LCPS Presents! Part One: The Real Jane Barnes

In 1814, a flaxen-haired barmaid from Portsmouth, England arrived at Fort George- and the Columbia River had never seen anything like her. Jane Barnes became the first known European woman in the Oregon Country, and her brief, whirlwind time on the lower Columbia sparked jealousy, courtship, rumor, and heartbreak among the fur traders and Chinook nobility alike, including a spurned proposal from a son of Chief Concomly himself.
Join Lauri Serafin for a look at Jane Barnes's remarkable 1813–1818 saga: her arrival aboard the Isaac Todd, her entanglement with North West Company partners, the tragedy that cut her Fort George chapter short, and the mystery of what became of her after she sailed away. Equal parts scandal and survival story, Jane Barnes's tale offers a rare, human glimpse into life at the edge of the frontier- and a reminder that history's most "salacious" figures are often its most misunderstood.