Fort Vancouver

We took another school field trip last month to visit Fort Vancouver in our neighboring state of Washington. It was a beautiful day so we just couldn't stay inside!


We learned about The Hudson's Bay Company, a British fur trading company, that came to the Pacific Northwest over 300 years ago, in search of animal furs. We learned about the beaver and how it was trapped, skinned and its fur brought back to the fort and then shipped to Europe.


The girls were such good little students. They were given Junior Ranger/Northwest Explorer booklets when we arrived at the fort and had to look for answers to certain questions, filling out the pages as we went from place to place. They learned about the 200+ people that lived and worked at the fort with their families and the different jobs that each one had to do. There were the trappers who caught the animals in the wilderness and brought back the furs, the Chinook Native Americans that helped the company bring in the furs and animals, which they then used to trade with in the Indian Trade Shop located inside the fort. There were the many laborers who farmed, cut wood and packed furs for shipping, the blacksmiths who made tools and other things from medal, the bakers who made sea bisquits and bread, carpenters who made furniture, doors and other things from wood, and most importantly there was the chief factor, Dr. John Mcloughlin, who was in charge of the entire fort and kept things running smoothly. Since Dr. John Mcloughlin also played an important role in establishing the town that we live in, Oregon City, I wanted the girls to know how he originally came to the area and what his job was before he settled in Oregon City.








The boys were "students" in their own sort of way I suppose. They are very tactile in their learning style and had to touch, climb, pull, push and stick their head into every place possible. That is learning too. now isn't it? LOL! Notice how my son tries to figure out just how this cannon works. Does the big heavy ball go in here mom?



They also had fun investigating "the privy."

Thank God is was not one that is actually there for use!

This was the boys' favorite part of the fort. They called it "the castle." I think they liked it because it had lots more of these inside...

They made a friend while checking out the carpenter shop. He showed them all the neato tools and what they did. Boy things ya know.

Here is the bell that rang to keep the fort running on schedule. It woke everyone up in the morning, rang at meal times and at the end of the working day. I guess you could say it was their "clock."

All in all it was a fun place to visit. We learned a lot, got a little dirty and enjoyed the sunshine. Just what you are supposed to do on a school field trip!