The Northwest is awash with Pioneer Blockhouses: 23 along the Columbia River, Whidbey Island once with 11 down to 4. The Farm’s work is commissioned, but not yet completed. Logs have been purchased from a pioneer barn torn down in the Port Angeles area (and hauled over by volunteers using borrowed trailers). We thank them. “Book learning” only goes so far. There is nothing like a visual experience to sense and understand the time. 
There is local history for those who can fly – blockhouses exist 15 miles to the west (60 miles if you drive). Whidbey Island had several families who built blockhouses, ours being modelled (and this prose somewhat taken) from the Crockett Blockhouse found west of Coupeville. Attacks by Indians in Seattle and Bellingham in 1855 had created consternation among the pioneer settlements on Puget Sound. The tradition of blockhouse defenses was well known to settlers, dating from the earliest English Colonies. Seattle built 3 blockhouses as shown below. The weaponry of the time required all to be at close quarters and in 1856 Natives had little chance of surprise. The braves from different tribes did not speak the same language. Reverting to Chinook Jargon that some of them knew, their shouts were easily countered by pioneers who also understood Chinook Jargon. A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, a narrow window in a wall through which defenders fire against attackers. Usually, it was a single building standing at a defensive strong point against any enemy that did not have cannons. This immediate area neither had people nor blockhouses in 1855. The 1862 Snohomish County Census counted a populace of 44 and all were men – no family units, no women, no children; only 12 were foreign immigrants. Quite a number had been constrained; see Sheriff Salem A Woods’ note below.
https://www.historylink.org/file/20999
http://www.fortwiki.com/Ebey_Blockhouse
https://windermerewhidbeyisland.com/2021/08/30/crockett-blockhouse
https://www.nps.gov/places/ebey-s-reserve-the-alexander-blockhouse.htm
http://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Pioneer-Blockhouse.pdf
http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/forts_columbia_river.html
http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/fort_cascades.html
https://chronline.com/stories/julie-mcdonald-commentary-white-settlers-flee-to-blockhouses-during-indian-wars,300549
History Farm Prose & Primary Level Question
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