Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site

The fur trading post Fort Union was established in 1828 by the American Fur Company. Located at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in North Dakota, the trading post was used from 1823 to 1867. The post became a National Historic Site in 1966.

The Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network monitors bats to detect long-term trends in bat poulations at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site. Acoustic recorders detect the unique ultrasonic calls bats use for echolocation. Monitoring helps protect the bat communities that live and forage in the park.

Across six Northern Great Plains parks, education and outreach for bats was conducted.

The fur trade shaped American history, largely financing the exploration and settlement of much of the West.

In late April 1805 the Corps of Discovery set up camp near present-day Fort Union, near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. This area was also home to animals never before seen by an American citizens - the bighorn (Rocky Mountain) sheep, and the “white bear.” On April 14 Clark saw his first "white bear," a creature so dreaded that American Indians would only hunt them in groups of eight to 10 men.

Trade with the Assiniboine and other Northern Plains Tribes was the core of the American Fur Company's success, enabling Fort Union Trading Post to become the longest lasting Fur Trading post in the US. Learn here how those trades took place in the fort's most rustic building.

Each park-specific page in the NPS Geodiversity Atlas provides basic information on the significant geologic features and processes occurring in the park. Links to products from Baseline Geologic and Soil Resources Inventories provide access to maps and reports.

A Powerful Woman, Then and Now. Natawista, or Medicine Snake Woman, was around 15 when Alexander Culbertson, then about 30, proposed marriage to her family. The story is legendary, the consequences impact the the trade at Both Fort Union and Fort Benton, the northern intercontinental railroad survey expedition, Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 and John James Audubon's time at Fort Union, among other events!