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Fort Vancouver Blacksmith Shop [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-24
Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour cleverly hidden at the intersection of religion, art, science, food, and politics. This is an open thread where we can share our thoughts and comments about the day. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was given a royal charter by the British Crown in 1670 which provided it with a trading monopoly over a vast domain in Canada. By the nineteenth Century, HBC had extended its empire into the Pacific Northwest. In 1825, HBC established Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River as the administrative center and principal supply depot of the Columbia Department, an area of about 700,000 square miles. Fort Vancouver has been part of the National Park System since 1948.
The blacksmith shop was an important part of the HBC posts. The blacksmiths not only repaired broken equipment, they also manufactured many items important to life at the post—nails, hinges, hangers, etc.—but also made items for trade such as axe heads, adzes, traps, and so on. The blacksmith shop at Fort Vancouver today has volunteer blacksmiths who demonstrate how to make some of these historic items.
Shown above are some of the iron objects produced by the blacksmiths.
More items produced by the blacksmiths.
More items produced by the blacksmiths.
More items produced by the blacksmiths.
More items produced by the blacksmiths.
Traps, such as the one shown above, were vital to the fur business and were made in the Fort Vancouver blacksmith shop.
Shown above are some of the tools used by the blacksmith.
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