Esther Short Park and a Motion to Transfer Venue

by Josh Sherman

Esther Short Park sits in the heart of downtown Vancouver. It is the oldest public park in the state of Washington, dating back to 1855, and it even predates when Washington became a state in 1889. Before Esther Short Park became the public space we know and love today, it was the subject of one of the West’s first land rights disputes between local residents and a contentious murder trial.

Amos and Esther Short first arrived in Fort Vancouver on Christmas Day in 1845. The current residents of Fort Vancouver were not thrilled with Amos and Esther Short’s arrival because they were American, and Britain sought to maintain control over the land north of the Columbia River.

At the time, caretaker David Gardner watched over the plot of land where Esther Park sits today. An increasingly hostile relationship ensued between Amos Short and David Gardner, and it ended with Amos shooting David at the border between Amos’s homestead and Fort Vancouver.

Amos was arrested and feared that he would be convicted of murder in Fort Vancouver because he was unpopular with the locals to say the least. In an effort to avoid an unfair trial, Amos successfully moved to transfer venue to Hillsboro, Oregon (what is now Washington County). It proved to be a brilliant move. Amos successfully represented himself before an Oregon jury, who found that Amos acted in self-defense and acquitted him.

After his acquittal, Amos used his pro se murder trial experience as a springboard to become a successful lawyer and then judge in Fort Vancouver. As judge, Amos acquired the land where Esther Park sits today. Amos then sought to develop the area, encouraging the arrival of other American settlers.

Tragically, Amos died in a shipwreck at the Columbia River bar. After his death, wife Esther Short made it her mission to help build what is now the City of Vancouver. Esther donated the land where Esther Park sits today to the city in 1855.