Fort Pierre, South Dakota

Fort Pierre is the oldest continuously occupied white settlement in South Dakota. From the French Verendrye explorers to Scotty Philip, the man who "single-handedly saved the American buffalo," you'll find it right here, in Fort Pierre. It is interesting to note that Fort Pierre is also home to three other major attractions central to the Lewis & Clark story. Taken together, these four sites comprise a chronological representation of relations between the races, from first contact through today and into the future.

• The Verendrye Monument National Historic Landmark, where in 1743 the French-Canadian la Verendrye brothers buried a lead plate establishing France's purported claim to the entire future Louisiana purchase;

• Mouth of the Bad River, where in 1804 President Jefferson's Corps of Discovery met, counseled, feasted, and exchanged barely restrained hostilities with the "Teton" Lakota;

• Fort Pierre Chouteau National Historic Landmark, largest trading post on the upper Great Plains in the 1830's, currently under excavation, and traditional site of pre-European multi-Tribal trading convocations; and

Future home of the Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Center, Congressionally-authorized Tribal Supreme Court, mediation center, Lakota cultural center, artifact repatriation depository, and Tribal genealogical archives.

As you look out from the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River, you can almost imagine what French explorers must have thought about their discovery of this new land. The rugged terrain, a mighty winding river, the raw beauty of an endless land. And lying at your feet is the city of Fort Pierre.

Its central location on a major river was a powerful attraction to early explorers, settlers and traders. Profitable fur trading was established in the late 1700's and by 1830 Fort Pierre was a bustling trade center and steamboat stop. In 1855 the first military fort in the northwest was established and by the time of the Black Hills Gold Rush, Fort Pierre was the major transportation and distribution hub in the territory.

Rev. Stewart Sheldon, on his May 18, 1880 visit to Fort Pierre:

". . . a strange mixture of Americans, English, Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, Russians, Poles, French, Canadians, half-breeds, Indians, and what not. . . . Protestants, Catholics, Spiritualists, Moralists, Liberals, Freelovers, Ingersolites, Nothing-arins, and how many others I do not know . . . .Nearly all the people were in hot and eager pursuit after the almighty dollar! Freighters and cowboys and adventurers from nearly all over the world were duly represented, and there was one continued white heat of excitement week days, Sabbath days, and all. The night before I got there two young men, stimulated by whiskey, drew their pistols on each other in a miserable dance house, and one of them fell dead at the feet of his assailant, and in a few hours was buried on the hillside just back of thetown, without hardly more ceremony than if it had been the burial of a dog! It was indeed first-class missionary ground without any mistake."

From: History of the United Church of Christ in South Dakota 1869-1976, Edward C. Ehrensperger, Editor; 1977 by United Church of Christ in South Dakota.

http://www.fortpierre.com/History.aspx

Fort Pierre Chouteau -- Taming the Wild Lands

Fort Pierre Chouteau was a trading fort on the high Missouri River plain in the grandest, boldest sense. The late 18th and early 19th centuries were robust and fascinating times in the upper Great Plains. Wildlife, native tribes, and European traders, trappers, and settlers lived and moved in large numbers on the Missouri -- early highway to the new frontier.

In 1832 the American Fur Company built Fort Pierre Choteau after its predecessor Fort Tecumseh (1822-1832) was dismantled due to the shifting of the Missouri River. It was the largest fur trading post on the upper Missouri River, and became the center of commerce and dominant European settlement for the entire region.

"This fort is undoubtedly one of the most important and productive of the American Fur Company's posts, being in the center of the great Lakota country, drawing from all quarters an immense and almost incredible number of buffalo robes, which are carried to the New York and other eastern markets and sold at a great profit."

An average 17,000 buffalo robes were traded each year at the fort for guns, shot, powder, tobacco, blankets, cloth, sugar, salt, coffee, and beads. Historic accounts indicate there were times when the fort was surrounded by hundreds of American Indian tepees. Settlement here helped pave the way for major routes west, including the Bozeman and Oregon Trails, and, of course, the historic Fort Pierre-Deadwood Trail.

The fort was used as a fur trading post until 1855, when it was sold to the Army. Pierre Choutea Jr., hoping to help the U.S. Army decide to buy Fort Pierre, sent Frederick Behman's 1854 watercolor (above) to General Jesup. Chouteau gave detailed descriptions of the fort's many buildings which included houses with attics, store houses, stables, sheds, a saw mill, milk and ice house and a powder magazine. Chouteau also listed 24, foot square bastions, two stories high.

The Army dismantled the fort two years later in 1857 to build Fort Randall, and today little remains of the above-ground structure of the Fort Pierre Chouteau and associated buildings. The site has been designated as a national historic landmark. http://www.fortpierre.com/H_Chouteau.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pierre