12-13-04 Fort Vancouver, Wa... former headquarters for the Hudson Bay Company's Columbia Dept. Time to explore close to home!! I went to the fort for the annual Christmas at Fort Vancouver. They were having reinactments of what a typical Christmas would have been like for the fur traders. This pictures shows the gardens out side of the fort, they had over 2500 acres planted so as to be totally self sufficent. I think in the next picture if you look to the right you will see the I-5 bridge going over the Columbia river and get an idea of how the fort was situated along this major water way.