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Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site is part of the National Park System. It lies right on the Montana/North Dakota border, about 25 miles southwest of Williston. More importantly, it looks over the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, a very pretty spot indeed. The Lewis & Clark Connection |
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Before checking into the Fort itself (which was built in 1829), let's consider what Lewis & Clark saw here some quarter of a century earlier. As mentioned above, the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers come together at this point. When the Corps of Discovery passed by here, Lewis was taken with the place. Of course, the waters themselves are quite appealing and appeared to be likely candidates for future travel routes. And the surrounding land, populated with many grasses and trees, seemed to account for every need. The expedition noted that this might be a good setting for a fort some day. |
"...this long wished for spot." — Meriwether Lewis |
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Incidentally, Lewis & Clark had gone through quite a bit of hardship just to get this far and perhaps had underestimated what was yet before them, hence the optimistic statement in the sidebar above. That just goes to show how little was known about the immense purchase made by Jefferson from the French and how, in some ways, the Corps of Discovery was really unprepared for such a journey. To get a feel for the beauty of the locale, be sure to see the painting of the confluence by Karl Bodmer. (There's a link to the picture below). You've already heard me rhapsodize about this 19th century Swiss artist in the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center page. John Jacob Astor and the Fur TradeSome 25 years later, the American Fur Company built Fort Union at this site. The year was 1829 and beaver hats were still the craze (but this was soon to change). Tycoon John Jacob Astor sent in the estimable Kenneth McKenzie, a Scot by birth, to oversee the construction of the fort. After it was built, McKenzie assumed the rôle of bourgeois, or supervisor. The fort was truly an impressive affair. Enclosed by a massive stockade some 18 feet high, it featured a pair of two-story stone bastions at diagonal corners of the plot. Built into the stockade were stores, workshops, a bell tower and lodgings. For security reasons, the gates were arranged so that the traders on the outside and inside were kept apart from each other; it would be impossible to "smash and run" with any of the goods. The picture below shows how the fort and its battlements look today. Remember, you can click the thumbnail to enlarge it to full size. |
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But actually, changes were in the wind almost from day one. For by the late 1830s two events came about that worked in tandem to bring an end to those halcyon days of fur trade and mountain men. First, silk replaced beaver as the fashionable material for men's top hats. And at about the same time, the beaver had been over-trapped in the West, its population seriously reduced. (These two events played pivotal roles in James Michener's classic, Centennial). The American Fur Company was able to weather these changes for a time by moving more into the buffalo robe trade. But eventually, even this came to an end when the herds were severely diminished and the white man's smallpox annihilated the Indian traders. |
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Fort Union TodayWe visited Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site as part of our fantastic Little Bighorn Battlefield trip of 2002. (Traveling from Minnesota through North Dakota on to Montana made this a natural stop). Using Theodore Roosevelt National Park as our bivouac base, we took a day trip to the fort on Saturday, May 14. This is a fairly new member of the National Park Service, having been reconstructed during the years of 1985-1989, at a cost of some $4 million. After extensive archeological surveys, which uncovered the foundations of component buildings (along with various artifacts from the era), the Park Service faithfully rebuilt the fort so that it looks virtually the same as it would have in Astor's day. Best of all, the surrounding territory of trees, rivers and grasses has remained pretty much intact. It's easy to feel transported back two centuries in time. Even though we came here via North Dakota, the entrance road takes you into Montana for a brief spell, and then back into North Dakota. We arrived on a somewhat blustery day, so the interpreters, dressed in garments of 200 years ago, had built a small fire in the fireplace. By the way, Bourgeois House serves as the Visitor Center and contains a very fine museum and book store. |
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| Contact Information | Links to Related Resources | |
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Fort Union Trading Post NHS 15550 Hwy 1804 Williston, ND 58801 Phone: (701) 572-9083 Email: FOUS_Superintendent@nps.gov |
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All photography by Thomas Henry unless otherwise noted.
Entire contents © 2001-2005 Thomas Henry