Fort Vancouver attendance broke record in 2016

Fort Vancouver contributed to the all-time high in National Park Service visitors in 2016 with its own record-setting attendance of 1,019,239.

It was the second year attendance at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site surpassed 1 million; it first topped that milestone in 2009 with 1,017,326 visitors.

Fort Vancouver drew a fifth of its 2016 visitors in one month, when the annual Independence Day festivities contributed to a July attendance of 216,226. (That is the first time Fort Vancouver has drawn 200,000-plus visitors in one month.)

Unlike many destination parks, it doesn’t cost anything to enter Fort Vancouver National Historical Site; admission fees are only charged to enter the reconstructed fur-trade fort that represents this community’s Hudson’s Bay Company roots. Statistics through October show about 104,000 visitors to the fort in the first 10 months of 2016.

Entry fees aren’t charged at the visitor center, which was renovated for the National Park Service centennial; it drew about 146,000 people through October; Pearson Air Museum, which also is free, had about 29,000 visitors.

Fort Vancouver uses pedestrian counters along paths to tally people walking through the site. That includes the Vancouver Land Bridge; it has become a popular walking route, adding to the visitor totals.

Fort Vancouver also gave hundreds of local families free access to national parks. It issued 360 passes to fourth-graders through the national Every Kid in a Park initiative.

The passes gave the children and their families free access to public lands.