Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 15.djvu/22



14 JUDGE WILLIAM C. BROWN

sloping range of high rocky hills at the foot of which the two rivers meet. On the south bank of the Oakinacken, half a mile from its mouth, was the site pitched upon for the new establishment."

It is clear from this that the Stuart party camped in the evening of August 31st, 1811, on the banks of the Okanogan river just about where Mary Garden's ranch is now located, and that the site of the post which they located next day was almost exactly where Long Jim's stables and corrals are now situated. To be absolutely definite, it was in the extreme north- west corner of lot 2, section 17, Township 30 north Range 25 East. The Stuart party built but one building when they founded the establishment, but others were added from time to time during the five years that the post was maintained on that site by the Pacific Fur Company and their successors, the Northwesters. In the summer of 1816 a new fort was built by the latter something over a mile away this latter post is the one that lasted for so many years and is the one usually referred to when "Ft. Okanogan" is mentioned. Several large and distinct depressions still exist on the site of the original Astor post, plainly showing where the old cellars were, and many fragments of masonry are scattered about, but none of it in place. This was the first actual permanent settlement and occupancy under the American flag in what is now the State of Washington. At the centennial celebration held in com- memoration of that event in 1911 a flag pole was erected on the site of the old ruins.

But to return to the doings of the Stuart party. As soon as they got their building well started, Pillette and M'Lennon with two of the men were dispatched back to Astoria in one of the canoes, and as soon as they had the building complete, Mr. Stuart, with Montigny and the two remaining men (one of which was Michel Boullard) came up the Okanogan river, traveling with pack and saddle horses. These were the first white men that ever traveled through the Okanogan valley. They continued on far to the north, passed along by Okanogan Lake and proceeded over the height of land on to the Thomp-