FORT PIERRE CHOUTEAU - PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA
FORT PIERRE CHOUTEAU - PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA
Built in 1832 by the American Fur Company Fort Pierre Choteau was the largest fur trading post on the upper Missouri River. With the size and placement Fort Pierre Choteau became the center of commerce and was the most important European settlement in the entire region.
The fort was situated to be able to draw from all quarters of the Lakota area where buffalo robes were gathered and shipped to New York where the company made a great deal of money from them. There were an average of 17,000 buffalo robes traded each year at the fort. For the furs the traders got guns, shot, powder, tobacco, blankets, cloth, sugar, salt, coffee and beads. It is reported that there were times when the fort was surrounded by American Indian tepees. This area became a major player in the establishment of major routes west, such as the Bozeman and Oregon trails and the Fort Pierre-Deadwood Trail.
