174.24.127.131 at 06:01, 21 September 2024

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{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Fort Pierre Chouteau Site
| nrhp_type = nhl
| image = Fort Pierre Chouteau Site.jpg
| caption = Fields at the site
| nearest_city = [[Fort Pierre, South Dakota]]
| coordinates = {{coord|44|23|21|N|100|23|28|W|format=dms|display=inline,title|type:landmark_region:US-SD}}
| locmapin = South Dakota#USA
| area =
| architect =
| architecture =
| designated_nrhp_type = July 17, 1991<ref name=nhlsum>{{cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1670&ResourceType=Site|title=Fort Pierre Chouteau Site|accessdate=2008-06-14|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090614235534/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1670&ResourceType=Site|archive-date=2009-06-14|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| added = April 3, 1976<ref name=nris>{{NRISref|2008a}}</ref>
| refnum = 76001756<ref name=nhlsum/>
}}

'''Fort Pierre Chouteau''', also just '''Fort Pierre''', was a major trading post and military outpost in the mid-19th century on the west bank of the [[Missouri River]] in what is now central [[South Dakota]]. Established in 1832 by [[Pierre Chouteau, Jr.]] of [[St. Louis, Missouri]], whose family were major fur traders, this facility operated through the 1850s.

It was for many years the largest trading post in the northern [[Great Plains]] and a major trans-shipment point for [[American bison|buffalo]] furs. The archaeological remains of the fort, located in [[Stanley County, South Dakota|Stanley County]] just north of the town of [[Fort Pierre, South Dakota|Fort Pierre]], were declared a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1991.<ref name=nhlsum/><ref name=nrhpinv>{{cite web|url={{NHLS url|id=76001756}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination|date=December 1990|publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>

==Setting==

[[File:Fort Pierre on the Missouri. Painted by Karl Bodmer, who visited the fort in 1833.jpg|thumb|upright 1.2|''Fort Pierre on the Missouri.'' Painting by [[Karl Bodmer]], who visited the fort in 1833. View from the plains.]]
[[File:The trading post Fort Pierre, South Dakota,1857. From painting by General Alfred Sully.jpg|thumb|upright 1.2|''Fort Pierre, South Dakota, 1857.'' Engraving of the trading post from a painting by General [[Alfred Sully]]. View from across the Missouri.]]
Fort Pierre Chouteau was located just north of the confluence of the Missouri and [[Bad River (South Dakota)|Bad]] rivers, on a low terrace above the west bank of the Missouri River. This site was of strategic importance for several reasons. It served as a midpoint among the outposts of the [[American Fur Company]] (AFC), which monopolized trade on the upper Missouri by 1830, and as an endpoint for a major overland shipment route to [[Fort Laramie]] in present-day eastern [[Wyoming]].

This fort was built as a replacement for [[Fort Tecumseh]], located on what is now LaFramboise Island closer to the river confluence. The island fort had been built in 1817 by the [[Columbia Fur Company]], the AFC's predecessor in the regional fur trade. That fort was poorly sited and subject to flooding from the river. Some of its timber elements were reused in the construction of Fort Pierre Chouteau.<ref name=nrhpinv/>

==History==

The first people of European descent to encounter Native Americans in the Fort Pierre area were a pair of French explorers, the [[Verendrye brothers' journey to the Rocky Mountains|La Vérendrye]] brothers, during their 1743–44 expedition. They buried an inscribed lead plate on a hill near the confluence of the Missouri and Bad Rivers, claiming the territory for the King as part of [[New France]].

The next major non-native visitors were members of the American [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]], who camped in the area in 1804. They were commissioned by the United States government to explore and survey major areas of the [[Louisiana Purchase]] of 1803. In 1817 trader [[Magdelaine Laframboise|Joseph La Framboise, Jr.]], son of parents from Quebec and Ontario who were fur traders in the region, established a French-Canadian trading post here. His mother was [[Métis]] and took over the post in [[Michilimackinac]], [[Michigan]] after her husband's death. The development of the trading post marked the start of permanent white settlement of the Missouri/Bad River area.<ref name=mgmt>{{cite web|url=https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/579002 |title=Management Plan for Fort Pierre Chouteau Historic Site|publisher=State of South Dakota|access-date=2017-05-15}}</ref>

In 1822, former fur traders for the privately held, British [[Hudson's Bay Company]] established the [[Columbia Fur Company]] in competition. They built Fort Tecumseh as well as other outposts on the Upper Missouri. In 1827 [[John Jacob Astor]] through his [[American Fur Company]], a near monopoly, purchased the assets of the Columbia Fur Company. The AFC turned management of the Upper Missouri Operation (UMO) over to [[Bernard Pratte]] and [[Pierre Chouteau, Jr.]] of [[St. Louis, Missouri]]. When Chouteau ascended the Missouri River in 1832 on the maiden voyage of the steamship ''[[Yellowstone (steamboat)|Yellowstone]]'', he ordered construction of what was formally dubbed Fort Pierre in his honor. Astor retired from the fur business in 1834, and Chouteau purchased the Fort Pierre operation. He eventually bought out Pratte and became the principal operator of this post and its fur trade.

Fort Pierre and the surrounding community rapidly developed as a major center for Chouteau's trading business. In addition to its central location for company logistics, it was also generally surrounded by a settlement of Lakota [[Sioux]] and other [[Plains Indian]] tribes, who traded buffalo furs for American and European goods. At its height in the 1850s, the company was part of a complex trading network extending from the [[Rocky Mountains]] to the Eastern United States and Europe: it shipped 100,000 fur robes through Fort Pierre.<ref name=nrhpinv/>

In the 1850s the American bison or buffalo was subjected to extreme over-huntings, caused in part by the fur trade and high world demand, but also spurred by the advance of American railroads into the western frontier. There was an increase in the number of men who hunted the animals for sport and killed as many as they could shoot. Pierre Chouteau sold the fort that bore his name to the United States government in 1854. The government found the facilities inadequate and abandoned them in 1857 in favor of [[Fort Randall]] to the south. Salvageable buildings and materials were transported to Fort Randall, and any surviving timbers were used to fuel steamboats on the river. The trade in buffalo furs effectively ended by the early 1860s, when the [[United States Army]] established a presence in the region. <ref name=nrhpinv/>

==After closure==

Fort Pierre Chouteau became part of [[Indian reservation|reservation]] lands assigned to the Sioux in the [[Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)|Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868]]. When the [[Dakota Territory]] was partitioned in 1889 and the Sioux reservation was reduced in size, the fort's land became available for [[homesteading]]. It was used as pasture land until 1930, when it was acquired by the state of South Dakota. The state property was further enlarged by a land gift in 1970. [[Archaeological]] activity in the 1980s identified a number of elements of the fort's structure, confirming its location.<ref name=nrhpinv/>

The site is now an open meadow just north of the city limits of Fort Pierre, on the north side of Fort Chouteau Road. It was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1976 and became a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1991. A stone marker is located near the center of the site, accessible by a gravel path. There are no visible remains of the fort's buildings and infrastructure. The state is developing plans for improved access and interpretation at the site.<ref name=mgmt/>

==See also==

*[[List of National Historic Landmarks in South Dakota]]
*[[National Register of Historic Places listings in Stanley County, South Dakota]]

==References==

{{reflist}}

==External links==

{{commonscat-inline|Fort Pierre Chouteau}}

{{National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota}}

[[Category:National Historic Landmarks in South Dakota]]
[[Category:Geography of Stanley County, South Dakota]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota]]
[[Category:South Dakota in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Forts in South Dakota|Pierre]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Stanley County, South Dakota]]
[[Category:American Fur Company]]
[[Category:Forts along the Missouri River]]
[[Category:Military installations established in 1832]]
[[Category:1832 establishments in the United States]]

Fort Pierre Chouteau - Revision history

174.24.127.131 at 06:01, 21 September 2024