Founding
The fort was founded in March 1811 when officers and employees of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, controlled by Americans, arrived via Captain Jonathan Thorn's ship,Tonquin. By the end of May, they had completed a fort, built with bark-covered logs enclosing a stockade, with guns mounted for defense. In 1811 the Tonquin carried 12 Native Hawaiian laborers from the islands, including Naukane (also known as John Coxe). In 1812 it transported another 26 laborers to Astoria from Hawaii. By the time an overland party joined them in February 1812, they had constructed a trading store, a blacksmith's shop, a house, and a storage shed for pelts acquired from trapping or trading with the local Native Americans. The traders arranged cannons around the perimeter for defense. The post was to serve as an administrative center for various satellite forts such as Fort Okanogan.
In 1811 British explorer David Thompson navigated the entire length of the Columbia River. He reached the partially constructed Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia, two months after the Pacific Fur Company's ship Tonquin.
Two of the notable founders were Alexander MacKay, who had previously been with the North West Company, and Alexander Ross. Both men were Scottish emigrants to Canada. Mackay died in the 1812 battle with natives that destroyed the Tonquin near Vancouver Island. In 1813 Ross joined the North West Company after they acquired Fort Astoria.
Read more about this topic: Fort Astoria
Famous quotes containing the word founding:
“... there is no way of measuring the damage to a society when a whole texture of humanity is kept from realizing its own power, when the woman architect who might have reinvented our cities sits barely literate in a semilegal sweatshop on the Texas- Mexican border, when women who should be founding colleges must work their entire lives as domestics ...”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
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—John Updike (b. 1932)
“The responsible business men of this country put their shoulders to the wheel. It is in response to this universal demand that we are founding today, All-American Airways.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)