Fort Cowlitz

rdf:langString Fort Cowlitz

rdf:langString Fort Cowlitz or Cowlitz Farm was an agricultural operation by the British Puget Sound Agricultural Company (PSAC), a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). It was located on the Cowlitz plains, adjacent to the west bank of the Cowlitz River and several miles northeast of modern Toledo, Washington. The farm was begun during spring of 1839, and its produce soon supplied HBC posts in New Caledonia and Columbia Departments. In the RAC-HBC Agreement, the Russian-American Company received at Novo-Arkhangelsk grain and dairy products from the PSAC along with manufactured goods. Fort Cowlitz produced most of the Company wheat quotas, and its fellow PSAC station Fort Nisqually tended most of the sheep and cattle flocks. By the expiration of the agreement in 1850, Cowlitz Farm wasn't able to meet Russian supply demands. Cowlitz Farm was established during the joint occupation of Oregon Country between the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The border between British North America and the United States was negotiated in 1846, to extend through Oregon Country mostly on the 49th parallel north. Administrative orders were sent from the center of the HBC Columbia Department, located at Fort Vancouver and later Fort Victoria. Agricultural areas established by Fort Cowlitz were increasingly claimed by arriving American immigrants in the 1840s, beginning contentious legal battles. A settlement with the United States for the sale of PSAC property occurred on 10 September 1869, the company to be paid $200,000 in gold coins (equivalent to $4,070,000 in 2021}).