Fort Pierre Chouteau
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Fort Pierre Chouteau Site
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Fields at the site
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| Nearest city | Fort Pierre, South Dakota |
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| Coordinates | 44°23′21″N 100°23′28″W / 44.38917°N 100.39111°WCoordinates: 44°23′21″N 100°23′28″W / 44.38917°N 100.39111°W |
| NRHP Reference # | 76001756 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 3, 1976 |
| Designated NHL | July 17, 1991 |
Fort Pierre Chouteau, also just Fort Pierre, was a major trading post and military outpost in what is now central South Dakota during mid-19th century. Established in 1832 and operational through the 1850s, it was the largest trading post in the northern plains, and a major transshipment point for buffalo furs. The archaeological remains of the fort, located in Stanley County just north of Fort Pierre, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1991.
Fort Pierre Chouteau was located just north of the confluence of the Missouri and Bad Rivers, on a low terrace above the west bank of the Missouri River. This site was of strategic importance for several reasons. It served as a midpoint among the outposts of the American Fur Company (AFC), which monopolized trade on the upper Missouri, and as an endpoint for a major overland shipment route to Fort Laramie in present-day eastern Wyoming. The fort was built as a replacement for Fort Tecumseh, located nearer the river confluence, which had been built by the AFC's predecessor in the regional fur trade, the Columbia Fur Company. That fort, built about 1822, was poorly sited and subject to flooding. Some of its timber elements were reused in the construction of Fort Pierre Chouteau.
The Fort Pierre area was first encountered by French explorers the La Vérendrye brothers in their 1743-44 expedition. They buried a lead plate near the confluence of the Missouri and Bad Rivers, on which they claimed the territory as part of New France. The next major non-Native visitors were the American Lewis and Clark Expedition, which camped in the same area in 1806. A French trading post was established in 1817 by Joseph LaFramboise, marking the start of permanent white settlement of the area.
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