Tuna
Wednesday 13 March 2024
An easy day was planned with a visit to Fort Vancouver, which was a 5 mins drive from home. The weather was pleasant and the sun actually shone for a significant portion of the day.
First stop was the Fort Vancouver Visitor’s Centre. We’ve worked out that they are actually very useful, provide a good map, have really nice people to talk to and often a short movie that will give the history and background of the site we are seeing. All ticks today!
They recommended we also visit Grant House built in the late 1800s, which was just across the road, named after General Ulysses S. Grant although he never lived there. This is where General George Marshall lived for a period of time. Who is that I hear you ask. That is exactly what I asked the Albatross, as he was slightly frothing at the beak about General Marshall. The Marshall Plan was named after this bloke, who as Secretary of State at the time. The Marshall Plan provide a massive economic commitment by the US to help rebuild post-WWII Europe. The house is lovely, the ‘tour guide’ was also lovely but she talked at us for an hour about the house, and we were only allowed to walk through four of the rooms downstairs. Eventually we were able to flee.
We fled down the hill to Fort Vancouver. It was only half a mile but we drove, as you do. Fort Vancouver was established and built on the Columbia River in the early 1800s by the British Hudson’s Bay Company for the fur trade. In 1846 the Americans and British decided on a border along the 49th parallel which is now the Canada/US border. This put Fort Vancouver on US soil and they peacefully handed it over. The army kept an eye on it for a number of years until fire burned it all down. Apparently, the fire started in about 12 different spots simultaneously and all of the army personnel watched it go up in flames. There was also a 10-year period of where 98% of all indigenous people died that had contact with Fort Vancouver that they believed it was mainly malaria. They started the rebuilding of Fort Vancouver in the 1970s. It was lovely to wander around in the sunshine. After being captured for an hour at Grant house, we were wary of any building with guides in it. There were few visitors around, so the guides were very happy to have an extensive chat with the other people. We only went into one building (the Officer’s kitchen) where we were the only guests. Fortunately, they were just serving up their lunch, so we could excuse ourselves easily. Walking into other buildings, such as the Trading Station, there were other people in there and the man behind the counter was in full swing. We left quietly after a few minutes to leave them to their fate.
Next stop just to the east was the Pearson Air Museum and airfield. The airfield is the oldest and continuously working airfield in Washington State, oldest in the Pacific Northwest and one of two oldest continuously operating airfields in the US. The focus of the museum was the history of flight from the Vancouver/Pearson airfield point of view from experimental with what machines will actually stary in the air, through to an airmail service and involvement in the world wars. There was a great short movie about this history. We initially declined but the old bloke in there looked devastated. As the Albatross’ feet were aching by this point, he suggested a sit down to watch the film. The old chap was much happier. There were lots of early enthusiasts that were part of the experimental stage of learning what will actually fly. Unfortunately, most of them died in ‘plane’ accidents before they were 30.
Time had got away from us a little bit, so headed home for a late lunch and to talk about what we are going to do next when we leave Vancouver, WA. Do we head north to Seattle or inland and see some more mountains?