Fort Durham
{{short description|Archaeological site in Alaska, United States}}
{{redirect|Fort Taku|the forts in China|Taku Forts}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Fort Durham Site
| nrhp_type = nhl
| image =
| caption =
| location = {{Address Restricted}}, Juneau City and Borough, Alaska, U.S.
| nearest_city = Juneau, Alaska
| locmapin = Alaska
| coordinates =
| area =
| built = 1840
| architect = James Douglas
| architecture =
| added = May 5, 1978
| refnum = 78000529{{NRISref |refnum=78000529|2010a}}
| designated_other1 = Alaska Heritage Resources Survey
| designated_other1_name = Alaska Heritage Resources Survey
| designated_other1_color = #A8EDEF
| designated_other1_abbr = AHRS
| designated_other1_number = JUN-036
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
}}
Fort Durham, also known as Fort Taku, Taku, Taco, and Tacouw, is an archaeological site near Taku Harbor, Alaska, within the limits of Juneau City and Borough and Tongass National Forest. It was one of three Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) posts set up in Russian America.{{GNIS|2493757|Fort Durham Site}} The Fort Durham Site was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1978.
Background
In 1834 the HBC tried to establish a post on the Stikine River, British rights to which had been one of the terms of the Russo-British Treaty of 1825. However, the effort was blocked by employees of the Russian American Company (RAC), on the orders of Governor Ferdinand von Wrangel. 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 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. The HBC was guaranteed the right to establish posts, hunt, and trade furs along the coast in exchange for furnishing Russian America with provisions and various food supplies.
Creation
Taking advantage of the agreement's terms immediately, the HBC sent James Douglas north in the Beaver in 1840. Douglas explored the Taku River and built Fort Durham (or Taku) on the coast just south of the river's mouth. He also took possession of Redoubt San Dionisio (Fort Saint Dionysius), which lay off the mouth of the Stikine River on Etolin Island, near today's Wrangell, Alaska (and renamed it Fort Stikine), which the Russians had agreed to transfer to the HBC under the 1839 lease agreement.{{cite book |last= Mackie |first= Richard Somerset |title= Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843 |year= 1997 |publisher= University of British Columbia (UBC) Press |location= Vancouver |isbn= 0-7748-0613-3 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VKXgJw6K088C |pages= 140–142}}
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.Mackie (1997), 142, 269–270. The majority of the 8 Hawaiian Kanakas 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.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
{{NRHP in Alaska by borough and census area}}
{{National Register of Historic Places}}
{{Columbia Department}}
{{authority control}}
Category:1840 establishments in the British Empire
Category:Former populated places in Alaska
Category:Pre-Confederation British Columbia
Category:National Historic Landmarks in Alaska
Category:Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Alaska
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Juneau, Alaska