Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
U.S. National Historic Site
View inside Fort Union from the Southwest bastion looking towards the Bourgeois (manager's) house.
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Location	McKenzie and Williams counties, North Dakota, and Richland and Roosevelt counties, Montana
Nearest city	Williston, North Dakota
Coordinates	47°59′58″N 104°2′26″W / 47.99944°N 104.04056°W / 47.99944; -104.04056Coordinates: 47°59′58″N 104°2′26″W / 47.99944°N 104.04056°W / 47.99944; -104.04056
Area	444 acres (1.80 km2)
Built	1828
Architect	American Fur Company
Architectural style	Greek Revival, Other
Visitation	16,940 (2005)
Website	Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
NRHP Reference #	66000103
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL	July 4, 1961
Designated NHS	June 20, 1966

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site is the site of a partially reconstructed trading post on the Missouri River and the North Dakota/Montana border, twenty-five miles from Williston, North Dakota. It is one of the earliest declared National Historic Landmarks in the United States. The fort, possibly first known as Fort Henry or Fort Floyd, was built in 1828 or 1829 by the Upper Missouri Outfit managed by Kenneth McKenzie and capitalized by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company.

Fort Union was the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri until 1867. It was instrumental in developing the fur trade in Montana. Here Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Ojibwe, Blackfoot, Hidatsa, Lakota, and other tribes traded buffalo robes and furs for trade goods including items such as beads, clay pipes, guns, blankets, knives, cookware, cloth, and alcohol. Historic visitors to the fort included John James Audubon, George Catlin, Sha-có-pay, Father Pierre DeSmet, Sitting Bull, Karl Bodmer, Hugh Glass, and Jim Bridger.