The Willamette Trading Post or Willamette Fur Post was a

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

facility owned by the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

established near the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

in what would become the

French Prairie French Prairie is located in Marion County, Oregon, United States, in the Willamette Valley between the Willamette River and the Pudding River, north of Salem. It was named for some of the earliest settlers of that part of the Oregon Country, Fr ...

in Oregon Country. Established around 1813 in what is now the state of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the post was a small fur station where trappers working in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...

could exchange their

pelts Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket ...

and hides for other trade goods.

Founding

This trade outpost was established around 1813 by the

, a British owned fur trading concern.Corning, Howard M. ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956. pp. 267-268 It was built southeast of the current city of Newberg on the eastern shore (or southern due to an east-west stretch of the river at this location) of the Willamette River. The location was a few miles west of

Champoeg Champoeg ( , historically Horner, John B. (1919). ''Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature''. The J.K. Gill Co.: Portland. p. 398.) is a former town in the U.S. state of Oregon. Now a ghost town, it was an important settlement in the W ...

Operations

Built as a trade depot, the post was used by the North West Company for trading and as a game relay spot in support of their main outpost Fort George at the mouth of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

.Chapman, J. S. (1993). ''French Prairie Ceramics: The Harriet D. Munnick Archaeological Collection, Circa 1820-1860: A Catalog and Northwest Comparative Guide''. Anthropology Northwest, no. 8. Corvallis, Or: Dept. of Anthropology, Oregon State University. p. 9. In 1821, the North West Company was merged into the

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) and the HBC took control of the fur post. The HBC then used the facility as a rendezvous point for their traders forming fur brigades before traveling to points to the south. The Willamette Trading Post remained in use until the mid-1830s. In later years, former North West Company and HBC employee

Pierre Belleque Pierre Belleque or Pierre Billique (1797–1849) was a French Canadian fur trader in the British-claimed Columbia District, which was also known as the Oregon Country and also claimed by the United States. He settled on the French Prairie in what ...

settled a land claim and began farming at the site around 1833. He lived in the former building for a time, as his wife was related to an HBC officer.

References

{{Oregon Pioneer History Fur trade Oregon Country North West Company Pre-statehood history of Oregon 1813 establishments in Oregon Trading posts in the United States