"Plan of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company's Land Claim at Nisqually Washington Territory," 1855. Washington State Archives, Main Branch.

Tenalquot blockhouse, pictured here in 1913. Tenalquot was one of the more important outstations of the PSAC. Courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society, Negative # OrHi 68047.

Edward Huggins resided at the Muck outstation during the Puget Sound Indian War of 1855-1856. He was to be the last head of Fort Nisqually, going on to homestead the site after the HBC withdrew. Washington State Historical Society Collections.

Farming tools at Fort Nisqually Living History Museum.Photo by Will McCabe.

The Puget's Sound Agricultural Company (PSAC) was established in 1838 by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) as a subsidiary that concentrated on farming. Major PSAC operations centered at Cowlitz Farm (near present day Toledo, Lewis County) and Fort Nisqually (in what is present day DuPont, Pierce County). The latter post served as PSAC headquarters.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company controlled a vast area of 150,000 acres between the Puyallup and Nisqually Rivers. This was too much land to be worked from Fort Nisqually itself, so outstations or satellite farms were created by the Company at strategic points in the area between the two rivers. There were even a few farms started south of the Nisqually River in what became Thurston County.

Most of the outstations began simply, as a hut for a herder and pens for cattle or sheep. They became more diverse over time. Eventually there were different types of stations: corrals and sheep parks (2-10 acres each), herdsman stations (20-40 acres), and farms (25-150 acres). A range of structures existed at the outstations, including dwelling houses for workers (both laborers and overseers), sheds, and corrals.

Some of the more important PSAC outstations were Tlithlow (Pierce County), Tenalquot (Thurston County), and Muck (Pierce County). Edward Huggins wrote in his reminiscences about life at Muck during the Puget Sound Indian War of the 1850s:

"There was a large log house on the place which stood on the south side of Muck creek and about half a mile from the timber. Myself and the hands, some twenty in number, lived in this house during the war... I pastured about two thousand sheep from Muck house which were herded by white men and Kanakas [Hawaiians]. I also had a lot of sheep, cattle, and horses at other stations on these [Nisqually] plains, and for two years, I would make weekly horseback trips around the stations, a distance of thirty or forty miles..."

In 1846 Great Britain and the United States signed a treaty which divided the Oregon Country at forty-nine degrees north latitude. Even though the international agreement protected the rights of the HBC and PSAC south of the new border, some American settlers began to encroach upon Company holdings.

The pressure of American settlers greatly hindered the work of the outstations. Only in 1869 was the conflict finally resolved, with the purchase of Company rights in the region by the United States Government. The British enterprises withdrew. Fort Nisqually's outstations were abandoned to the land-hungry Americans. Many former PSAC employees stayed, however, and claimed land in the area.

SOURCES:
Crooks, Drew W., Past Reflections: Essays on the Hudson's Bay Company in the Southern Puget Sound Region (Olympia, WA: Fort Nisqually Foundation, 2001).

Dickey, George, "The Outstations," Occurrences, vol. XII, No. 1 (Spring 1994).

Dickey, George, transcribed and edited, Tlithlow Journal Commencing 1st of January 1851; Ending 2nd of August 1851 (Tacoma, WA: Fort Nisqually Historic Site, Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma, n.d.).

Dickey, George, transcribed and edited, Tlithlow Journal Commencing 19th of November 1856; Ending 30th of April 1857 (Tacoma, WA: Fort Nisqually Historic Site, Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma, n.d.).

Huggins, Edward, Reminiscences of Puget Sound, transcribed by Gary Fuller Reese (Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Public Library, 1984).