Editing Hudson's Bay Company (section)

=== Additional early presence in present-day United States ===
Over and above the NWC Fort George headquarters site, the HBC carried on the early presence in the region of the NWC when it merged in 1821 with noteworthy sites: [[Spokane House]], [[Fort Okanogan]] and [[Fort Nez Percés]]. [[Fort Colville]] located further North on the Columbia River replaced Spokane House in 1825.

[[Fort Umpqua]] was established in 1832 in present-day southern [[Oregon]] after the [[Willamette River]] had been explored up toward its headwaters by mainly the NWC. Nisqually House was built during the same year to establish a presence further North on Puget Sound in present-day State of [[Washington (State)|Washington]], resulting in [[Fort Nisqually]] a few years later closer to present-day Canadian sites.

The HBC established [[Fort Boise]] in 1834 (in present-day southwestern Idaho) to compete with the American [[Fort Hall]], {{convert|483|km|mi|abbr=on}} to the east. In 1837, it purchased Fort Hall, also along the route of the [[Oregon Trail]]. The outpost director displayed the abandoned wagons of discouraged settlers to those seeking to move west along the trail.{{sfn|Mackie|1998|pp=106–107}}
[[File:Hudson's Bay Company express canoe.jpg|thumb|left|HBC officials in an express canoe crossing a lake, 1825]]

HBC trappers were also deeply involved in the early exploration and development of [[Northern California]]. Company trapping brigades were sent south from Fort Vancouver, along what became known as the [[Siskiyou Trail]], into Northern California as far south as the [[San Francisco Bay Area]], where the company operated a trading post at [[Yerba Buena, California|Yerba Buena]] ([[San Francisco]]). The southern-most camp of the company was [[French Camp, California#History|French Camp]], east of San Francisco in the Central Valley adjacent to the future site of the city of [[Stockton, California|Stockton]].  These trapping brigades in Northern California faced serious risks, and were often the first to explore relatively uncharted territory. They included the lesser known [[Peter Skene Ogden]] and [[Samuel Black]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Paterson |first=TW |date=7 September 2019 |title=T.W. Paterson column: Peter Skene Ogden the latest victim of map mending |url=https://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/t-w-paterson-column-peter-skene-ogden-the-latest-victim-of-map-mending/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190916011255/https://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/t-w-paterson-column-peter-skene-ogden-the-latest-victim-of-map-mending/ |archive-date=16 September 2019 |access-date=17 December 2020 |website=BC Local News |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Maloney |first=Alice B. |date=March 1936 |title=[[s:en:Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/Number 1#9|Hudson's Bay Company in California]] |work=[[Oregon Historical Quarterly]]}}</ref>

The HBC also operated a store in what were then known as the Sandwich Islands (now the [[Hawaiian Islands]]), engaging in merchant shipping to the islands between 1828 and 1859.<ref>Spoehr, A. "A 19th Century Chapter in Hawaii's maritime history" ''Hawaiian Journal of History'' 1988 (vol 22)</ref>

Extending the presence it had built in present-day British Columbia northern coast, the HBC reached by 1838 as far North as [[Fort Stikine]] in the [[Alaska Panhandle]] by present-day [[Wrangell]]. The [[RAC-HBC agreement]] (1839) with the [[Russian American Company]] (RAC) provided for such a continuing presence in exchange for the HBC to supply the Russian coastal sites with agricultural products. The [[Puget Sound Agricultural Company]] subsidiary was created to supply grain, dairy, livestock and manufactured goods out of Fort Vancouver, Fort Nisqually, [[Cowlitz Farm|Fort Cowlitz]] and [[Fort Langley]] in present-day southern British Columbia.

The company's stranglehold on the region was broken by the [[Oregon Trail#Great Migration of 1843|first successful large wagon train to reach Oregon in 1843]], led by [[Marcus Whitman]]. In the years that followed, thousands of emigrants poured into the [[Willamette Valley]] of Oregon. In 1846, the United States acquired full authority south of the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]]; the most settled areas of the Oregon Country were south of the Columbia River in what is now Oregon. McLoughlin, who had once turned away would-be settlers when he was company director, then welcomed them from his general store at [[Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City]]. He later became known as the "Father of Oregon".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van Voorhies Holman |first=Frederick |title=Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon |publisher=Nabu Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1279056677}}</ref>