Museum location: 5400 N. Pearl St., No. 11 (Point Defiance Park), Tacoma.
Permanent displays: Long before Seattle was established, the Hudson's Bay Co. of London, a vast fur-trading enterprise, established Fort Nisqually in 1833. With an amazingly diverse work force of English, Scottish, Irish, American, French-Canadian, Hawaiian, West Indian and Native American laborers, Fort Nisqually grew to be an international trade center (the fort was never a military outpost). A subsidiary, the Puget Sound Agricultural Co., produced crops and livestock for local consumption and export to Russian America, Hawaii, Spanish California, Europe and Asia.
Once the 1846 treaty between the United States and Great Britain established the boundary between the two country's claims at the 49th parallel, the trading center was left on American soil, and the United States government paid the company $650,000 for Fort Nisqually and the Puget Sound Agriculture Co. lands. The fort was closed in 1869.
The original site of the fort was above the Nisqually River delta in the present town of DuPont, Pierce County; during the 1930s, the two remaining original buildings were moved to their present location in Point Defiance Park. Additional buildings were built and furnishings added to reconstruct the fort as it may have appeared in 1855.
Special events: On Saturday, Dec. 3, one of the museum's rare re-enactment events celebrates a mid-19th-century Christmas. Inside the fort, volunteers and staff in period clothing portray the daily life of the workers who lived at Fort Nisqually. Taste ginger cookies baked in the period wood-burning cook stove in the kitchen building, join in dances to the accompaniment of live music and help carry in the traditional Yule log.
Other highlights: The museum offers numerous educational group tours for students. Check out the unique variety of books and other history-related items in the gift shop.
Hours: During the winter, the park is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays (buildings open with interpreters on weekends only, when a fee is charged).
Admission: During the winter, weekends are $4 for adults, $3 seniors/students and $2 children 5-12.
Directions: From Interstate 5, take Exit 132 (Highway 16) toward Gig Harbor. Take the Sixth Avenue exit and turn left off the exit ramp, then take an immediate right on Pearl Street. Drive about four miles straight into Point Defiance Park, and follow signs to Fort Nisqually.
Bus: Pierce Transit No. 11 passes by the park. More info: 253-581-8000 or 800-562-8109, or www.piercetransit.org [1].
Information: 253-591-5339 or www.fortnisqually.org/ [2].
Cathy McDonald is co-author with Stephen Whitney of "Nature Walks In and Around Seattle" (The Mountaineers, 1997).
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