I visited Ft. Union while on my Lewis and Clark expedition back in 2009. Though not an official L & C site, Ft. Union was perhaps the most important trading post on the Upper Missouri River during the middle part of the nineteenth century. Many Northern Plains Indian tribes traded buffalo robes and other furs for numerous goods including blankets, beads, guns, and knives. From the early 1830s to the mid-1860s, this was mostly a peaceable area between and among Natives and Whites, but an increase in settlers traveling west brought increased friction and hostility to the region, forcing closure of the facility in 1867. What exists today is a partial reconstruction of the fort based on written descriptions, sketches, paintings, and archaeological findings.
