for the rendezvous at the mouth of the Walla Walla. Ross goes into a world of details in regard to all of these happenings, he traveled up and down the Okanogan country from the mouth of the river to the head of Okanogan Lake time and again. He made one exploring trip into the Methow country and evidently crossed the main range of the Cascades, and got well down on the Skagit, but did not reach tide water. He took unto himself, at Fort Okanogan, an Indian girl of the Okanogan tribe, and when he returned to Winnipeg, about 1825, he took her and his half-breed children with him, and the Pacific Northwest knew them no more. Ross became prominent in Manitoba and Assiniboia. His third book which appeared in 1856, the year of his death, referred entirely to the Winnipeg country, and is entitled "The Red River Settlement."

Stuart and Ross reached the rendezvous at the mouth of the Walla Walla May 30th, 1813, and a few days afterward the brigades began arriving from up the Snake river and overland from Spokane. By this time the tidings of the breaking out of the war between United States and Great Britain had reached the Columbia. Upon arrival of the consolidated brigades at Astoria, June 14th, 1813, a council of the partners was held. There was found to be dissension amongst the partners and a feeling of discouragement and dismay pervaded the meeting on account of the news of the war and their wholly unprotected situation from an attack by a British war ship or privateer. There was also great dissatisfaction among some in regard to Mr. Astor's management of the company, and to crown it all, the opposition of the Northwest Company was getting stronger. It was decided, however, after much discussion, to attempt to continue the enterprise for another year in spite of the hazards and difficulties, and preparations were at once made to send out the wintering parties again. The outward bound brigades left Astoria in a body on July 5th, 1813, Stuart and Ross for the Okanogan and Kamloops country, Clarke for the Spokane country and McKenzie for the Willamette country. Resolutions were also passed authorizing McDougal,

the head factor at Astoria to sell out everything to the Northwest Company at any time if the situation became desperate and that company could be induced to buy.

On August 15, 1913, the brigades reached Fort Okanogan. Here Ross was left in charge again for the winter. Clarke and his men proceeded with their goods to Spokane and David Stuart took the now well known pack train route up this river to winter again at Kamloops, among the Shu-swaps.

We have now reached the beginning of the end of the Astor Company. Events were fast culminating that operated to change the course of things for many years to come, for the Northwesters were quick to see the opportunity offered them by the war and the defenseless condition of the Astor establishments on the Columbia, and they took advantage of the situation with great vigor. Without going into details, Duncan McDougal, the partner in charge at Astoria, sold out the whole Astorian enterprise on the Pacific to the Northwest Company in November, of the same year (1813). The American flag was hauled down and the British Jack was run up in its stead. The name of the place was changed from Astoria to Fort George.

All of the inland posts including Fort Okanogan, of course, now passed to the Northwest Company. Fort Okanogan was turned over December 15th, 1813. Ross entered the service of the Northwest Company and was placed in charge for the new management. His second book starts with his service under the new regime, and as before stated, it is entitled "Fur Hunters of the Far West." It opens with an account of a trip from Fort Okanogan overland to the Yakima country for the purpose of acquiring horses. Many horses were maintained at Fort Okanogan as long as the fur from the north continued to come down the trail along this river. They grazed these extensive horse bands on what is now the southwestern portion of the South Half. There were many wolves in this country in the early days and both Ross and Cox in their books made frequent mention of the depredations of these fierce animals upon the horse bands grazing in the vicinity of the fort. They

also mention the existence of elk and antelope in the country in those days. Ross continued in charge at Fort Okanogan until the spring of 1816. He was succeeded by Ross Cox, who was a very bright and highly educated young Irishman. To him was entrusted the rebuilding and remodeling of the fort. He goes into the matter in detail and has left us a very fair map of the immediate vicinity around the mouth of the Okanogan. We will copy only the following excerpts from his work in regard to the fort which he rebuilt as above stated in the summer of 1816:

"By the month of September we had erected a new dwelling house for the person in charge, containing four excellent rooms and a large dining hall, two good houses for the men and a spacious store for the furs and merchandise to which was attached a shop for trading with the natives. The whole was surrounded by strong palisades fifteen feet high and flanked by two bastions. Each bastion had in its lower story a light brass four-pounder, and the upper loop-holes were left for the use of musketry."

The new establishment was built about a mile and a quarter southeast of the original post, and was situated on the bank of the Columbia so as to command the same. A few depressions where the old cellars were, constitute the only traces visible on the surface today. But some excavating would probably reveal much that would be interesting in the way of relics. Some of the buildings of the establishment were standing as late as the early sixties and a few old timers, both Indians and whites still living, are able to remember it. The ground where it stood is now included in Lot 7, Section 21, Township 30, N. Range 25, E. W. M.

By the time the new post had been built (1816) the place had become important as the gate-way to the New Caledonia country. It was here that the goods for the posts of that region were taken from the boats and transferred to the pack trains that were to carry the same over the Okanogan trail to Kamloops thence on to Fort Alexandria, where the transfer was made to boats or canoes again, the ultimate destination being Fort George, Fort St. James and the other trading stations of

the vast New Caledonia region. And again it was at Fort Okanogan that the fur from New Caledonia was transferred. from the horse brigades in the spring en route for the mouth of the Columbia. It was also a regular stopping place for all the overland and upper Columbia brigades and likewise a meeting place where the Colville, the New Caledonia and other brigades waited to join each other on the down river trip. As a primary trading post, it was not a place of much importance after the first few years of its existence, at no time after the amalgamation of the companies was any considerable amount of fur obtained there. But as a stopping place, storage station, meeting point and particularly as the New Caledonia gateway, it was an important place for a long period of years, and this statement is substantially true of the place from the time of its very beginning under the Astor Company in 1811, till about 1847, and in some respects for ten years after that. Fort Okanogan was likewise a great horse rendezvous for both the Northwesters and the H. B. Company, and at times considerable herds of cattle were kept there also. Owing to its peculiar line of usefulness no officer of the company was regularly stationed there after the amalgamation in 1821, but some trusted employe of long service was left in control. It is impossible to make out who these men were at all times. The two most often mentioned in the reports, journals and historical writings of those times, are La Pratt and Joachin LeFleur. The former is often mentioned in the journals of Todd, Work and Douglas. Lieut. Johnson of the Wilkes expedition also says he was there in charge when he visited the place in 1841. This La Pratt, or La Prade, or La Prate, as name is variously spelled, is often mentioned as being in charge of Fort Okanogan, but I can find no place where he is specifically designated by his first name also as being in charge there. But on the whole it seems conclusive that he was Alexis La Prate or La Prade whose name is often mentioned and appears in several lists. He was put in charge some time in the thirties and remained in charge a number of years he certainly was there in 1841 and 1842. His successor

or predecessor, I cannot make out for certain which, was Jean Gingras (or Grango) who afterwards went to the Willamette Valley and settled. This Gingras is said to have voted at Champoeg in May, 1843, with the other French settlers against the organization of the provisional government. Then came Joachin La Fleur, a very competent and reliable employee who was in charge off and on from about 1843 till about 1853. By this time the necessity for longer maintaining the fort had ceased as far as the business of the Hudson Bay Company was concerned, and they would have been willing to abandon it but feared to do so until their claims for indemnity from the United States under the treaty of 1846 had been settled. About this. time, a step-son of Joachim La Fleur was placed in charge and he was the last. This man was a French half-breed named Francois Duchouquette, very likely a son of that person of the same name mentioned and listed by Alexander Henry in his journals. His mother was an Okanogan woman whose baptismal name was "Margaret" but whom the French called "La Petit" on account of her small size. According to her descendants living in this vicinity, her father's name was Siahko-ken, and she was a sister of La-pa-cheen, a prominent Okanogan chief of those days. This Francois Duchouquette has been mentioned a number of times in writings appertaining to the gold rush of 1858-9 and 60 over the Okanogan trail to the Fraser and elsewhere in that direction, but always by his first name only, and that invariably misspelled in every instance that I have encountered. Sometimes it is spelled "Franswa❞ and sometimes it appears as "Frenchway." In one place he is termed "old Frenchway." But why he should be termed "old" is strange and conveys a mistaken idea, for the local information available in regard to him clearly proves that he was not over forty years of age in 1860 and some who surely ought to know say he was not over thirty at that time. Francois was in charge at the old fort from about 1853 or 1854 till June, 1860. Under orders from the company he moved all the goods and property from the fort by pack train on or about June 18th or 19th, 1860, and took the same to a point on the Simil