Editing Fort Vancouver (section)

==Americans==
The HBC, which controlled the fur trade in much of what Americans styled the [[Oregon Country]], had previously discouraged settlement because it interfered with the lucrative fur trade. By 1838, however, American settlers were coming across the [[Rocky Mountains]] and their numbers increased each subsequent year. Many left from [[St. Louis, Missouri]], and followed a fairly straight, but difficult, route called the [[Oregon Trail]]. For many settlers the fort became the last stop on the Oregon Trail where they could get supplies before starting their homestead.

During the [[Great Migration of 1843]] an estimated 700 to 1,000 American settlers arrived via the Oregon Trail.