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.
The fort remained part of the American Fur Company until 1855 when they sold it to the Army. The fort included houses with attics, store houses, stables, sheds, a saw mill, milk and ice house and a powder magazine along with 24 foot square bastions, two stories high.
Although the Army bought the fort they dismantled it in 1857 to build Fort Randall. There is little left of Fort Pierre today, but archaeological excavations are held each summer by the State Historical Society, STate Archaeological Research, SD Archaeological Society, and the US Army Corps of Engineers to find more about the history through artifacts and structural measurements.
Volunteers are welcome to come and help with the dig so make your plans to spend some time in the area and get a hands on experience of what the fort was really like and the history of the area.
This site has been designated as a national historic landmark.