Note 247 — NARRATIVE OF A YEAR'S RESIDENCE AMONG THE INDIAN TRIBES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

Fort Colville was a Hudson's Bay Company post, built in 1825 to supersede the fort at Spokane, which was too far inland for convenient access. The site was at Kettle Falls on the east bank of the stream (see Alexander Ross, Fur Hunters, ii, p. 162), the post being named for the London governor of the company, Eden Colville. The fort became an important station on the route of the Columbia brigade; here accounts for the district were made up, and the dignitaries of the company entertained. Gov. George Simpson had been at Fort Colville in the summer before De Smet's visit, when Archibald Macdonald was the factor in charge. This post was maintained some time after the Americans acquired the Oregon Territory, but about 1857 it was removed north of the international boundary line. In 1859 the United States government built a military post called Fort Colville some miles east of the old fur-trading stockade, near the present town of Colville, Washington. The neighboring Indians having become peaceful, the fort is no longer garrisoned.—Ed.