Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
that time the Caribou gold excitement was at its height and his soldiers,
paid only a dollar a day to work as carpenters, deserted to seek
their fortunes at prospecting'. The major solved the labor problem by
importing discouraged miners from Victoria-men who had gone
through the hardships of prospecting in the Caribou country without
success. These men were glad to get work on the fort, and com-inced
the soldiers of the inadvisability of going into the Caribou.
The fort was built in primitive style. Timbers were hewed from
logs, laths cut in the forests, and clam shells were burned and ground
for plaster. The fort was ready for occupancy in the summer of 1857,
and then was manned by Company I of the D. S. Infantry.
Two years later, in 1859, the San Juan boundary dispute caused the
settlers of San Juan to appeal to General ·Willi am Harney, commander
of the headquarters of the Columbia, for protection. He inspected
Fort Townsend, immediately ordered its evacuation and sent the company
to Fort Steilacoom; and later, with other troops of the Puget
Sound area, to the San .Juan islands. Captain George Edward Pickett,
later famous for" Pickett's charge," in the Civil war, was taken
from Fort Bellingham and placed in command at San Juan.
Fort Townsend was then left in the hands of caretakers until the
close of the Civil ·war. Being ,-irtually abandoned, it fell into ruins,
its buildings ransacked by vandals.
But its idleness was not permanent. By special orders of .July 1,
1874, from Headquarters of the Columbia, F'ort 'rowlJsend was ordered
rehabilitated and its buildings placed in first-class condition. ?lIuch
new work was done, including the laying out of a fine parade ground
and the erection of an enormous flagpole, towering 130 feet above the
ground. Brick walks were laid and a row of new houses, desig'nated
"Officer's Row," was constructed.
Later, however, water became scarce, due to the cutting off of timber
on adjacent lands, and the supply was found to be insufficient to
satisfy the needs of the post. To top matters, in January, 1895, a
kerosene lamp explosion started a fire which destroyed the barracks.
Orders then came from General Gibbons to decommission the fort.
Caretakers were kept on the premises until 1927. William Brinsmead,
last to sen-e in that capacity, died in Seattle ~Iarch 22, 1936.
Two years ago, most of the buildings having fallen to ruin, those remaining,
considered a menace to life and limb, were torn down. Nothing
remained to mark the site of the old fort but the flagpole j and
this ancient landmark became the target for many civilian marksmen
who peppered it with bullets and shot, with little thought for its historic
significance.
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