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Fort Simcoe State Park

The 200-acre day use park has an interpretive center depicting the site’s history, as well as original 19th century and newly reconstructed buildings.

Fort Simcoe was established in August 1856, the year after a defeat of United States troops under Major G. O. Holler by Yakama Native Americans.

It was maintained as an army post until May 22, 1859. From that year until 1923, Fort Simcoe housed the Yakama Indian Agency and a school for tribal members. A restoration project was started in 1953 by Washington State Parks & Recreation Commission. The name is from the Yakama word Sim-ku-wee or Sim-kwee, meaning a saddle. It refers to a saddle on a ridge north of the fort.

According to General George B. McClellan, who as a young lieutenant visited the site in 1853, the Yakama had a fort here as early as 1849 to ward off the Cayuse. The buildings of the Army post were constructed by the soldiers of the garrison, two companies under command of Major Robert Selden Garnett. Four buildings built in Maine, knocked down, shipped around Cape Horn, up the Columbia River and over the hills to Simcoe by pack-train, cost the Government nearly $350,000. The main building, the only one of the original group to escape razing or alteration, was once the commander’s residence, and later the Indian Agency headquarters.

The first Indian agent, R. H. Lonsdale, appointed in 1860, was relieved several months later when serious charges were brought against him. A. A. Bancroft was appointed in 1861 by President Lincoln. His mishandling of the Native Americans brought remonstrances from James H. Wilbur, Superintendent of Schools. Bancroft had Wilbur removed, with the result that Wilbur, with abundant evidence and data, appeared before President Lincoln. The President recalled Bancroft, appointing Wilbur in his place in 1864. His tenure lasted 16 years. Known to the Native Americans as Father Wilbur, he was honest yet severe; it is said an oak tree, near the buildings, served as a whipping post.

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