Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site | Williston

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site – North Dakota–Montana Border

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site stands along the upper Missouri River near the North Dakota–Montana border, preserving the most important fur trading post of the Northern Plains. From 1828 to 1867, this frontier hub connected Native American tribes, frontier traders, and early explorers in one of the most active cross-cultural trading centers of the American West.

Historical Background
The original fort was established by the American Fur Company under the direction of John Jacob Astor. It quickly became a major meeting ground between the Assiniboine, Crow, Blackfeet, Hidatsa, and Cree tribes, as well as traders from St. Louis and the East. Rather than a military post, Fort Union was a peaceful commercial center-its purpose was to exchange furs, buffalo robes, and other goods for trade items like guns, blankets, beads, and cloth. At its peak, thousands of pelts passed through its gates each year.

Reconstruction and Layout
Today’s site is a careful reconstruction on the original foundations, giving visitors a vivid sense of 19th-century frontier life. The palisaded walls enclose a large courtyard surrounded by timbered structures, including a bourgeois house (the agent’s residence), blacksmith shop, trade house, and storage rooms. Inside the Trade House, interpreters dressed in period clothing demonstrate traditional barter exchanges and explain the relationships that shaped commerce between Native Americans and European settlers.

Visitor Experience
The visitor center offers detailed exhibits about the fur trade era, artifacts from excavations, and stories of the traders and tribes who once gathered here. The setting feels remote and authentic-the windswept prairie stretching to the horizon, the scent of sagebrush in the air, and the broad sweep of the Missouri River just below. In summer, living history events and trade reenactments fill the courtyard with movement and color, from beaded garments and hand-forged tools to the sound of drums and old trade songs.

Surroundings and Scenic Setting
A short walking trail circles the fort, offering wide views of the river valley and nearby bluffs, especially striking at sunset when the red fort walls glow against the golden plains. Picnic areas and shaded benches invite visitors to linger, imagining the time when steamboats stopped here to deliver goods and carry furs downstream.

Legacy
Fort Union Trading Post remains a symbol of exchange rather than conflict-a rare place on the frontier where commerce and cultural respect often outweighed rivalry. Its preservation allows travelers to stand in the same courtyard where traders, trappers, and tribal leaders once gathered, negotiating across languages and worlds on the edge of a young America.