Fort Vancouver audio tour

Here's one you won't find on-line, even if you try.

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, in Vancouver, Washington features a recreated 1860s fur trading post on the banks of the Columbia River.  They created a very good audio tour of the post buildings a few years ago -- before everyone had an iPod.  So you have to check out a little audio player as you enter the post.  The site's Web site has some podcasts created by its ambitious chief  ranger, but the audio tour isn't available for download.  

The full tour takes about an hour and it introduces us to the buildings on the fort site by telling the stories of the people who used them.  The fort commander's big white house is brought to life by telling the story of the officers' dinners he would host in the main dining room (and of the intimate lunches his wife hosted elsewhere in the house).  

Each stop on the tour is a couple minutes long, and some stops give you the option to hear more information about a particular subject by keying in a number on the device.  Otherwise, it tells you where to walk next and when next to hit the "play" button.

The narrator is excellent and the script is obviously written for the ear.  It uses place well, often beginning with a statement like "Notice the expensive china on the table..." to focus your attention on one detail and then it broadens the narrative to make a larger point (in this case, it used the china to explain why certain luxuries were important to the people, even this far out on the frontier).  The tour goes through the main buildings on the fort and talks a bit about modern-day archeology.  It uses music and sound effects to good effect without going too far overboard.

I especially like the point as I walked between two buildings where the tour guide asks, "How many logs do you think make up the fort wall?"  It acknowledged where I was and gave me a chance to look up and consider the scene in front of me in a way I wouldn't have otherwise.

When I visited, it was late on a weekday afternoon and there were very few visitors rangers around to interpret the site.  So the tour was a huge help in understanding the hidden meanings behind the sights I was seeing.

In many ways the dedicated player is better than an iPod because it pauses automatically after each track and has an easy interface for getting more information.  You don't want to spend too much of an audio tour explaining button-pushes and logistics.  This device was well-suited to its content...and vice versa.   Still, I wish it was available for download so people could come prepared...or listen to tour stops they missed after they leave.


There's more to this site than just the Hudson Bay Company fur trading fort, so plan on a few hours if you're visiting this neat park.