Seeking to dominate the regions explored by Lewis and Clark, John Jacob Astor sent expeditions overland and by sea to seize the mouth of the Columbia. The schooner Tonquin arrived first, and work began on this site April 12, 1811. Early settlers recalled budding foliage and buildings of board tightly covered and roofed with cedar bark, and later palisades were raised against the Indians. Adventurers from across the vast wilderness gathered here. In 1814, the Oregon Country's first white woman, the English barmaid Jane Barnes, lived here. The site also saw the true beginnings of stock raising, farming, and shipbuilding in the region. To avoid capture during the War of 1812, the property was sold to the North West Company and operated as Fort George until its abandonment in 1825, when the Hudson's Bay Company moved headquarters to Fort Vancouver. The buildings decayed, and modern Astoria rose upon the site.