Fort Nisqually

Today it is a living history museum located in Tacoma, Washington, USA, within the boundaries of Point Defiance Park.

Built in 1843, the granary is the oldest building in Washington state and one of the only surviving examples of a Hudson's Bay Company "post-and-plank" structure.

[1] The Hudson's Bay Company expanded to the west coast by forming the Columbia District to oversee its operations in what was known by American interests as the Oregon Country.

After the attack and murder of Alexander McKenzie and four men in his party on this route (in revenge for which the HBC leveled an unrelated S'Klallam village, killing twenty-seven people [3]),[4] it was determined a fort located at a halfway point was needed for safety and security reasons.

The new midway location was at Nisqually, chosen for its excellent ship anchorage, its convenience for overland travel, the friendliness of local tribes and its prairies for grazing animals and growing crops.

[5] One year later, in May 1833, Chief Trader Archibald McDonald returned with William Fraser Tolmie and seven men to begin the construction of a permanent fort.

Relations with neighboring Indigenous people began to deepen, the officers of the post meeting with Chief Gray Head of the Steilacooms in 1833.

Over the time Fort Nisqually functioned as a trading post, about 5,000 beaver, 3,000 muskrat, 2,000 raccoon and 1,500 river otter furs were collected.

Fort Nisqually and Cowlitz Farm were attached to the new venture, though it remained staffed and managed by HBC personnel.

The station was removed in 1843 to be closer to Edmonds Marsh and Sequalitchew Creek, putting it in proximity of a water source and timber.

His tenure covered the transition from British to American control beginning in 1846 as result of the Oregon Treaty and the Puget Sound War.

Inside is a house for the superintendent, a store for trading in furs and several small buildings for the lodging of servitors and voyageurs.

The restoration was part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal program, which provided jobs to a nation stricken by the Great Depression.

Huggins, originally a Londoner, eventually became an American citizen and homesteaded the land and buildings after it was abandoned by the HBC.