Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site

Infobox_protected_area | name = Fort Union Trading Post
National Historic Site

---

caption =
locator_x = 107
locator_y = 28
location = Williams County, North Dakota & Roosevelt County, Montana, USA
nearest_city = Williston, North Dakota
lat_degrees = 47
lat_minutes = 59
lat_seconds = 58
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 104
long_minutes = 02
long_seconds = 26
long_direction = W
area = 444 acres (1.8 km²)
established = June 20, 1966
visitation_num = 16,940
visitation_year = 2005
governing_body = National Park ServiceInfobox_nrhp | name =Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
nrhp_type =nhl

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caption =
nearest_city= Buford, North Dakota
locmapin = North Dakota
area =
built =1828
architect= American Fur Trading Co.
architecture= Greek Revival, Other
designated= July 04, 1961cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=43&ResourceType=Site
title=Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site |accessdate=2008-01-21|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added = October 15, 1966cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
governing_body =
refnum=66000103

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site is the site of a partially reconstructed trading post on the Missouri River and the North Dakota/Montana border twenty-five miles from Williston. It is one of the earliest declared National Historic Landmarks of the United States. The fort, perhaps first known as Fort Henry, was built in 1828 or 1829 by the Upper Missouri Outfit managed by Kenneth McKenzie and capitalized by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. [John Matzko, "Reconstructing Fort Union" (University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 11.]

Fort Union Trading Post was the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri until 1867. At this post, the Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Ojibway, Blackfeet, Hidatsa, and other tribes traded buffalo robes and furs for trade goods such as beads, guns, blankets, knives, cookware, cloth, and especially alcohol. Historic visitors to the fort included John James Audubon, George Catlin, Father Pierre DeSmet, Sitting Bull, Karl Bodmer, and Jim Bridger.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. citation|title= PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/66000103.pdf National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings: Fort Union] |228 KiB |date=October 5, 1951 |author=Roy A. Matteson |publisher=National Park Service and PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/66000103.pdf "Accompanying 1 photo from July 1948."] |68.5 KiB ]

Today, the reconstructed Fort Union memorializes a brief period in American history when two cultures found common ground and mutual benefit through commercial exchange and cultural acceptance.

References

External links

* [http://www.nps.gov/fous/ Fort Union Trading Post Historic Site at NPS.gov]