Travel......Fort Union, North Dakota

Home of Alexander McKenzie, founder of Fort Union

To ask if Fort Union has a history is like asking why is there a Williamsburg.  

Fort Union is synonymous with the fur trade. This fort and the trading posts like it, owned by the American Fur Company, made their owner, John Jacob Astor, enough money to buy Manhatten.  He darned near ended up owning New York as a result of his fur trade business.

Park Service Signage Ft. Union

Fort Union was built in 1828 at the confluence of the Missouri and the Yellowstone. 








It served three resident tribes. One was the Assiniboin who ruled the confluence area and to the north into what is now Canada. Second were the Crow's who lived further up the Yellowstone and ruled that area with an iron fist. The third customer base or tribe was the Blackfeet who reigned over the upper Missouri.

Stone bastions were watch towers and defensive posts

Building a business in the midst of these three tribes would take the same amount of present day guts as walking across Afghanistan and Iraq without a weapon and alone.

A Pirogue replica used in transportion on the Missouri

Some days they were happy to see the traders and others, look out. The fort did well for the first few years. That is until around around 1857 when a couple of smallpox epidemics depopulated the region. From that point on there was no one to trade and the place fell into ruin. 

The Missouri previously ran right under this bank. It has moved 200 yards further out and can be seen in the background. This shot is from the front gate of Fort Union.

In later years, the Sioux would move into the vacuum caused by evacuation and destruction of the three tribes. Fort Union fell into ruin and the US Army would cannibalize it to build Fort Buford a couple of miles away.

Unlike Fort Union which was built for commerce and trade, Buford was built for war with the Sioux. Buford stands today as a living history museum as does Fort Union.

Fort Union's Bourgeois House in September of 2010

You can find both in far western North Dakota. They are about a mile east of the Montana state line and approximately fifty miles south of the Canadian border. Look for them just south of Highway Two, about twenty-five miles west of Williston, North Dakota.

The country is absolutely some of the prettiest land I have ever seen. However, I stupidly locked my keys in the rental car I did not get to finish my visit or my photography project. I will return to Fort Union someday. 

If you are a student of the fur trade this is one place you have to visit. Notice the opulence of the Bourgeois or "booshway" house where Alexander McKenzie lived. Supposedly it was the most luxurious home or business north of St. Louis. Even though he worked for Astor, McKenzie absolutely ruled the upper Missouri. 

Notice the bases for what I hope Park Service is able to rebuild in the future. Two long buildings are missing. They housed among other things, over one hundred employees in the hay days of trade.

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