As more American settlers came to the region, many of them made a first stop at Fort Vancouver. At the fort, new arrivals could find out more about the area, and obtain supplies. In the mid-19th century, there was a changeover from the Fort to U.S. Army barracks. The international boundary between Canada and the United States was set at its current location, resolving the question of British vs. American territories in the Pacific Northwest. The British Hudson’s Bay Company coexisted with the U.S. Army for about a decade, then moved to Victoria, in British Columbia.

Furs were the first natural resource of the Northwest to be gathered and sold on a massive scale, and so were the first to decline. The fur trade was declining by the mid-19th century, and more settlers were farming. Outside the fort, the village grew through this change in the economy, with more employees arriving from Hawaii. Near the Army Barracks (the former Fort), the City of Vancouver grew to have lumber mills, docks and canneries.