Of the many military posts erected by the US Army during the 19^th century, few remain as well preserved as the collection of buildings found here in the middle of the Yakama Nation at Fort Simcoe.  The post was only manned for three years before the fort was abandoned; the men sent north to Fort Colville.

Brevet Captain George McClellan’s party, in 1853, found traces of gold along the upper reaches of the Naches or Yakima Rivers.  They searched for a railroad route over the Cascades, something McClellan continually stressed when meeting with Natives from the local Yakama tribes.

GOLD AND MCCLELLAN

Gold was the magnet bringing thousands of men west, mainly to California – more than 200,000 reached California by 1852, including two thirds of the adult males in the Oregon Territory seeking to augment their fortunes.  As new discoveries became harder to find, miners prospected further and further across the West.  These ventures brought conflict as miners violated lands inhabited by local Natives – in Oregon, the problems were initially in the Rogue Valley late 1851.

GOLD COMPLICATES RELATIONS WITH NATIVES

McClellan’s discoveries and new ones in the Colville River area of northeastern Washington brought hundreds of miners.  The easiest route reached across lands reserved by treaty to the Yakama tribes.  The treaty had been pushed upon chief Kamiakan by Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens in June 1855 – Stevens was responsible for McClellan’s rail passage search, as well.

Miners continued, however, to cross tribal lands, reportedly stealing horses and abusing Native women along the way.  Retaliating, the Yakama killed six miners in one episode and a couple others, including Indian Agent Andrew Bolon in late September 1855, sent up to investigate the earlier episode.

BEGINNING OF THE YAKAMA WARS

The killing of Bolon brought about an army column under Major Granville O. Haller from Fort Dalles.   Haller’s column met a Yakama force on Toppenish Creek on 5 October.  Outnumbered over three to one, Haller withdrew after a small skirmish.

Area commander Major Gabriel Rains, Fourth Infantry, brought up a larger force of 770 men later in the month.  His troops were from the Fourth Infantry, Third Artillery and a detachment of twenty Dragoons under Second Lieutenant Philip Sheridan. Some 400 Oregon volunteers under Colonel James Nesmith augmented his force.  Getting around the rank difference, Washington Territory created Rains a brigadier of volunteers – “hocus pocus” according to Sheridan.  He met Kamiakan who had 300 warriors at Union Gap on the Yakima River on 9 November.  Artillery fire from the two howitzers brought along forced the Natives to retreat.

The Yakama continued to elude the oncoming forces of Rains and eventually Rains drew back to Fort Dalles for the winter.  Failing to bring about a military victory, the expedition was deemed a failure on the part of those involved.  The Yakamas were forced to abandon their homes, however, spending the winter scattered between Moses Lake and Walla Walla.  Kamiakin was blamed and never returned to the Yakama.

ARMY RESPONDS

In late November, Brigadier General John Wool, Army commander for the Department of the Pacific, arrived on the scene at Fort Vancouver to assess the upcoming campaign.  Wool and local settlers were never of one mind on how to proceed – settlers wanted to simply exterminating the Natives, while Wool simply wanted to end the affair.  An Oregon militia force brought in eastern tribes into the war attacking Natives in the Walla Walla area.  Natives in the Puget Sound area already joined in the conflict.

In response to the disturbances, US Congress allowed the Army to reactivate two regiments.  One of those regiments, the Ninth, shipped to Oregon under the command of Colonel George Wright.  Upon his arrival in Oregon in January 1856, he was ordered by Wool – returning to San Francisco – to take command from Rains and move his command upriver to Fort Dalles.

As Wright began moving upriver toward Walla Walla in March, a Native attack upon the portage settlements around the Cascade Rapids occurred which killed fourteen settlers and three soldiers – the largest loss of US loss during the Yakama War. 

A NEW FORT ESTABLISHED

As one part of the campaign against the tribes in eastern Washington Territory, Wright sent two companies of the Ninth north from Fort Dalles in August under the command of Major Robert S. Garnett to establish Fort Simcoe.  The fort was established close to where Haller had been defeated along Toppenish Creek at the spring of Mool Mool – “bubbling spring”.  Simcoe came from the Sahaptin – language spoken by the Yakama – word Sim-ku-ee, saddle dip in a hill.

Erection of the fort continued throughout the latter part of 1856 with blockhouses and barracks.  Building material and supplies were initially transported by mule trains, but by September, a rudimentary wagon road was established by Captain Frederick Dent and his Company B, Ninth Infantry – parts of which can still be seen.  The road closed in winter months due to snow and cold. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORT

Four blockhouses were built on the corners of the post during late 1856, all similar construction.  One remains today while nor trace of the others exists.

The officers’ quarters were completed in 1857.  The construction plans drawn up by Louis Scholl, a German emigrant working as a civilian with the Army out of Fort Dalles alongside Captain Thomas Jordan.

Garnett hoped to build four company barracks and nine officer quarters but only three company and eight officer quarters finished by the time the fort turned over to the Indian Service in 1859.  Vegetable gardens were added in 1857 which improved the general health of the soldiers.

OFFICERS OF THE FORT

major robert garnett

Major Garnett left the fort in charge of Captain Dickinson Woodruff from November 1856.  Garnett traveled east to New York to marry. He returned with his new bride in May 1857.  They would have a child, Arthur Nelson, born to them in February 1858.

Arthur was not the only child born here.  The wives of Captain Henry M. Black – West Point Class of 1847 – and Dr Anthony Heger, a physician born in Vienna, Austria also lived on the post and the Heger’s had their own son, William Simcoe, born here 17 June 1857.

1858 was the main year of activity for the fort with Garnett being tasked to lead an expedition up into the regions north and west of the Columbia River while Colonel Wright led his force north from Fort Walla Walla towards the Spokane region.  They left Simcoe 10 August and were in the field for forty-four days, returning to the fort 23 September.  Ten captured Natives were executed during the operation having been found guilty of killing miners.

captain henry judah

Captain Henry M. Judah was in command of the fort with Garnett on campaign.  He tried to send a message to Garnett 16 September reporting “the probable fatal illness of Mrs. Garnett”, but Garnett never got the note.  He soon learned upon returning of the death of both his young wife and little boy due to “bilious fever” – usually the result of malaria.  Garnett was despondent and left on leave to take the bodies of his loved ones back east for burial, never to return to the fort.

Captain James J. Archer commanded the fort for the rest of its short Army existence.  In October, Archer hanged two Yakamas implicated in the killing of Bolon.

SHORT LIFE OF THE FORT CONTINUES IN OTHER GUISES

With the end of hostilities against the Yakama, the troops marched northeast to help establish Fort Colville.  Fort Simcoe was turned over to the Department of Indian Affairs.  Used as the main agency for the Yakima Reservation, the old fort buildings were reused with new ones added.   The site used until 1924 when the agency was moved to Toppenish.

The National Park Service had plans in the 1930’s to restore the fort but lack of funds stymied those plans.  In May 1952, a lease of 99 years was agreed to between the Yakama Nation and the State of Washington.  Working together and with the NPS, the fort was restored to its present state.  There are three officer’s quarters, the commander’s house and a blockhouse from the original fort still standing.  A barracks, guardhouse and two blockhouses have been replicated in addition.

The State Park is thirty miles west of Toppenish and is open from 1 April until 1 October with tours open normally from Wednesday until Sunday 9:30 am-4:30pm.  The rest of the year and presently, you can only tour by appointment 509-874-2372.

LIVES BEYOND SIMCOE

DR ANTHONY HEGER

The doctor at Fort Simcoe, Anthony Heger, went on to a long career with the Army Medical Service.  During the Civil War, he oversaw the Hammond General Hospital at Point Lookout, Maryland.  The hospital was built to manage 1,400 patients who came in mainly by steamboat at the mouth of the Potomac River.  After the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, a neighboring prisoner camp was built.  The hospital thereafter cared for both Federal soldiers and Confederate prisoners.  His wife would also die that year.  Heger finished his career a Colonel but gained also brevetted to brigadier general for his service.  He is buried at Arlington.

ROBERT GARNETT

Robert S. Garnett, West Point Class of 1841, was still mourning the lives of his son and wife on leave in Europe when the Civil War began.  Resigning his commission in April 1861, he became the adjutant general for Virginian troops under Robert E. Lee.  Assigned as a brigadier, Garnett led troops in western Virginia later in the spring against forces commanded by George McClellan.  Part of his force was defeated at Rich Mountain, 11 July, causing Garnett to abandon his positions on Laurel Hill.  Two days later, he was killed supervising his rear guard at Corrick’s Ford on the Cheat River.  He was the first general officer to die in the war, buried in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and child.

JAMES ARCHER

James J. Archer also went south during the Civil War.  He was not a West Pointer.  Having graduated from Princeton in 1835, he studied law at the University of Maryland and established a successful practice.  Commissioned a captain with the Regiment of Voltigeurs during the Mexican War where he took part in several battles.  Wounded in a duel with future Union general Andrew Porter with Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson serving as his second, he returned to his law practice in Maryland. 

But it was the army life for him, rejoining as a captain with the newly reorganized Ninth Infantry in 1855.  Going from Simcoe, he served at Fort Colville, resigning his commission 14 May 1861.  Soon made colonel of the Fifth Texas Infantry Regiment, he led his men as part of John B. Hood’s Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia.

 Promoted to brigadier, he took over a brigade of Tennessee regiments leading them in campaigns up until Gettysburg.  During the fighting on the first day, his men were overwhelmed in a Federal counterattack and Archer was captured.  His health suffered sent to Johnson’s Island prisoner camp on Lake Erie.  Finally exchanged in the summer of 1864, he regained command of his brigade serving a short time at Petersburg.  His health collapsed shortly thereafter, and he died 24 October, buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

HENRY JUDAH

Three Simcoe officers who stayed in Federal service included Henry M.  Judah and Henry M. Black and Dickinson Woodruff.  Judah and Black were both West Pointers, Class of 1843 and 1847, respectively. 

Judah, a classmate of Ulysses Grant, suffered from alcoholism, as well.  Gaining a brigadier general of volunteer rank in March of 1862, he served as Grant’s inspector general at Shiloh.  He eventually led an infantry division during the Atlanta Campaign in the Army of the Ohio under John M. Schofield but after the Battle of Resaca, Judah was removed because of poor performance and alcohol.  He served as a major commanding the garrison at Plattsburg, New York after the war before dying in 1866 at only 45 years of age.

HENRY BLACK

Black served on the Pacific Coast until June 1864.  He served as a Colonel of Volunteers, sent by General Wright to quiet the situation in northwestern California in early 1864.  Black was well on his way to doing before being sent east to become the Commandant of Cadets at West Point.  Promoted to Major and then Lieutenant Colonel during his time at West Point, he eventually became the Colonel of the Twenty-Third Regiment in 1882 retiring in 1891 from command of Fort Sam Houston, dying two years later.

a. DICKINSON WOODRUFF

Woodruff had been the lieutenant colonel of the Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers during the Mexican War.  That group saw little action during the war.  During the Civil War, Woodruff served as a major with the Twelfth US Regular Infantry in the Army of the Potomac.  He commanded the Second Battalion for much of the latter part of the war.  Following the war, he continued serving as major with the newly organized Twenty-First Regiment eventually retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

ISAAC STEVENS

Former territorial governor Isaac Stevens was responsible for the treaties of 1855 fomenting much of the frustration leading to the Yakama Wars. He graduated first in the West Point Class of 1839. After service in the Mexican War, cashing in on his strong support for Franklin Pierce’s presidential election in 1852, Stevens became governor for Washington. He left the territory in 1857 to become the territorial delegate to Congress – re-elected again in 1858.

With the Civil War, he became the colonel of the 79th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment – “Cameron Highlanders”. He jumped up to brigade command and then division command leading troops in battles with the Ninth Corps in the sea islands of North Carolina in the spring of 1862. The Ninth Corps transferred to Major General John Pope’s Army of Virginia next where Steven’s division took part in the Second Battle of Manassas.

A few days later, at Chantilly, Stevens picked up a regimental flag after several color bearers had fallen. He led his men in a successful attack on the Confederate line before, he too, fell mortally wounded.

note: PARK STATUS

You can tour the interpretative center and Commander’s House – decorated in period pieces – but you need to arrange it beforehand. Tours used to be available, but the number of visitors and lack of funds seemed to have changed this option. Five of the original buildings are still standing – three captain’s houses, the commander’s and one of the four original blockhouses.

The fort is a long way off the beaten path being 30 miles one-way west from Toppenish. It is a three-hour one-way drive from either Seattle or Portland. Telephone number is (509) 874-2372 or (509) 925-1943 for more information on the park or to book a tour. You need a Discovery Pass – $30 per year – or a daily fee of $10 to visit the park.