Fort Cowlitz or Cowlitz Farm was an agricultural operation by the British Puget Sound Agricultural Company (PSAC), a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). It was located on the Cowlitz plains, adjacent to the west bank of the Cowlitz River and several miles northeast of modern Toledo, Washington.[1] The farm was begun during spring of 1839, and its produce soon supplied HBC posts in New Caledonia and Columbia Departments. In the RAC-HBC Agreement, the Russian-American Company received at Novo-Arkhangelsk grain and dairy products from the PSAC along with manufactured goods. Fort Cowlitz produced most of the Company wheat quotas, and its fellow PSAC station Fort Nisqually tended most of the sheep and cattle flocks. By the expiration of the agreement in 1850, Cowlitz Farm wasn't able to meet Russian supply demands.[2]
Cowlitz Farm was established during the joint occupation of Oregon Country between the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The border between British North America and the United States was negotiated in 1846, to extend through Oregon Country mostly on the 49th parallel north. Administrative orders were sent from the center of the HBC Columbia Department, located at Fort Vancouver and later Fort Victoria. Agricultural areas established by Fort Cowlitz were increasingly claimed by arriving American immigrants in the 1840s, beginning contentious legal battles. A settlement with the United States for the sale of PSAC property occurred on 10 September 1869, the company to be paid $200,000 in gold coins (equivalent to $4,580,000 in 2023}).[3]
^Roberts, Robert B. Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer and Trading Posts of the United States. New York City: Macmillan Publishing Co. 1988, p. 831.
^Cite error: The named reference Vaughan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Gray, Mary A. Settlement of the Claims in Washington of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company. Washington Historical Quarterly 21, No. 2 (1930), pp. 95–102
FortCowlitz or Cowlitz Farm was an agricultural operation by the British Puget Sound Agricultural Company (PSAC), a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company...
term Cowlitz people covers two culturally and linguistically distinct indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest; the Lower Cowlitz or Cowlitz proper...
raised at Fort Nisqually. Agricultural products were sown and grown in abundance at FortCowlitz and exported with foodstuffs produced at Fort Vancouver...
The fertile plains near the Cowlitz River were selected as a suitable location for Cowlitz Farm, the principal PSAC farm. Fort Nisqually was also assigned...
primary company operations were centered at Fort Nisqually and Cowlitz Farm in modern Washington state. At Fort Nisqually (near present-day Olympia, Washington)...
arriving at Fort Vancouver, fourteen of them were relocated to Fort Nisqually, while the remaining seven families were sent to FortCowlitz. Despite this...
the Hawaiian Islands. The Cowlitz Portage overland route connected Fort Langley to Fort Vancouver with a mid-way stop at Fort Nisqually on Puget Sound...
the Cowlitz, Lewis, Washougal, White Salmon, and Klickitat rivers. Cowlitz Klickitat or Lewis River Klickitat Band, erroneously called Upper Cowlitz or...
Fort Astoria (also named Fort George) was the primary fur trading post of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company (PFC). A maritime contingent of PFC staff...
Agricultural Company to settle on Fort Nisqually and Cowlitz Farm within modern Washington state. Captain John Palliser stayed in Fort Edmonton for a time in 1858...
Company to meet these provisions, HBC stations such as Forts Vancouver, Langley, Nisqually and Cowlitz were critical for manufacturing the produce required...
the city of Woodland and the independent Yale Valley Library District in Cowlitz County. With fifteen library service locations, two bookmobiles, district...
Fort Hall was a fort in the Western United States that was built in 1834 as a fur trading post by Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth. It was located on the Snake River...
the Columbia River to the south, and Fort Langley was built in 1827 on the Fraser River to the north. The Cowlitz Portage, an overland and shortcut route...
coastal tribes such as the Cowlitz were moved to a site on the Chehalis River; the Chinook people were moved inland to Fort Vancouver. All these remained...
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