Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
| Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site | |
|---|---|
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
| U.S. National Historic Landmark | |
| U.S. National Historic Site | |
 |
|
  |
|
| Location: | Williams County, North Dakota, USA |
| Nearest city: | Buford, North Dakota |
| Coordinates: | 47°59′58″N 104°2′26″W / 47.99944°N 104.04056°WCoordinates: 47°59′58″N 104°2′26″W / 47.99944°N 104.04056°W |
| Area: | 444 acres (1.80 km2) |
| Built/Founded: | 1828 |
| Architect: | American Fur Trading Co. |
| Architectural style(s): | Greek Revival, Other |
| Visitation: | 16,940 (2005) |
| Governing body: | National Park Service |
| Added to NRHP: | October 15, 1966[1] |
| Designated NHL: | July 4, 1961[2] |
| Designated NHS: | June 20, 1966 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 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.[3]
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 including items such as beads[4], clay pipes[5], 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.[2][6]
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.
[edit] References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://www.nr.nps.gov/.
- ^ a b "Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=43&ResourceType=Site. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
- ^ John Matzko, Reconstructing Fort Union (University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 11.
- ^ De Vore, Steven LeRoy, 1992. BEADS of the BISON ROBE TRADE: The Fort Union Trading Post Collection. Friends of Fort Union Trading Post, Williston, North Dakota. http://www.nps.gov/archive/fous/booksplus.html
- ^ Sudbury, J. Byron, 2009. Politics of the Fur Trade: Clay Tobacco Pipes at Fort Union Trading Post (32WI17). Historic Clay Tobacco Pipe Studies Research Monograph 2. 225 pages. Clay Pipes Press, Ponca City, Oklahoma 74602-2282 USA. http://www.claypipes.com/FortUnion.htm
- ^ Roy A. Matteson (October 5, 1951) National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings: Fort Union, National Park Service and Accompanying 1 photo from July 1948.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
|
||||||||||
