Columbia District - Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company

The North West Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. Operations west of the Rocky Mountains were reorganized and the fur districts of New Caledonia and Columbia were merged in 1827 under the name Columbia Department. The name New Caledonia continued to be used for the old northern district, and in time came to be used for areas such as the Fraser Canyon and the Lower Mainland.

In 1824 the Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Vancouver on the lower Columbia River to serve as the headquarters of the entire Columbia Department, which was previously the role of Fort Astoria (renamed Fort George).

The Hudson's Bay Company York Factory Express, overland route to Fort Vancouver, evolved from an earlier express brigade used by the North West Company between Fort Astoria (renamed Fort George) to Fort William on Lake Superior. By 1825 there were usually two brigades, each setting out in spring from opposite ends of the route, Fort Vancouver, and York Factory on Hudson Bay, and passing each other in the middle of the continent. Each brigade consisted of about forty to seventy five men and two to five specially made boats and traveled at breakneck speed (for the time). Indians along the way were often paid in trade goods to help them portage around falls and unnavigable rapids. A 1839 report cites the travel time as three months and ten days—almost 26 miles (40 km) per day on average. This established a 'quick' (about 100 days for 2600 miles (4200 km)) way to resupply their forts and fur trading centers as well as transmitting messages between Fort Vancouver and York Factory on Hudson Bay.

The supplies were brought into Fort Vancouver and York Factory by ship every year (they tried to maintain one years extra supplies to avoid disastrous ship wrecks etc.). The furs they had traded were shipped back on the supply ships with the furs from Fort Vancouver often being shipped to China where they were traded for Chinese goods before returning to England. The furs from York factory being sold in London in an annual fur sale. The brigades carried supplies in and furs out by boat, horseback and as back packs for the forts and trading posts along the route. They also carried status reports for supplies needed, furs traded etc. from Dr. John McLoughlin, Chief Factor of the Columbia District HBC operations, and the other fort managers along the route. This continued until 1846.

Between the acquisition of the North West Company in 1821 and the Oregon Treaty of 1846, the HBC greatly expanded the operations of the Columbia Department. The fur trade was extended to essentially every major river from the Yukon River in the north to the mouth of the Colorado River in the south, and east to the headwaters of the Missouri River tributaries. American fur trade competition was effectively blocked through various strategies, including selectively overhunting frontier regions to create "fur deserts", and the construction of forts on the Pacific Northwest coast to intercept furs before American ships could acquire them.

The HBC also diversified their economic activity and began exporting agricultural foodstuffs, salmon, lumber, and other products. Russian Alaska, Hawaii, and Mexican California were developed as markets for these exports. The HBC opened agencies in Sitka, Honolulu, and Yerba Buena (San Francisco) to facilitate the trade.

Fort Vancouver was the nexus for the fur trade on the Pacific Coast; its influence reached from the Rocky Mountains to the Hawaiian Islands, and from Alaska into Mexican-controlled California. At its pinnacle, Fort Vancouver watched over 34 outposts, 24 ports, six ships, and 600 employees. Also, for many settlers the fort became the last stop on the Oregon Trail as they could get supplies before starting their homestead.

By 1843 the Hudson's Bay Company operated numerous posts in the Columbia Department, including Fort Vancouver, Fort George (Astoria), Fort Nisqually, Fort Umpqua, Fort Langley, Fort Colville, Fort Okanogan, Fort Kamloops, Fort Alexandria, Flathead Post, Kootanae House, Fort Boise, Fort Hall, Fort Simpson, Fort Taku, Fort McLoughlin (in Milbanke Sound), Fort Stikine, as well as a number of others.

Increasing numbers of American settlers arriving on the Oregon Trail gave rise to the Oregon boundary dispute. With the signing of the Oregon Treaty in 1846 the U.S.-British boundary was fixed on the 49th parallel. This effectively destroyed the geographical logic of the HBC's Columbia Department, since the lower Columbia River was the core and lifeline of the system. The U.S. soon organized its portion as the Oregon Territory. The administrative headquarters of fur operations, and of the Columbia Department, then shifted to Fort Victoria, which had been founded by James Douglas in 1843 as a fall back position in preparation for the "worst case" scenario settlement of the dispute, in the face of manifest destiny.

By 1846, the Columbia District proper had been more than halved and the name had fallen into relative disuse, until revived when the new Mainland Colony needed a name. The uncharted territory of the remainder of the Columbia District, including the remainder of the British coast north of Puget Sound, as far north as at least Queen Charlotte Strait (Fort Simpson and Fort McLoughlin were administered from Fort St. James, the capital of New Caledonia. After 1846 New Caledonia informally referred to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush region in 1848 and farther north the Cariboo Gold Rush area during the 1860s. As also had included Fort Langley since as early as 1827.

With the creation of the Crown Colony on the British mainland north of the then-Washington Territory in 1858, Queen Victoria chose to use Columbia District as the basis for the name Colony of British Columbia, i.e. the remaining British portion of the former Columbia District.

In their British Columbia Chronicle, historians Helen B. Akrigg and G.P.V. Akrigg coined the term "Southern Columbia" for the "lost" area south of the 49th Parallel, but this has never come into common use, even by other historians.