The message to Mervin Vavasour and Henry Warre in 1845 might have gone like this:
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to determine whether Hudson’s Bay forts in Oregon Territory might be overrun by Americans.”
Their secret mission brought the undercover British army officers to Fort Vancouver, where its future as a British bastion was very much in question.
The United States and Great Britain were engaged in a tug of war over the Pacific Northwest. Under a joint occupation treaty, it was a destination for American settlers and the hub of a British trading operation.
An observer noted that British subjects “had great difficulty in protecting their lands and possessions from the desperate characters, chiefly the refuse of the Western States.”
If You Go
What: Campfires & Candlelight living history event.
Where: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, 1001 E. Fifth St.
When: 4-10 p.m., Saturday (gates open at 5 p.m.)
Admission: Free.
Lights out: With the candlelight theme, visitors are asked not to use smartphone flashlight apps.
That dispute is the theme of Saturday’s Campfires & Candlelight living-history event at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. It was inspired by the journal of Thomas Lowe, a Hudson’s Bay Company clerk, assistant curator Meagan Huff said.
Lowe’s entry for Aug. 26, 1845, described the arrival of Vavasour and Warre “on a pleasure trip, although they are also furnished with instruments for making geographical surveys.”
An online link provided by Huff tells how they were told to “proceed as private gentlemen” traveling “for the pleasure of field sports and scientific pursuits.”
Vavasour’s expense account shows his undercover wardrobe ranged from buckskin trousers to a frock coat and beaver hat (and a bottle of rose extract).
“Very few people were aware of why they were here,” Huff said. Even John McLoughlin, the chief factor at Fort Vancouver, “didn’t know the true nature of their mission.”
It was an undercover trip to determine British capabilities for waging war in the Pacific Northwest.
They were told that their report would “guide the prosecution of military operations, should (they) become necessary.”
Lowe, the Fort Vancouver clerk, feared the worst. With both Sir Robert Peel and American President James K. Polk taking hard lines, “we are likely to have troublesome times of it,” he wrote on Sept. 8, 1845.
It never came to that; a treaty in 1846 established what now is the border between the U.S. and Canada.
So how did Warre and Vavasour assess Fort Vancouver as a military base?
Poorly.
“Fort Vancouver is a central position and would afford temporary accommodation for troops, but the present site of the fort is ill chosen for defense, nor does it command any particular or important point.”
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
