The Carpenter Shop (right) sits behind the Counting House inside the walls of Fort Vancouver. The fort was the West Coast headquarters for the Hudson's Bay Company in the 19th Century. (Photo by Matthew Ginn © 2010)

For last Monday, the last full day of my parents’ visit, we decided to check out Fort Vancouver, the original Hudson’s Bay trading post in Vancouver, Wash. I had been to the National Historic Reserve several times, but somehow never seen the fort itself. Needless to say, we were quite impressed by it.

The Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver as the headquarters for their West Coast operations in 1825. Although it was called a fort and surrounded by walls, the outpost was never intended to be a military position.

What is now Oregon and Washington became U.S. territory in 1846, but HBC continued to operate the trading post until 1860. Fort Vancouver and its surrounding facilities became a U.S. Army post, and they razed most of the structures in 1866.

The Fort was declared a National Monument in 1948, and later became a National Historic Site. Several of the original buildings have since been rebuilt in the same positions, and are available for tourists to visit.