Campfires and Candelight

Here, furs were being weighed and bundled for shipment.  Kids could examine real pelts and hear how the fur trade shaped the history of the Pacific Northwest.

Trade goods on display.  Beaver pelts were the standard currency.

Campfires and Candelight is Ft. Vancouver National Historic Site's biggest reenactment event of the year, and we had to check it out.  The fort itself is a careful reconstruction of the 19th century Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post which burned down in 1866.  This British company provided invaluable assistance to American emigrants.  This annual event is a great chance to see what they were up to here.   In addition, outside the fort there were reenactors portraying Native Americans, American emigrants with their covered wagon, and Civil War soldiers. There were cooking and craft demonstrations, and lots of pioneer era toys for the kids to play with. The walk ended at the Pearson Air Museum, which has vintage  aircraft from WWI and WWII and has one of the oldest operating airfields in the country.  Jasper loves natural history, but human history is not his favorite subject.  I love living history demonstrations because they really make history exciting for Jasper.  This is one of the best in the area.

The apothecary. Kids could sniff some aromatic herbal remedies used in the 1800s.

Bandage making.

A blacksmith at work.

Women of the officers' families.

There is a wonderful historical garden outside the fort.

Hops, the female flower cone of a vining plant, still a big crop in the Pacific Northwest.

A Civil War reenactor demonstrates the complex routine of loading and shooting his rifle, which soldiers were expected to do three times a minute.

A Union Army soldier's tent.

In the Pearson Air Museum.