History

"... the English government, by its Canadian Northwest Fur Company, and the arrival of the British sloop of war, "Raccoon", during the war of 1812-13, took possession of Oregon, and held it as British territory till it was formally restored to the United States on the 6th of October, 1818, in these words: --

"... in conformity to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, restore to the government of the United States, through its agent, J. P. Provost, Esq., the settlement of Fort George, on the Columbia River.

"According to the description sent to Washington by Mr. Provost, it consisted of a stockade made of fir-logs, twenty feet high above the ground, inclosing a parallelogram of one hundred and fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, extending in its greatest le3ngth from northwest to southeast, and defended by bastions, or towers, at two opposite angles.  Within this inclosure were all the buildings of the establishment, such as dwelling-houses, magazines, storehouses, mechanics' shops, etc.

"The number of persons attached to the place besides the few native women and children, was sixty-five; of whom twenty-three were white, twenty-six Kanakas, and the remainder of mixed blood from Canada."

Source:  A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 by William Henry Gray

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