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Fort Vancouver gets a palisade upgrade

Pickets among wooden pieces being replaced after as many as 50 years

By Tom Vogt, Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter
Published: May 12, 2016, 7:08pm
2 Photos
Matt Gembala helps get a replacement timber called a waler in place as Ausland Group workers renovate a section of the log palisade at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
Matt Gembala helps get a replacement timber called a waler in place as Ausland Group workers renovate a section of the log palisade at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

It’s not your grandmother’s picket fence.

The pickets are 18 feet long and the fence they form is the palisade that surrounds Fort Vancouver.

Two hundred or so of the palisade’s wooden components — including walers and king posts — are being replaced this spring after standing guard for up to 50 years.

The project, which started early in March, is part of the preventive maintenance program at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, said facility manager Alex Patterson.

It’s about 80 percent complete and should be wrapped up in mid-June, Patterson said. That will be in plenty of time for the Fourth of July festivities that bring thousands of people to the National Park Service site.

One high-profile location will be renovated during the week of May 23; that’s when the fort’s front gates will be replaced. When that area is cordoned off, a section of pickets will be removed to create a temporary entrance about 40 feet west of the gates.

The project started with an examination of every single wood member in what many people call the fort’s stockade, including 2,461 pickets. Walers are the two timbers that run horizontally; king posts are much stouter vertical logs that were installed every 26 feet.

The wood is treated periodically to preserve it, but decay still occurs. Researchers from the Oregon State University Department of Forestry drilled a hole in each picket and inserted a gauge that indicated how deep the wood was solid and where the interior had started to decay. That gave them a reading on how soon the log should be replaced.

“The worst decay was on the west wall; next was the east wall,” Patterson said. “The north and south walls are in pretty good shape. They get solar exposure that dries things out.”

None of the components were in immediate danger, Patterson added.

“If we’d waited for 10 years, we’d probably see some failure. We’ll keep monitoring it on an annual basis.”

The pickets are buried 4 feet deep, resulting in a wall that’s 14 feet high. The construction materials are appropriate for the historical setting.

The walers and pickets are pinned together with 1-inch dowels made from red oak.

“There are no metal fasteners, other than what is in the gates,” Patterson said.

The project cost about $500,000. The next maintenance project people can look for will be the reroofing of the fort’s bakehouse this summer.

Did You Know?

The north wall of Fort Vancouver’s palisade was built in 1966 using Douglas fir; the other three sides were built in 1971 using lodgepole pine.

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Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter