The 150 year old Hudson Bay Bastion in Nanaimo Vancouver Island BC Canada
The Bastion is the oldest original freestanding Hudson’s Bay Company fort in North America. The Bastion was designated a Municipal Heritage Building on December 2, 1985 and is listed on the Canadian Register of Heritage Properties. It is the oldest building in Nanaimo and possibly the second oldest in British Columbia. Most Hudson’s Bay Company Forts were established for fur trading for the European market, but in Nanaimo the Company built the Bastion to serve as a company office, arsenal and storage facility, and in the event of enemy insurgency, a safe haven for miners and their families. It is the only known Hudson’s Bay Company fort that focused primarily on coal mining rather then fur trading. Joseph McKay, a company clerk, supervised the building. According to Hudson's Bay Company journals, 11 HBC employees and a group of First Nation men worked on the Bastion. It is constructed of hand-hewn logs using a broad axe and an adze which allowed for a close fit and smooth surface. They used a French-Canadian construction method called ‘”poteau-sur-sole”. The advantage of this technique was its strength and allowed the men to use various thicknesses of logs. The Bastion was originally thirty-six feet in height, octagonal in shape with three floors. The first and second floors are 19 feet across and the third floor is feet across. The structure was built without the use of nails. The roof was originally covered with cedar bark and the structure was painted with lime made from clamshells. A June 2, 1853 letter from Joseph McKay to James Douglas states “The Bastion is nearly finished.”
Size: 3733px × 5620px
Location: Nanaimo Harbour Vancouver Island BC British Columbia Canada
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -loved, 150, 2003!, amazing, america, arsenal, bastion, bay, building, city, city., clerk, community, company, construction, endearing, facility, families, fort, fortress, freestanding, fur, harbour, haven, historic, hudson’, joseph, mckay, men, method, miners, monument, nanaimo, nation, north, office, oldest, original, people, pioneering, poteau-sur-sole”, safe, sea, secure, spirit, storage, stronghold, supervisor, symbol, trading, turned, william, years
