While other traders were arriving by ship, the North West Company was approaching the Pacific Northwest by land in search of furs, primarily beaver. However, there were no attempts to settle in what is now Washington, with the exception of a Spanish garrison that in 1792 spent a few months at Neah Bay on the Olympic Peninsula before leaving under pressure from the Makah Indians who lived there. Europeans had established outposts elsewhere, such as at Nootka Sound on Vancouver island. Since the 1700s, Spanish, Russian, British, and American ships had been exploring the Northwest coast and trading with the local inhabitants, mostly for furs. It was the fur trade that first drew non-Indians to the area that is now Washington. For 16 years it is the headquarters for the fur trade between the Rockies and the Cascades, and a major commercial and social center in the region. Spokane House is the first longterm non-Indian settlement in what is now Washington state. In 1810, the Canadian North West Company establishes a fur-trading post called Spokane House where the Little Spokane River joins the Spokane River, about 10 miles downstream from the current location of the city of Spokane in Eastern Washington.
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