Walla Walla Fort

[Jd755]

In this image of Old Fort Walla Walla there is what looks to me to be a stepped pyramid type of structure in the left background topped by two towers or columns of some description.
Its as close as I have come to discovering an unexplained structure in America. The main subject is the fort by the river not the background structure.
Has anyone been to this fort and clapped eyes on the structure and if so could you share your observations and any photographs you took.

The above is a crop from this image. Old Fort Walla Walla

Higher resolution version. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9c/c5/b7/9cc5b7db095b1b626b789b47088860c9.jpg

 

[trismegistus]

In this image of Old Fort Walla Walla there is what looks to me to be a stepped pyramid type of structure in the left background topped by two towers or columns of some description.
Its as close as I have come to discovering an unexplained structure in America. The main subject is the fort by the river not the background structure.
Has anyone been to this fort and clapped eyes on the structure and if so could you share your observations and any photographs you took.

View attachment 30721​

The above is a crop from this image. Old Fort Walla Walla

Higher resolution version. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9c/c5/b7/9cc5b7db095b1b626b789b47088860c9.jpg

Afraid no one will be able to help you with this request....

The actual site is now under the waters of Lake Wallula behind the Columbia River's McNary Dam. A historical marker is located beside U.S. Hwy 12, 1 mile north of the crossing of the Walla Walla, 15 miles south of Pasco.

As per usual, you will have the Army Corps of Engineers to thank for destroying any possible evidence of remaining structures.

This fort was also originally called Fort Nez Pierce, and this is the only illustration I can find of it. I would also consider this structure unusual for the remote area it lies in, although the stepped pyramid with pillar structure is nowhere to be found.

Fort Nez Perce

Fort Nez Perce was constructed in 1818 by the Montreal-based North West Company. Located on the Columbia River six miles below the mouth of the Snake River and a half-mile above the mouth of the Walla Walla River, the fort was strategically sited to take advantage of the region’s indigenous trading network, while at the same time affording non-Indian fur traders a bastion of security in the midst a sometimes confrontational trading network.

In 1821 the London-based Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) took over the administration of the fort, following a merger with the North West Company. From 1823 to 1845 Fort Nez Perce became a key post in the HBC’s efforts to denude the lands of the Columbia Plateau—south of the Columbia River—of beaver, the most highly prized fur of the land-based fur trade. Leaders of the HBC’s “fur brigades” depended upon the Umatilla, Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Walla Walla bands surrounding Fort Nez Perce for an adequate supply of horses to carry out their policy of creating a “fur desert” in the lands most easily accessible by American trappers.

The wooden fort depicted in this drawing was destroyed by fire in 1841, shortly after the visit by Joseph Drayton in his travels with the “Wilkes Expedition,” a U.S. naval expedition that visited the Pacific Northwest from May through August of 1841. The fort was rebuilt primarily of adobe and continued to be a productive post for the HBC until it was destroyed by fire again in 1855 amidst a war between Americans and several of the Indian bands of the mid-Columbia region.

It is difficult to tell if the above illustrated structure is made of wood or adobe, but it doesn't look anything like the drawing this site provides below:

The walls of Nez Pierce fort look rather high to be made of adobe, as far as I understand it adobe is a common building method in remote desert areas, but adobe being made of mud bricks would be quite heavy and not really conducive to a tall structure. The structure in the first photo looks to be at least 2-3 stories tall - I'm not saying its impossible but the walls of the castle-like structure look to be made either from stone or possibly from large logs. Tall trees to cut down and use as wall defenses would not be very easy to come by in Walla Walla, though it is possible they came from barge delivery from the Columbia river from the nearby forests of Washington and Oregon.

In any case like many early American oddities in the west all we really have to go by is illustrative works and plaques erected hundreds of years after the fact.

 

[Jd755]

Thank you.
Of all the Americans who are members of this forum this thread and particularly the image only piqued the interest of one. Quite remarkable.