If you want to get a real taste of what life at Fort Vancouver felt like nearly two centuries ago, try exploring the place in the darkness and hush of nighttime — with a simple candle lantern as your guide. Evening lantern tours of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site are now open for reservations for the 2019-2020 winter season.
“We have regular tour programs during the day, but this is a more intimate, personal journey. You’re immersed,” said Aaron Ochoa, chief of interpretation at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. “The ambiance of the night … really allows you to step back into history and experience things in a more intimate way.”
Don’t worry, you’re not actually on your own in the historical darkness. A park ranger will provide enlightening commentary while steering small groups to several buildings in the reconstructed fort.
Costumed living history interpreters, including many graduates of the site’s Youth Volunteer programs, will be bustling about in the Counting House, Fur Store, Chief Factor’s House, Kitchen and Bake House, showing off the many activities that would have been underway during evening hours at Fort Vancouver in the 1840s.
If You Go
What: Lantern Tours at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
When: Nov. 23 and 30; Dec. 21 and 28; Jan. 18 and 25; Feb. 22 and 29. Arrive by 6:45 p.m. for 7 p.m. tour.
Where: The reconstructed fort at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, 1001 E. Fifth St.
Cost: $25 for adults, $10 for youth 15 and under.
Reservations and payments: www.friendsfortvancouver.org
Clerks, cooks, furriers, military officers, children, wives and community leaders all get to have their say. For example, you’ll drop by the quarters of the Barkley family and listen in as they discuss the anxious news of the day: a looming shift of national boundaries, converting the land under their feet from Great Britain to the United States.
“You’ll get a sense of the tension of the employees of this British establishment, the Hudson’s Bay Company, when things are about to change,” Ochoa said.
Activities in the kitchen will provide an entirely different feel for history, Ochoa added: “The volunteers will be cooking and you’ll smell it, you’ll see it, you’ll feel the heat coming from the hearth.”
The fort’s lantern tours are always popular, and reservations are required via www.friendsfortvancouver.org. Admission is $25 per adult and $10 per youth. All lantern tours are rain or shine and last approximately 90 minutes; they’re not recommended for children under the age of 10. Please arrive at 6:45 p.m. for the tour, which will start promptly at 7 p.m.
Ochoa said his favorite aspect of lantern tours at the fort is the young volunteers who’ve dedicated themselves to understanding local history and sharing it with others.
“They develop so many skills, including public speaking skills,” he said. “Whenever I get to hear our youth bringing these stories to life, whenever I get to watch a student pour their passion into this — I always take a step back. No matter what building I’m in or who’s speaking, that’s my favorite moment.”
