Fort Nisqually was an important fur trading and farming post of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Puget Sound area of what is now DuPont, Washington. This location was chosen for its excellent ship anchorage, its convenience for overland travel, the friendliness of local tribes and its prairies for grazing animals and growing crops. The first building was a storehouse of fifteen by twenty feet built on the beach next to the Sequalitchew Indian Village. Nisqually House as it was known was built in April 1832, and had three men with a few supplies left behind to manage it. One year later in May 1833, Chief Trader Archibald MacDonald returned with Dr. William Fraser Tolmie and seven men to begin the construction of a permanent fort. The original 1833 fort site soon proved to be too small for its operations, and the fort was relocated in 1843 about a mile from the original fort, closer to Edmonds Marsh and Sequalitchew Creek. This new site was chosen because it was close to a water source and timber.