For centuries Indians used the trail that later became old Evergreen Highway, and where each creek entered the Columbia River they made camp. In 1805 Lewis and Clark and their expedition camped on Government Island, a haven for waterfowl. The Army from Vancouver Barracks later pastured horses on the island, and six families homesteaded and raised cattle there. In 1851 Solomon Fisher and William Simmons filed donation land claims, founded the Fishers community, built docks, and cut firewood for river steamers. In 1907 Fishers became a flagstop railroad station. It had a blacksmith shop, school, a Grange hall, church, store, cemetery established in 1852, and a post office until 1917. Evergreen Highway was paved in 1922. The Fisher quarry provided the 20-ton basaltic rock used to build Columbia River jetties to tame Pacific Ocean storms at the river mouth.