Local Settlements Once Bowed to a British Queen

Part of Lakewood's history dates back to the first official American government known as Fort Steilacoom, which is now on Western State Hospital property. But what few people don't know is those soldiers were on rented land leased from another country.

The British held the land. It would later become Washington state.

Pioneer life during that time will be celebrated at the DuPont Historical Society’s annual Hudson Bay Day. This free event is set for 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the historic Fort Nisqually site on Center Drive. Children can experience an archeology dig while adults can watch historical demonstrations, view an antique gun display and talk to experts on life as it was 150 years ago. Barbeque lunches will be available for purchase.

Other activities during the event include a Volksmarch around historic sites that include an early 1800s cemetery, the original Fort Nisqually site that dates back to 1833 and the Wilkes Observatory, where explorer Charles Wilkes constructed an outpost while exploring Puget Sound.

British explorer George Vancouver explored and named Puget Sound during his 1792 trip around the Pacific. This discovery put the Pacific Northwest under the British flag. The secret mission of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s Corps of Discovery a decade later, therefore, was meant to map land that was held by another country.

They were essentially spies.

At stake was a land of rich natural resources. England knew this and established Fort Nisqually in present-day DuPont in 1833 to gain the lucrative beaver pelts found in the area. The fort was run by the Hudson’s Bay Co., which raised cattle in the prairie lands that is now Fort Lewis and Lakewood. As pioneers moved into the area, they leased farmland from Fort Nisqually.

It was only natural that when America wanted its slice of the Pacific Northwest, it too would lease farmland from the Hudson’s Bay Co. for its military fort. The U.S. military leased a former farm to establish Fort Steilacoom in 1849. The price was $40 a month.

Fort Steilacoom was a small fort, but it opened the floodgates for American settlers to come into the area. It was a lease that England’s Queen Victoria would likely wish was never signed because it meant the end for her rule over Puget Sound.

The 1846 treaty between the United States and Great Britain established the boundary between the two country's claims at the 49th parallel. This treaty left Fort Nisqually on American soil. But it wasn’t until 1869 that the whole deal was settled with a $650,000 payment for all British assets in America.

Fort Steilacoom is now Western State Hospital and a museum complex. Fort Nisqually is now a museum in Tacoma, after it was moved to Point Defiance to put people to work during the Great Depression. Lakewood is now a major city in the area with several British names to its streets, courtesy of its British heritage.