Fort Nisqually
Museum on the site of the first European settlement on Puget Sound, a fort established in 1833 as Hudson’s Bay Company fur trading post
Site Details
Pin location is approximate.
5519 Five Mile Dr
Tacoma, WA 98407
Family Friendly?
Yes
Visitors Per Year
90,000
The Visitors’ Center has a small museum with informative signs and a few exhibits. These help visitors understand the importance of the fur trade in the mid-19th century. The central attraction is the reproduction of what Fort Nisqually looked like in 1855. The Factor’s House and Granary are original buildings, but the rest of the fort and buildings were reconstructed later (mostly by the Works Progress Administration in 1934) at a location 15 miles from the original site.
- Within the walls of the fort are period buildings, including a kitchen, wash house, root cellar, smokehouse, granary, and the Chief Factor’s House. Most buildings are open to the public and contain period furniture and artifacts. Visitors come away with a good understanding of what life was like for Puget Sound settlers in the 1850s.
- Fort Nisqually is a “Living History Museum.” Reenactors in period dress are available to discuss what life in the fort was like in the 19th century.
- The fort has a “Kids’ Station” with period games that children can play.
- The fort periodically hosts events at which participants can learn skills such as making butter, bread, and cider, as residents would have done in the mid-19th century.
The Visitors’ Center and Fort Nisqually are accurate and fair, as were the displays in the various buildings. Reenactors are knowledgeable, but their accounts of life at the fort may be less comprehensive than those conveyed through signs and exhibits.
There is no apparent ideological bias at the site.
A family with children could easily spend an hour touring the fort, and there is plenty of space for children to run around. Fort Nisqually is located in Point Defiance Park, which contains excellent hiking trails, an aquarium, and a zoo.
The Hudson’s Bay Company was granted a charter by King Charles II in 1670. Initially active in what is today eastern Canada, the company played a central role in British expansion across Canada—including into what is today Oregon and Washington. Primarily involved in the fur trade, the company regularly set up forts to serve as trading posts as it moved west.
The Hudson’s Bay Company started construction of Fort Nisqually in 1833. It was an important trading post for fur from the area, but by the 1840s it was also a major producer of livestock and crops for local consumption and export to Russian Alaska, the Kingdom of Hawaii, and California. It served as an outpost of the Hudson’s Bay Company until 1869, when the company sold the land to the United States government.
The fort was located in what is today Du Pont, Washington. In 1934, two buildings from the original site, the Factor’s House and the Granary, were moved to their present site in Tacoma, Washington. The Works Progress Administration built a replica of what the fort looked like in 1855. Additional buildings have been reconstructed since then.
Owned By: Metro Parks Tacoma
Operated By: Metro Parks Tacoma
Government Funded: Yes
Did you know?
The granary at Fort Nisqually, built in 1843, is the oldest building in Washington state.
Recommended Reading
- The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire by Stephen R. Brown
- Frontier Forts and Posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company by Kenneth E. Perry
Reviewed By
Mark David Hall
Professor at Regent University’s Robertson School of Government
The opinions expressed above are those of the Reviewer who is providing a good-faith historical assessment to educate the public. Reasonable opinions can vary, and the Reviewer’s opinion is not necessarily the opinion of The Heritage Foundation or its affiliates.