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Fort Vancouver to re-create 1840s Christmas

Re-enactors to offer carols, dances, music, stories

By Tom Vogt, Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter
Published: December 11, 2014, 12:00am
2 Photos
Doug Wilson, right, archaeologist at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, greets visitors at the 2012 Fort Vancouver Christmas.
Doug Wilson, right, archaeologist at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, greets visitors at the 2012 Fort Vancouver Christmas. This year's event is Saturday. Photo Gallery

What: Christmas at Fort Vancouver.

When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, 1001 E. Fifth St., Vancouver.

Cost: $3; 15 and younger are free.

Information: http://go.usa.gov/HwTx

The sights and sounds of an 1840s Christmas will be re-created Saturday at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

Costumed re-enactors will offer carols, music, dances and stories from the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur-trading era. There is even a costume in the inventory that looks a bit like a life-size toy soldier from “The Nutcracker.” It isn’t just a nod to the holiday season: it represents one of the British military men who would have been at Fort Vancouver back then.

“That is the uniform of a Royal Marine who would have accompanied HMS Modeste, which was stationed at Fort Vancouver in 1844 and 1845,” re-enactor Doug Wilson said.

Wilson, a National Park Service archaeologist, wore that red jacket and black shako hat a couple of years ago to welcome people to the event.

What: Christmas at Fort Vancouver.

When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, 1001 E. Fifth St., Vancouver.

Cost: $3; 15 and younger are free.

Information: http://go.usa.gov/HwTx

Inside the replica stockade, visitors can join in the singing and dancing, and participate in games of the 1840s.

There will be several ongoing handcraft activities from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. so families can make and take home their own holiday keepsakes, including wooden toy tops, wreaths, and potpourri ornaments.

There will be demonstrations in the kitchen and blacksmith shop from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., as well as demonstrations of black powder weapons at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

“Christmas at Fort Vancouver gives visitors an opportunity to see how the employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company celebrated the festive time around Christmas and New Year’s Day,” Greg Shine, chief ranger and historian, said.

“After months of hard work, it was one of the few times a year when all the employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company were off from work and able to celebrate together,” Shine said.

Visitors are welcome to take holiday photographs with costumed re-enactors.

Admission into the reconstructed stockade is $3 per adult; children 15 years and younger are free. The fort is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the winter.

There is no admission charge to Pearson Air Museum, 1115 E. Fifth St., just east of the stockade. New exhibits include a 1929 biplane built by Travel Air, a company founded by aviation pioneers Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman.

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Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter