She brought other voices to light

Tracy Fortmann, superintendent of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, just received two awards from the National Park Service for cultural resource stewardship. (Troy Wayrynen/The Columbian)

People inside the imposing log stockade were a big part of what happened at Fort Vancouver 180 years ago, but they weren't the whole story.

Other voices contributed to that story, in a lot of languages.

That's why Tracy Fortmann, superintendent of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, recently showed off a modest cabin west of the stockade. Another house is taking shape nearby. The structures represent life for vast majority of people who lived in the village that supported the Hudson's Bay Company trading center.

The buildings within the stockade — including the elegantly furnished reconstructed home of John McLoughlin — "admirably tell the story of the people in power," Fortmann said. "Thirty or 35 people lived in the fort.

"I was caught up in the notion of the people in the village. The fort would not have been successful without the backbone of the village," Fortmann said.

"I am very passionate about the village site. It was an amazing place made up of more than 30 different American Indian groups, Hawaiians, English, Americans, French-Canadians, Irish, Portuguese and Scots" as well as métis, whose parents were Indians and French-Canadian.

With 600 to 1,000 people, it was for a time the largest settlement between Sitka, Alaska, and the city now known as San Francisco, she said.

"I pushed for the full story."

The fuller accounting of history is one reason Fortmann was awarded two Pacific West Region honors by the National Park Service. Fortmann received the regional Appleman-Judd-Lewis Award for Cultural Resource Stewardship and was named the region's Superintendent of the Year for cultural resource stewardship.

The regional award puts Fortmann in contention for the national Appleman-Judd-Lewis award.

In his announcement, Regional Director Jon Jarvis credited Fortmann with building a strong cultural resource program that works with partners within the Vancouver National Historical Reserve as well as around the region.

The effort resulted in the Northwest Cultural Resources Institute, a center based at Fort Vancouver that Fortmann said she's pleased to have helped create. It brings National Parks Service specialists together with university researchers at a laboratory that Fortmann called "a cultural resource dream."

"Archaeology, curation and collections, history, ethnography — it's all at one location, right here," Fortmann said.

The institute's academic partners include Washington State University Vancouver, Portland State University and the University of Washington. Ten graduate-level students are doing their thesis or dissertation work at Fort Vancouver, said Fortmann, who came here in 2000 after serving as chief of public affairs and special events for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco.

This is the second time Fortmann has earned regional recognition. She also received the award for cultural resources stewardship in 2002.

Tom Vogt: 360-735-4558 or tom.vogt@columbian.com.