Last updated: September 8, 2020
Place
The Fur Store
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Amenities
1 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
At Fort Vancouver, employees stored animal skins in fur stores. Contrary to the modern meaning of the term "store," nothing was sold out of these buildings. Instead, fur stores were more like warehouses where skins were processed and kept for shipment to market in London. By 1844, at the height of Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) operations in the Columbia River basin, Fort Vancouver had two fur stores, with additional room for storage at the Indian Trade Shop. Both buildings were big - two stories tall, nearly 100 feet long, with high hipped roofs. In fact, these were some of the largest buildings in the area at the time, and for good reason: in 1844, they needed to be able to hold over 60,000 furs!
The job of storing furs involved more than just tossing them into the warehouse. Each skin had to be cleaned, dried, and packed in a tight bundle with other skins to ensure that no insects or moisture got into the precious cargo. The process of packing began at Fort Vancouver's secondary forts - Fort Walla Walla, Fort Boise, and Fort Hall, to name a few - located strategically up the Columbia River and its tributaries. As trappers trickled into these forts near the end of the winter trapping season, employees sorted through their bounty of furs, cleaned them of debris, and hung them out to dry. In the case of sturdier skins like beaver and bear, they would speed up this part by beating the furs like rugs. However, some skins, like marten and fox, were too delicate to be treated so roughly. After being cleaned and dried, they were grouped into packs of "mixed skins," each containing an assortment of furs to prevent the possibility of losing all the more valuable skins at once if the pack were damaged or lost. The packer then folded and arranged the skins carefully before using a press to squeeze them into a bundle measuring less than two feet by two feet, and about one foot deep. These bundles usually weighed about 80 or 90 pounds and contained a stamp and slip of paper to indicate their contents and where they came from. To protect the fur bundles from the elements, they were wrapped in bearskin or deerskin and bound with cord made from buffalo or deer hides.
In the spring, these packs were loaded onto boats and sent down the Columbia to Fort Vancouver. When they arrived, employees unpacked the bundles, checked them for damage, and repeated the process of cleaning and drying the skins, making sure to keep shipments separate from one another; this was how HBC officials in London kept tabs on productivity in each region of the Columbia Department.
In Fort Vancouver's Fur Store, the skins were piled in heaps or hung from the rafters. The building itself had few windows so it stayed cool and dark inside. To prevent moisture from collecting, the HBC designed the stores to be well-ventilated. When the skins were ready for shipment, usually in late summer, they were bundled into larger packs weighing upwards of 200 pounds, loaded onto ships, and sent out on their long journey halfway across the globe to England.
The fur stores were an important part of the HBC's success in North America. They were essential to keeping the Company's valuable goods in good condition during the Pacific Northwest's damp winters and hot summers. But when the Columbia Department's headquarters moved north to Fort Victoria in 1845, the Fur Stores at Fort Vancouver were the first buildings to fall by the wayside. By 1847, they were hardly used. Two years later, they were rented out to the United States military for storage, signaling not only the decline of HBC operations at Fort Vancouver but also the decline of the fur trade altogether.
The job of storing furs involved more than just tossing them into the warehouse. Each skin had to be cleaned, dried, and packed in a tight bundle with other skins to ensure that no insects or moisture got into the precious cargo. The process of packing began at Fort Vancouver's secondary forts - Fort Walla Walla, Fort Boise, and Fort Hall, to name a few - located strategically up the Columbia River and its tributaries. As trappers trickled into these forts near the end of the winter trapping season, employees sorted through their bounty of furs, cleaned them of debris, and hung them out to dry. In the case of sturdier skins like beaver and bear, they would speed up this part by beating the furs like rugs. However, some skins, like marten and fox, were too delicate to be treated so roughly. After being cleaned and dried, they were grouped into packs of "mixed skins," each containing an assortment of furs to prevent the possibility of losing all the more valuable skins at once if the pack were damaged or lost. The packer then folded and arranged the skins carefully before using a press to squeeze them into a bundle measuring less than two feet by two feet, and about one foot deep. These bundles usually weighed about 80 or 90 pounds and contained a stamp and slip of paper to indicate their contents and where they came from. To protect the fur bundles from the elements, they were wrapped in bearskin or deerskin and bound with cord made from buffalo or deer hides.
In the spring, these packs were loaded onto boats and sent down the Columbia to Fort Vancouver. When they arrived, employees unpacked the bundles, checked them for damage, and repeated the process of cleaning and drying the skins, making sure to keep shipments separate from one another; this was how HBC officials in London kept tabs on productivity in each region of the Columbia Department.
In Fort Vancouver's Fur Store, the skins were piled in heaps or hung from the rafters. The building itself had few windows so it stayed cool and dark inside. To prevent moisture from collecting, the HBC designed the stores to be well-ventilated. When the skins were ready for shipment, usually in late summer, they were bundled into larger packs weighing upwards of 200 pounds, loaded onto ships, and sent out on their long journey halfway across the globe to England.
The fur stores were an important part of the HBC's success in North America. They were essential to keeping the Company's valuable goods in good condition during the Pacific Northwest's damp winters and hot summers. But when the Columbia Department's headquarters moved north to Fort Victoria in 1845, the Fur Stores at Fort Vancouver were the first buildings to fall by the wayside. By 1847, they were hardly used. Two years later, they were rented out to the United States military for storage, signaling not only the decline of HBC operations at Fort Vancouver but also the decline of the fur trade altogether.