Fort Tongass

Historian Hubert Howe Bancroft notes: "the site was well chosen, containing a plentiful supply of timber and pasture, while fish and game abound in the neighbourhood.

Despite the army's withdrawal, a Customs Inspector remained in residence, though having difficulty in controlling trade between the various Tlingit tribes and the Hudson's Bay Company post at Fort Simpson, which was just 15 miles south.

[1] The name of the Tongass people in the Tlingit language is "Taantʼa Ḵwáan" (Sea Lion Tribe), today mostly reside in Ketchikan.

The Tongass people pressed suit for damages, to the tune of $20,000, and were supported by a grand jury in Alaska which indicted twelve of the Seattle party for theft of government property (as the village was attached to Fort Tongass, then revived as a minor military base during the Klondike Gold Rush and associated boundary dispute).

A new, replica, pole was commissioned and was created by carvers at Saxman, Alaska and shipped south on SS Tanana, and was erected at the same location on July 25, 1940, and stands at Pioneer Square to this day.