Tagged Articles:
Clark County History

Standing in Esther Short Park isn't the first, but possibly the second, fire engine purchased by the Vancouver City Council. Wooden buildings in the frontier days of the city often caught fire. In Vancouver, the same downtown block burned to the ground twice, once in 1861 and again in 1866. After the second, Vancouver's residents started a volunteer fire department, and the city council bought a fire engine.

Clark County history: Downtown Vancouver burns

April 30, 2023, 6:02am Clark County Life

Much of downtown Vancouver burned to the ground on Aug. 23, 1866, just nine years after the city was incorporated. The fire ate through a crowded block of 12 wooden buildings between Main and Washington and bounded on the east and west by Third and Fourth streets. It broke out… Read story

In 1838, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, John McLaughlin, welcomed two Catholic missionary priests to the Northwest. A century later, the "Flotilla of Faith" historical pageant reenacted their arrival using 200 actors. Two Seattle priests were cast as the first Catholic missionaries, Fathers Francis Blanchet (center) and Modeste Demers (right). Bishop Augustin Magloire Alexandre Blanchet is on the left.

Clark County History: ‘Flotilla of Faith’

April 23, 2023, 6:00am Clark County Life

In May 1939, performers from Seattle and Vancouver presented the grandest Catholic festival ever staged in the Pacific Northwest. It celebrated the anniversary of the arrival of two priests, Fathers Francis Blanchet (1795-1883) and Modeste Demers (1809-1871), at Fort Vancouver in 1838. Read story

This Week in Clark County History

April 21, 2023, 6:00am Clark County Life

100 years ago Read story

Lt. Alexander Pearson Jr. won high accolades for his 1919 record flight across the country. In 1925, Lt. Oakley Kelly petitioned the War Department to name Vancouver Barracks' old polo grounds Pearson Field. The secretary of war approved it. Unfortunately, the pilot lacked any personal links to Clark County.

Clark County History: Flying ace Alexander Pearson Jr.

April 16, 2023, 6:00am Clark County Life

Any local connection to the namesake of Pearson Field has always been more rumor than fact. The flying ace Alexander Pearson Jr. (1885-1924) reputedly attended Vancouver High School. But quite possibly, he never set foot in that school or trod the ground in Vancouver or the airfield. Read story

This Week in Clark County History

April 14, 2023, 5:03am Clark County Life

A weekly look back compiled by the Clark County Historical Museum from The Columbian archives available at columbian.newspapers.com or at the museum. Read story

Clark County history: Poet Laurence Pratt

Reed graduate and poet Laurence Pratt (1888-1996) worked in the Camas Crown Willamette mill, later writing a book of sonnets about people in the mill and Camas. Here, he appears to have examined a piece of writing and is the only one in the photo sour about it.

Few now recall the poet Laurence Pratt who spent most of his life in and around Portland and Southwest Washington. A prolific writer, Pratt penned numerous poetry books and three partly autobiographical prose volumes about his experiences growing up and living in the area. He often contributed to the Oregonian’s… Read story

Clark County history: Salvation fish

One small fish provided Native peoples with both nutrition and light. The eulachon, also known as smelt or candlefish, often provided hungry Indigenous tribes with food until spring. Meriwether Lewis was the first to document this life-sized smelt on this page of his journal. Throughout the 1800s, the Columbia River had immense spawning runs of millions.

Writing with a quill pen, Meriwether Lewis entered in his journal on Feb. 24, 1806, that a Clatsop chief came to trade. The chief also brought some small fish that were running in the Columbia River tributaries. Lewis sketched the fish life-sized in his journal and made entries surrounding it.… Read story

Fort Vancouver reenactors tell it like it was in 1933

From left to right: Volunteers Rory Jensen, Dexter Abernathy and Alex Sample reenact the conditions experienced by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps at the Vancouver Barracks during a CCC 90th anniversary event Saturday at Fort Vancouver.

The Fort Vancouver Visitor Center Annex Building was transformed Saturday into a reenactment of the barracks in 1933 that housed enrollees of the Civilian Conservation Corps in celebration of the organization’s 90th anniversary. Read story

Tagged Articles:Clark County History

Tagged Articles:
Clark County History