Flagpole in place at Fort Vancouver, ready for flag

They had to look underground to find the flagpole.

More accurately, that’s how National Park Service researchers found where the 19th-century flagpole once stood.

Now, after a crane moved it into place Thursday morning, an 80-foot staff is ready to fly the flag once again on the Parade Ground at Vancouver Barracks. It’s the same spot, overlooking the Columbia River, where the Stars and Stripes marked America’s presence in the Northwest 165 years ago.

“There was a message being sent. It made clear whose land this was,” Fort Vancouver Superintendant Tracy Fortmann said, referring to the arrival of the U.S. Army.

A parade ground flagpole traditionally has been the heart of an Army post, Fortmann said. “It’s been a missing feature at this site.”

That feature was delivered earlier this week. The three segments of the aluminum flagpole were laid out Tuesday on the historic Parade Ground, just across the street from the Grant House. Workers spent a couple of days getting it ready for Thursday’s installation.

It will be dedicated Monday as part of the Memorial Day observance at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, and then a huge American flag will be raised. Measuring 20 feet by 38 feet, it’s called a garrison flag, and it’s flown on ceremonial occasions. A 10-by-19-foot flag will be flown on a day-to-day basis, and an even smaller flag will be available for high-wind conditions.

Re-establishing the flagpole has been a two-year project, including identifying the original location, National Park Service archaeologist Doug Wilson said.

After arriving in 1849, the Army spent a couple of years on high-priority construction — including the landmark now known as the Grant House — before putting up a towering flagpole in 1851. It was tall enough to be seen by ships coming up the river. (Some historians say it was 150 feet tall, while others scale it down to 120 feet or so.)

“We looked at historic maps from the 1850s through the 1880s,” and one constant was the Grant House, Wilson said. The flagpole was due south of its front door.

Using the Grant House as a starting point, they could measure out to the spot where maps indicated the flagpole once stood.

“There also were clues in the ground,” including visible signs of a former road that led to the flagpole.

“We did magnetometry to measure ground disturbances and found anomalies in that location,” Wilson said. “You can measure ground that’s been disturbed; it’s different than stable ground.”

Magnetic surveying also indicated the presence of metal objects. Excavators found them about nine feet below the surface.

“There were 2-foot-long bolts, going through wooden members,” said Alex Patterson, Fort Vancouver’s facility manager. They were part of the flagpole’s below-ground stabilizing system.

The new flagpole will be buried 8 feet deep, in a concrete base that is 5 feet in diameter. Electrical wiring was installed inside the pole; the flag will be illuminated from the top and will be flown 24 hours a day.

The original garrison flag flew from that spot from 1851 to 1879, said Bob Cromwell, Fort Vancouver’s chief of interpretation. Then the flag was moved a couple of times.

“In 1879, the Army built a new Department of the Columbia headquarters on the east side of the Parade Ground, and moved the flagpole there. In the early 20th century, the flagpole was on the extreme west end, across Fort Vancouver Way from the O.O. Howard House,” Cromwell said.

This phase of the flagpole project cost about $17,000. It is a public-private partnership, Fortmann said, and includes support from the Fort Vancouver Lions, the Vancouver Metro Sunset Rotary, Community Military Appreciation Committee, Friends of Fort Vancouver and the city of Vancouver.