practice at the larger Hudson's Bay Company posts to place a weather vane at the summit of the flagstaff. [9]