On August 16, 1811, Alexander Ross, a trader and explorer with Astor's Pacific Fur Company goes up the Columbia River and arrives at the mouth of Yakima River. There he encounters a number of Indians ...
On August 18, 1811, members of the Pacific Fur Company, known as the Astorians, name Priest Rapids on the Columbia River in honor of a tribal leader they meet there. Priest Rapids is located north of ...
On August 31, 1811, members of the Pacific Fur Company, known as the Astorians, reach the junction of the Okanogan and Columbia rivers, where they build Fort Okanogan, the first American trading post ...
In early September, 1811, Canadian explorer David Thompson (1770-1857) travels from Kettle Falls to Boat Encampment on the Columbia River, where he completes the first scientific survey of the entire ...
In 1812, the Pacific Fur Company of John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), a New York merchant active in the fur trade with China, establishes a trading post called Fort Spokane near the current site of the ci...
In early January, 1812, Pacific Fur Company partners Donald Mackenzie (1783-1851) and Robert McClellan (1770-1815) descend the Snake River to the Columbia in present-day Washington state. Mackenzie an...
On January 19, 1812, Pacific Fur Company partner Wilson Price Hunt (1783-1842) reaches the Columbia River near the mouth of the Umatilla and travels downstream on a tribal trail along the north side o...
On April 22, 1812, David Thompson (1770-1857), Canadian explorer, geographer, and fur trader, departs Kettle Falls and canoes upstream on the Columbia River, bound for eastern Canada. Thompson, a part...
On May 9, 1812, the ship Beaver, commissioned by John Jacob Astor, reaches the Columbia River, bringing supplies and reinforcements for the Pacific Fur Company, whose charter members had established a...
On June 18, 1812, the U.S. Congress votes to declare war on Great Britain, and President James Madison (1751-1836) signs a Proclamation of War. New York entrepreneur John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) reali...
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. ...