Fort Vancouver – Blacksmith Shop
2012.09.29
My next stop was the Blacksmith Shop. It had enough forge stations for four blacksmiths, plus workbenches and vises for filing and other cold work.
While one re-enactor was working at the anvil, the other was pumping the large bellows to keep the fire going on his side, and telling us a few stories about the supply chain.
The York Factory Express
Each spring, a brigade of forty to seventy-five men would set out from Fort Vancouver in a few small boats dubbed bateaux (merely the French word for “boats”), made from split or sawn cedar. They would sail up the Columbia (portaging around the rapids and falls), stopping at Fort Nez Percés (near present-day Wallula, Washington), Fort Okanogan (now under Lake Pateros near Brewster, Washington), and Fort Colvile (now under Roosevelt Lake near Colville, Washington), finally reaching Boat Encampment (now under Kinbasket Lake in British Columbia).
From there they would cross the Athabasca Pass over the Canadian Rockies to a trading post called Jasper House. Then they would navigate the Athabasca River to Fort Assiniboine, in present-day Alberta.
From Fort Assiniboine, they would travel overland to Fort Edmonton; later the Alberta Legislature Building would be constructed on the site in Edmonton, Alberta.
Once again by boat, they would traverse the North Saskatchewan River and Saskatchewan River, then Lake Winnipeg to Norway House on the north shore of the lake (in present-day Manitoba).
After stopping at Norway House, they went down the nearby Nelson River, then the Echimamish River. A brief portage of approximately thirty feet set them in the Hayes River, which they would then take to York Factory on Hudson Bay.
This arduous journey of almost 2,600 miles took three or four months, and was called the York Factory Express, as it was the quickest way to transport mail and departmental reports, as well as furs and supplies. The return trip was called the Columbia Express or Autumn Express.
The brigade would always submit the annual list of requested supplies. They could pack some items for their return journey, but most of the bulk cargo went by ship. York Factory had regular connections to London, and the list would be carried across the Atlantic. There, almost everything imaginable poured in from all corners of the global British Empire.
The Sea Route
Supply ships left England, sailed across the Atlantic and down around the tip of South America, the treacherous Cape Horn. Once around the Horn, they would head for Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands (named for John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich… yes, he allegedly invented the sandwich). Often picking up native Hawaiian laborers to work in the Columbia District, the ships then continued on to Fort Vancouver. After the supplies were unloaded, the ships would be filled with furs and other goods. In the later years, as European fashions shifted from fur to silk, they would then sail to China to exchange furs for Oriental goods, before returning to London or Liverpool.
Plan Ahead
Early each spring, the Chief Factor and other employees at Fort Vancouver had to determine what they were likely to need for the next year, before the York Factory Express began their trek. By the time the supply ship finally arrived, they were almost preparing to send the brigade out again. If a supply need was discovered after the brigade left, nearly two years would pass before the items would be in hand.
F.V. Bakehouse