Fort Columbia State Park History

Fort Columbia State Park preserves an example of a US Army defense project from the beginning of the 20th century. Its strategic location on a high bluff at the entrance to the Columbia River estuary also features wide views of one of the most consequential places in the modern story of the Pacific Northwest.

The park is situated on Chinook Point, an outcrop of volcanic rocks that rises 780 feet up a steep hillside to the summit of Scarboro Hill. The height of land has served as a beacon, guiding travelers who sought passage into the interior through the entryway provided by the “Great River” we know today as the Columbia.

Indigenous Lands

This park’s location near the mouth of the Columbia River lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe and other Chinook language speaking people. For thousands of years the lands and waters of this area have provided habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures. Salmon species of the Columbia River are a primary foundation of Indigenous lifeways in the region.

Chinookan people have lived on the lands surrounding the mouth of the Columbia River for millenia. During the spring and summer, they generally lived on the north shore of the river, moving northward to cedar plank houses on the shores of Willapa Bay in the fall and winter for better fishing and hunting in calmer weather and water conditions.

Chief Comcomly was a well-known and influential Chinook leader in the early 1800s, mentioned in the letters and journals of traders and travelers including Meriwether Lewis. He encouraged marriages between his daughters and other influential people in the region to strengthen his role as a middleman in the commerce between Indigenous people in the interior and American and British traders.

The Chinook’s Middle Village, located just to the east of today’s Fort Columbia State Park, grew into a trading center, taking advantage of commerce with European commercial ships.

Chinookan peoples’ dominance of trading relationships diminished after the Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver as its regional headquarters more than 100 miles upstream in 1824. An epidemic of “intermittent fever,” possibly malaria, in the 1830s claimed the lives of much of the Chinook Nation, including Chief Comcomly.

Local tribes refused to accept the conditions proposed by Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens at the Chehalis River Treaty Council in February 1855. Subsequently, title to the land was relinquished to the US federal government and the Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation was established by executive order on September 22, 1866, by President Andrew Johnson. The Chinook Indian Nation received federal recognition in 2001, but the status was rescinded 18 months later.

Competing Nations

Some of the first interactions between the Indigenous nations of today’s Washington State and newcomers from European nations occurred in the vicinity of today’s Fort Columbia State Park. In the 1700’s many nations attempted to discover and claim a “Northwest Passage” connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Spanish Crown claimed exclusive rights to colonize the west coast of North America based on the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas. In 1775, Spanish Navigator Bruno de Heceta was tasked with sailing along the coast of North America to strengthen that claim. Turned back by deadly resistance from Quinault warriors and widespread sickness amongst his crew, he noted the mouth of a major river with a current so strong he was unable to enter even with a full press of sails.

On July 6, 1788, British fur trader Captain John Meares searched for the river charted by Heceta. He mistook the mouth of the river for a bay, which his ship could not enter due to shallow sand bars. He named the tall headland beside the bay “Cape Disappointment” for his failure to locate the river.

Captain George Vancouver sailed north past the mouth of the Columbia in April 1792, noting a discoloration of the water but missing the river. On May 12, 1792, Captain Robert Gray from Boston located the river mouth and was able to pilot his ship Columbia Rediviva past the treacherous sand bars to anchor just offshore of today’s Fort Columbia Historical State Park. Captain Gray named the river for his ship. Upon reaching his anchorage, 20 Indigenous canoes approached, bringing furs and salmon to trade. The ship’s crew bought salmon for a negotiated price of two salmon for one manufactured board nail and one beaver skin for two nails.

Informed by Gray of his success, Captain Vancouver directed Lieutenant William Broughton to enter the river in October of 1792. Broughton named Chinook Point for the nearby village and charted the course of the river 100 miles upstream to near today’s city of Vancouver, WA. Some geographers speculated that the Columbia River might provide a water route connecting to the Missouri River, completing the “Northwest Passage.”

Between 1795 and 1804, dozens of American and British ships arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River, engaging in trade with Indigenous people in the area. John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company established Fort Astoria across the river in 1811. Fort Astoria was sold to the Canadian North West Company in 1812 and merged with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821.

Lewis and Clark

US President Thomas Jefferson commissioned a Corps of Discovery in 1803. The Corps, under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark, was directed to “explore the Missouri River, & such principle stream of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean … may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce.” The Corps departed from Camp Dubois, MO, on May 14, 1804.

The Corps arrived at Chinook Point on November 15, 1805, establishing a camp they called “Station Camp” in their journals. They built crude shelters with cedar planks taken from the seasonally unoccupied Middle Village, establishing a camp that provided them some comfort after having endured many days of uninterrupted heavy rain. They maintained a base camp for 10 days at the site while conducting surveys by foot and canoe of the surrounding area. Though the Corps voted to spend the winter at a site on the other side of the river, they frequently encountered Chinook tribal members, whose shared knowledge of local resources eased their winter stay.

James and Ann Scarborough

James Scarborough was hired by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1829 and served as a mate and master on the company’s sailing ships serving the Pacific Northwest until 1850. On October 30, 1843, he married Ann Elizabeth (Chinook) and began development of a farm and residence located on Chinook Point. A visitor to the lower Columbia noted in 1848 that “Capt. Scarborough has a fine clearing which runs up on to the hill. His Indian wife cultivates the land.” The hill became known as Scarboro Hill and its distinctive grassy southern slope served as a navigational aid for sailors making the difficult passage into the mouth of the Columbia River.

Colonial administration of the area passed to the United States with the Oregon Treaty of 1846. Passage of the Donation Land Claim Act in 1850 by the US Congress allowed settlers to claim free land in the territory, appropriating Indigenous lands. A single male who had arrived in the territory before December 1850 could be granted 320 acres; if the homesteader was married, his wife could also receive 320 acres in her name. A 643-acre Donation Land Claim encompassing most of today’s Fort Columbia Historical State Park was filed by James and Ann Scarborough in 1850.

After his retirement, Scarborough farmed the property, engaged in commercial salmon fishing, and piloted ships needing assistance to navigate the dangerous Columbia River bar. Neighbors fondly remembered him as a person who “never hesitated to speak his mind freely—and loudly—whenever occasion seemed to require it.” The ornamental trees and roses planted on the property often served as a source of cuttings and seedlings for others’ gardens.

Ann Scarborough died in 1852, and James passed away suddenly on February 4, 1855, without preparing a will. Subsequently, a former colleague at the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), James Birnie, was appointed guardian of the Scarboroughs’ sons Edwin and Robert. In that capacity, Birnie sold the land to another long-time HBC employee, Rocque Ducheney.

Ducheney and his wife Mary, a granddaughter of Chief Comcomly, did not live on the Scarborough estate, and it fell into disrepair. After Ducheney was killed in a dispute over fishing rights, his heirs sought to sell the Scarborough property, but the ownership was clouded by legal issues.

Coastal Defense and the Endicott Board

The United States stretched its territory to the Pacific Coast as a result of the Oregon Treaty and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the US-Mexico War in 1848. The mouth of the Columbia River had been recognized as an important defensive point for the expanding country by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes during the United States Exploring Expedition in 1841.

Military reservations were established at Cape Disappointment and south of the Columbia River at Point Adams in 1852. Planners sought Chinook Point as a third site in the harbor defense, but acquisition of the land was delayed until 1864 by litigation over the probate of the Scarborough/Ducheney estate.

In the years after the end of the US Civil War, significant technological advances in heavy arms and naval capabilities made existing US coastal defenses obsolete. In 1885, US President Grover Cleveland appointed a military and civilian board to develop recommendations. The board was guided by US Secretary of War William Endicott. The 1886 report of the Endicott Board, as it became known, detailed the state of neglect of US defenses and advocated for a construction program to build fortifications at 29 sites on the US coast, including the entrance to the Columbia River.

Building a Fort

The Endicott Board’s fortification designs featured concrete walls that concealed heavy steel breech-loaded rifled cannons mounted on “disappearing carriages.” These allowed the cannons to be raised above the walls, aimed and fired, then rapidly pulled back to conceal their location and protect the artillery crew as it reloaded. Instead of dramatic fortresses visible from miles away, the new forts featured guns and structures that were invisible from the sea.

On June 6, 1896, the US Congress authorized the construction of a gun battery on Chinook Point. Excavation with hand tools began in March 1897 at a site on the lower slope of Scarboro Hill. Before the concrete could be poured, the infrastructure to support construction had to be completed, including a wharf (all supplies came to the site by boat), cement plant, a narrow-gauge rail line from the wharf to the construction site, worker’s quarters and offices.

On April 25, 1898, two 8-inch disappearing guns were installed. A third was added a few months later, but the completed battery was not transferred to the Army until June 28, 1900. Gun batteries were typically named for service members noted for their heroism. Uniquely, Army Corps of Engineers Captain W.C. Langfitt recommended that this battery be named to honor Chinook Chief Comcomly. His suggestion was overruled and the battery was named in honor of US Army First Lieutenant Jules Garesche Ord, killed in action on July 1, 1898, leading the Black soldiers of the 10th Cavalry in the charge against Spanish forces at San Juan Hill, Cuba.

On July 13, 1899, the post was officially named “Fort Columbia” by order of President William McKinley. By 1900, Fort Columbia was armed with 8 artillery pieces: the three eight-inch disappearing guns of Battery Ord plus two 6-inch disappearing guns and three 3-inch guns.

Beginning in 1903, additional buildings were constructed at Fort Columbia for permanent housing and administrative functions. According to army regulations, the buildings were designed “for occupation as long as the Government shall exist” and built to be “useful and healthful to the garrisons …attractive homes for the Army.” Constrained by the steepness of the terrain on Scarboro Hill, the buildings were laid out on three terraces behind Battery Ord. The buildings included barracks and quarters for the enlisted men and officers, a storehouse, hospital, bakery, gymnasium and combination post exchange/bowling alley.

The guns were never fired against an enemy and quickly became obsolete.  By the 1920s, advances in naval technologies and the rise of airpower had eroded the effectiveness of coastal forts. Warships began carrying guns that could shoot farther and more accurately than the guns at Fort Columbia. In addition, aircraft could travel longer distances and carry heavy bombs. Large guns mounted in open concrete batteries were vulnerable to these new weapons.

The three forts of the Columbia River Harbor Defense were placed in inactive status in 1930, with two officers and 39 enlisted men assigned to maintain all three facilities. In World War II, Fort Columbia was quickly reactivated, and work was begun on an additional gun battery, Battery 246. At the close of WW II, Fort Columbia was no longer necessary for national defense and was scheduled for disposal.

Making a State Park

The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) began considering Fort Columbia as a park site at the urging of Erling L. Nelson of the Chinook Progressive Club in 1947. The federal War Assets Administration notified the WSPRC that the land could be transferred at no cost if the park was established as an historic monument, maintaining Fort Columbia “as it has been since the 1890s.”

On May 11, 1950, the WSPRC acquired 285 acres of the Fort Columbia military reservation under terms of the Federal Lands to Parks Act. To comply with its historic monument status, the WSPRC planned to preserve the former gun batteries and historic buildings, as well as interpret the larger stories of Chinook Point and Scarboro Hill as Indigenous homelands and important landmarks in the European-American exploration and development of the area. A museum was planned to be established in the large barracks building.

The park was dedicated on June 17, 1951, with local youth groups staging a pageant on the platform of Battery Ord. The museum was opened in 1954.

Much of the original interest in transforming Fort Columbia to a state park lay in the desire to retain the now-forested slopes of Scarboro Hill rather than have an unsightly timber harvest scar on the site. When a plan surfaced to transfer the forest land to the heirs of James and Ann Scarborough in 1957, the WSPRC applied to acquire the remaining acreage of the Fort Columbia military reservation to protect the integrity of the existing historical park. 299 acres, including the slopes and summit of Scarboro Hill, were added to Fort Columbia State Park on May 12, 1958.

In 1992, two six-inch guns were received from a military base in Newfoundland and installed at Battery 246 allowing park visitors a more realistic feel of the appearance of the fort during its active years.

On November 13, 2008, the WSPRC designated 549 acres of Fort Columbia State Park as a Natural Forest Area, permanently protecting the undisturbed forestlands of Scarboro Hill.