The expedition demonstrated that a great deal of the route alongside the Snake River plain and across to the Columbia was passable by pack train or with minimal enhancements, even wagons. By 1840 the HBC had 3 forts: Fort Hall (purchased from Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth in 1837), Fort Boise and Fort Nez Perce on the western close of the Oregon Trail route as nicely as Fort Vancouver in close proximity to its terminus in the Willamette Valley.