Acreage: 443.81
Category: National Historic Site
Date Established:
06/20/1966
Fort Union Trading Post, 25 miles southwest of Williston, North Dakota, was a commercial trading post established by the American Fur Company in 1828. The location was selected to allow for trade with Upper Missouri tribes especially the Assiniboine people.
For nearly forty years, from 1828 to 1867, Fort Union Trading Post was the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri. The Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Ojibway, Blackfeet, Hidatsa, and other tribes all came to the trading post to trade buffalo robes and other furs for goods such as beads, guns, blankets, knives, cookware, and cloth.
As the profit diminished, the original Fort Union was demolished in 1867. The fort you see today is a reconstruction made to look and feel as it did in 1851. And yes, the first fort was indeed painted white. The fort's managers wanted to appear prosperous and impressive to bring in more traders. It was a business after all.
—Felicia Carr, NPCA
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