Field Trip: Fort Vancouver

Every month, Rachel and I are trying to do a home school field trip.  This month, I chose to tour Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, WA.  National sites and parks have four free days in the year and last Saturday was one of the free admission days.  I always try to do my research when planning for the best times to visit as well as the best deals for groups/families.

We first went to the Visitor Center.  They have a 20-minute video that we watched first that gave us a helpful background of the history of the fort.  They have some neat exhibits as well as a gift shop.

We invited another family from the kids' youth group at church to join us for the day. :)

After the Visitor Center, we walked through the historic garden.

Now, the fort is not the original.  It is a recreation of the original that burned.  It is still neat to visit and get a feel of what life was like back in the 1800's here at Fort Vancouver.

Thankfully, the rain held off for most of our time there and we enjoyed some sun.

This is the Chief Factor's House.  The big events of the fort happened here with the gentlemen.

Many important discussions and decisions were made here in this dining room replica.

The fort was divided into the heads of the fort and then the ones who did the manual labor.  This is how the kitchen looked where they cooked for all the people in the fort.  Volunteers take time to show how it was done the same way they had to do it back then.

This was the bakehouse where all the bread/biscuits/hardtack was made for the whole fort's rations.

These photos are from the Blacksmith Shop replica.

The man in the blacksmith shop was a great help in explaining about the blacksmith shop back in the 1800's and at the fort.

This was a replica of the Indian Trade Shop.

The next building was the Fur Store.  Again, the volunteers were very helpful in explaining the fur trade and all info regarding it.

Inside the bastion.

The Counting House.  

Where all the fort's records were kept including anything with money.

The jail.

That was the tour of Fort Vancouver.  They have picnic tables outside the fort walls where we ate the lunch we brought.

We were blessed to have the rain hold off for the time that we were outside touring the fort and having lunch.