In mid-November, 1812, John G. McTavish (ca. 1778-1847) of the North West Company brings news of the outbreak of War of 1812 to Spokane House (near present-day Spokane). This is the first knowledge of...
March 25, 1813, the ship Isaac Todd, owned by the North West Company of Montreal, departs Portsmouth en route to the Columbia River with supplies for the company's fur trading posts in the Northwest. ...
On June 1, 1813, near the mouth of the Palouse River, Astorian John Clarke (1781-1852) vows to hang a Palus Indian for stealing a goblet.
On October 16, 1813, facing an uncertain future due to the War of 1812, Pacific Fur Company agents, known as Astorians after company principal John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), meet at Fort Astoria and ag...
On November 15, 1813, North West Company partners Alexander Henry the Younger (d. 1814), Alexander Stewart (sometimes spelled Stuart) (ca. 1780-1840), and clerk James Keith (1782-1851) arrive at the m...
On November 30, 1813, in the midst of the War of 1812, HMS ship Racoon arrives on the Columbia River with orders from the British Admiralty to seize all American property on the river and along the co...
On December 13, 1813, in the midst of the War of 1812, Captain William Black of the Royal Navy takes possession of the Columbia River drainage for Great Britain and changes the name of Fort Astoria to...
On December 15, 1813, representatives of the North West Company of Montreal officially take possession of Fort Okanogan from the Pacific Fur Company of New York. Alexander Ross (1783-1856), a clerk em...
On December 31, 1813, in the midst of the War of 1812, the Royal Navy warship HMS Racoon departs the Columbia River after taking possession of the region for Great Britain. During a month anchored at ...
In 1818, the North West Company builds Fort Nez Perces (sometimes written "Fort Nez Perce") on the Columbia River at the mouth of the Walla Walla River. The North West Company competes with the Hudson...
On October 20, 1818, in order to improve relations in the wake of the War of 1812, Great Britain and the United States agree to peaceful coexistence in the Pacific Northwest by signing the Convention ...
Around 1824, the Walla Walla Frenchtown is established near the mouth of the Walla Walla River. The community is associated with the Hudson's Bay Company post first built by the French Canadian Northw...
On October 28, 1824, George Simpson (ca. 1787-1860), a Hudson's Bay Company official, arrives at the company's Spokane House fur-trading post (located not far from where the city of Spokane will later...
In 1825, Suquamish Chief Kitsap (d. 1860) defeats a force of Cowichan raiders on Dungeness Spit. The Cowichans as well as other tribes of Vancouver Island and the Northwest Coast routinely attack Nati...
On March 19, 1825, the Hudson's Bay Company opens Fort Vancouver on a bluff above the north bank of the Columbia River where the city of Vancouver, Clark County, is now located. For the next 20 years,...
On April 20, 1825, David Douglas (1799-1834) arrives at Fort Vancouver, the Hudson's Bay Company's new Columbia River headquarters, in the company of chief factor Dr. John McLoughlin (1784-1857). The ...
In early August 1825, the Hudson's Bay Company begins constructing Fort Colvile as a trading post. Fort Colvile is located at the upper end of the two-mile portage around Kettle Falls on the Columbia ...
On September 3, 1825, exploring naturalist David Douglas (1799-1834) sets out from an Upper Chinookan village at the Cascades of the Columbia River to climb the mountain ridges above the Cascades in p...
On April 7, 1826, Spokane House, which was built in 1810 by the North West Company of Montreal, is officially closed. The first trade house constructed in what will later become the state of Washingto...
In May 1826, Scottish botanist David Douglas (1799-1834) is guided south through the Colville Valley by two sons of retired fur trader Jacques Raphael "Jaco" Finlay (1768-1828), the founder of Spokane...
In May 1828, Jacques Raphael ("Jaco") Finlay (1768-1828), dies at Spokane House, which he established in 1810, at the confluence of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers, as the first fur-trading post...
In the spring of 1833, the Hudson's Bay Company begins work on Fort Nisqually. The HBC crew uses cedar to build houses, a store, and protective walls. They also farm the surrounding lands planting veg...
On June 29, 1833, an earthquake shakes the Puget Sound region. William Tolmie (1812-1886), the young Hudson's Bay Company doctor recently left temporarily in charge of Fort Ni...
Sometime in January 1834, three young Japanese sailors run aground on the Olympic Peninsula in a disabled ship. They are inadvertent travelers, blown off course by a storm, then carried by ocean curre...