The Blockhouse

The Blockhouse. . From our little castle 100 feet square ... we commended operations early the following morning, and are now in a picket, 100 feet square, seven feet high, and have one blockhouse half-built. -- Luke, an Oregon Mounted Volunteer, from letter dated November 21, 1855 , In November 1855, the Oregon Mounted Volunteers constructed a stockade and two blockhouses (or bastions) across the river from this site. The fort was built on the site of the "still smoldering" Utilla (sic) Indian Agency (1851-1855). It was named Fort Henrietta after Henrietta Haller, wife of a U.S. Army officer stationed at Fort The Dalles, in gratitude for her loan of the wagon to poorly supplied militia. , Militia documents suggest the fort was 100 feet by 100 feet, with round-log blockhouses at opposite corners. The stockade was constructed from nine-foot-long, split-cottonwood rails, placed in a two-foot deep trench. Archaeological excavations revealed the original stockade form by outlines of huge burnt logs, and "ghosts" of burnt posts were discovered in the stockade trench excavations. A splitting wedge, probably used to split the cottonwood logs was among the artifacts excavated from the stockade trench. A hewing hatchet, possibly used to construct the fort, was found on the edge of the field near the fort site. , The militia received orders in April 1856 to abandon and destroy the fort. In May 1856, the commander filed a report stating that the fort had been destroyed. However, accounts of settlers and an 1859 survey indicate a building (possibly a blockhouse) remained standing and was used as a meeting place and arsenal. , Since no drawings were ever located, the replica built in 1985 resembles the 1855 Middle Blockhouse (Fort Rains) at the Cascades of the Columbia.