Fort Simcoe Historical State Park tells the story of Euro-American settler expansion into the Yakama Nation territory, and the dispossession of the Yakama people from their water and timber-rich lands within an otherwise arid climate. Fort Simcoe is one of the last few pre-Civil War forts still left in the western U.S., and today, you can explore the interpretive panels about Native Americans and the Fort’s history, original and reconstructed military structures, and hiking trails amidst the gentle hills of the Yakima Valley. Yakama tribes long used this area as a camping ground, but came into conflict with settlers encroaching on the land and using valuable resources in the 1840s and 1850s. In response to the fighting, the U.S. Army established Fort Simcoe in 1856, although it was closed and given to the Bureau of Indian Affairs by 1959. Shortly after, the Bureau of Indian Affairs turned the Fort into a boarding school where Yakama children were forced to assimilate to Christian and Euro-American culture. The school building burned in 1955 and no longer stands, but the land carries the history of abuses perpetuated against Yakama peoples over its years of operation.
The name “Simcoe” comes from the Yakama word “Sim-ku-ee,” referring to a dip in a nearby ridge. Fort Simcoe sits within the Yakima Indian Reservation and the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission administers the park under a 99-year lease from the Yakama Nation.
