Fort Durham, also known as Fort Taku, Taku, Taco, and Tacouw, is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

near Taku Harbor, Alaska, within the limits of Juneau City and Borough and

Tongass National Forest The Tongass National Forest () in Southeast Alaska is the largest U.S. National Forest at . Most of its area is temperate rain forest and is remote enough to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. The Tongass, which i ...

. It was one of three

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

(HBC) posts set up in

Russian America Russian America (russian: Русская Америка, Russkaya Amerika) was the name for the Russian Empire's colonial possessions in North America from 1799 to 1867. It consisted mostly of present-day Alaska in the United States, but a ...

. The Fort Durham Site was declared a U.S.

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1978.

Background

In 1834 the HBC tried to establish a post on the

Stikine River The Stikine River is a major river in northern British Columbia (BC), Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States. It drains a large, remote upland area known as the Stikine Country east of the Coast Mountains. Flowing west and south f ...

, British rights to which had been one of the terms of the

Russo-British Treaty of 1825 The Treaty of Saint Petersburg of 1825 or the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825, officially the Convention Concerning the Limits of Their Respective Possessions on the Northwest Coast of America and the Navigation of the Pacific Ocean, defined th ...

. However, the effort was blocked by employees of the

Russian American Company The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty (russian: Под высочайшим Его Императорского Величества покровительством Российская-Американс� ...

(RAC), on the orders of Governor

Ferdinand von Wrangel Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von Wrangel (russian: Барон Фердина́нд Петро́вич Вра́нгель, tr. ; – ) was a Baltic German explorer and seaman in the Imperial Russian Navy, Honorable Member of the Saint ...

. Several years were spent by the HBC attempting to seek financial compensation from the RAC in response to be being blocked access from the Stikine River. Late in 1838 the

Imperial Russian Government The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

ordered the RAC to settle their dispute with HBC, eventually leading to the signing of the RAC-HBC Agreement in early 1839. One of the main terms was a ten-year lease of what is today the

Alaska Panhandle Southeast Alaska, colloquially referred to as the Alaska(n) Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia (and a small part ...

. The HBC was guaranteed the right to establish posts, hunt, and trade furs along the coast in exchange for furnishing

with provisions and various food supplies.

Creation

Taking advantage of the agreement's terms immediately, the HBC sent James Douglas north in the ''

Beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

'' in 1840. Douglas explored the

Taku River The Taku River (Lingít: ''T'aaḵu Héeni'') is a river running from British Columbia, Canada, to the northwestern coast of North America, at Juneau, Alaska. The river basin spreads across . The Taku is a very productive salmon river and its dra ...

and built Fort Durham (or Taku) on the coast just south of the river's mouth. He also took possession of

Redoubt San Dionisio A redoubt (historically redout) is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, although some are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldi ...

(Fort Saint Dionysius), which lay off the mouth of the Stikine River on

Etolin Island Etolin Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeastern Alaska, United States at . It is between Prince of Wales Island, to its west, and the Alaska mainland, to its east. It is southwest of Wrangell Island. It was first charte ...

, near today's

Wrangell, Alaska The City and Borough of Wrangell ( tli, Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw, russian: Врангель) is a borough in Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 2,127, down from 2,369 in 2010. Incorporated as a Unified Home Rule Bor ...

(and renamed it Fort Stikine), which the Russians had agreed to transfer to the HBC under the 1839 lease agreement.

Closure

In 1841 the HBC governor George Simpson ordered Fort Durham and other coastal posts closed, because the ''Beaver'' was able to conduct the coastal fur trade without the need for more than the single permanent post of Fort Simpson. The HBC closed operations at Fort Durham in 1843. The majority of the 8 Hawaiian

Kanakas Kanakas were workers (a mix of voluntary and involuntary) from various Pacific Islands employed in British colonies, such as British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Queensland (Australia) in the 19t ...

employees at Fort Durham were reassigned to Fort Victoria.Koppel, Tom. ''Kanaka, the Untold Story of Hawaiian Pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.'' Vancouver, B.C.: Whitcap Books. 1995, p. 54.

References

{{authority control 1840 establishments in the British Empire Juneau, Alaska

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

Former populated places in Alaska Pre-Confederation British Columbia

National Historic Landmarks in Alaska Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Alaska National Register of Historic Places in Juneau, Alaska

Background

Creation

Closure

See also

References