Pacific Fur Company

The Pacific Fur Company was founded June 23, 1810, in New York City. Half of the stock of the company was held by the American Fur Company, owned exclusively by John Jacob Astor, and Astor provided all of the capital for the enterprise. The other half of the stock was ascribed to working partners or kept in reserve. In 1811, the company established a trading post at present-day Astoria, Oregon. Astor's grand plan included a permanent American settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River, and a trade ring that included New York, the old Oregon Country, Russian Alaska, Hawaii and China. Indian trade goods would be loaded at New York; produce, provisions (and some Hawaiians) would be taken on at the Hawaiian Islands for the Northwest Coast; furs and pelts would be acquired from the Columbia and Russian Alaska; Canton, China was the best market for furs in those years, and they would be exchanged for porcelain, silk and other cloth, spices, etc., which would then be transported, via Hawaii, back to New York. Two initial expeditions were sent to the Columbia River, one by sea and the other by land.

The sea expedition was transported by the ship "Tonquin", under the command of Jonathan Thorn, an impatient and hard man. The "Tonquin" left New York on September 81810, and arrived at the Columbia River April 121811 to establish the first American-owned (if Canadian-staffed) outpost on the Pacific Coast, Fort Astoria (present-day Astoria, Oregon) which was near the Lewis and Clark 1805-1806 winter camp of Fort Clatsop at the mouth of the Columbia River. On the way to the Columbia the "Tonquin" stopped at Hawaii and picked up a number of Native Hawaiian laborers (called kanakas), including Naukane.

The "Tonquin" then sailed up the coast to trade where she was boarded by the Tla-o-qui-aht people of Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island, where 61 men were killed and the ship subsequently exploded by a surviving crew member.

The Overland Expedition of the Pacific Fur Company, often called the Astor Expedition or the Hunt Party, was led by Wilson Price Hunt. The party ascended the Missouri River as far as the Arikara Villages near present-day Mobridge, South Dakota, then west overland. They found hard times on the Snake River in southern Idaho, where they lost some goods and most of their food, and were forced to cache the rest of their trade goods and divided into fractions to make their way to the Columbia. Most members of the party reached Fort Astoria in January and February 1812.

After a number of set-backs, the Pacific Fur Company failed when the supply ship Beaver was late to arrive at Fort Astoria as anticipated. In addition the loss of the "Tonquin" left the post vulnerable. At risk of being captured by the British during the War of 1812, Fort Astoria and all other Pacific Fur Company assets in the Oregon Country were sold to the Montreal-based North West Company in October 1813.

In March, 1814 the North West Company's supply ship "Isaac Todd" arrived, along with a British warship with orders to destroy any American settlements. But then Fort Astoria was British and its employees under the protection of the North West Company. The "Isaac Todd" dropped off much needed supplies and offered some personnel, many of whom were former employees of the North West Company, comfortable passage back to Montreal and England. Alexander Henry and Donald McTavish, two veteran North West Company employees who had joined the Pacific Fur Company, drowned when their boat capsized in the Columbia River on the way to the "Isaac Todd". [cite book |last= Nisbet |first= Jack |title= Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America |year= 1994 |publisher= Sasquatch Books |isbn= 1-57061-522-5 |pages= p. 247]

References