Forts and Posts

Most fur trade era "Forts" were privately established commercial centers and had little or nothing to do with military activities.  Forts were often treated by the Indians as neutral zones, where tribal enemies might encamp in the vicinity of each other without major outbreaks of hostilities.  Fort personnel encouraged all aspects of neutrality, after all a fur was a fur, no matter who brought it in.  Also to be seen as biased towards one tribe or another risked losing the business of the favored tribes enemies.  And finally, war was bad for business; men engaged in battle were not productively engaged in harvesting furs.  

Most forts went through a process of structural evolution.  The earliest structures constructed at a location generally consisted of a palisade of cottonwood, or other local trees, surrounding several log dwellings, storehouse and trade room.  If the fort was successful, as time passed and the wooden structures deteriorated, the structures would gradually be replaced with adobe.  Some forts were originally constructed of adobe, owing to the lack of adequate quantities of local trees.

Living could be good, at least at some of the more important forts and posts.  Some had ice houses, and ice would be available for making cold drinks and cooling meat well into the summer months.  

Below is a brief summary of a few forts and posts with links to more detailed descriptions.  

Bent’s Fort: A commercial trading center built in 1833 near what is now La Junta, in southeastern Colorado.  

El Pueblo, was a trading post established in the late 1830’s, and located at the confluence of Fountain Creek (Fontaine-qui-bouit) and the Arkansas River at the site of what would someday become the community of Pueblo, Colorado.  This crude adobe fort, founded by a group of mountain men, possibly including Jim Beckwourth, was described as one of the strangest trading establishments in the West.  It was home to a mélange of American trappers, French coureurs de bois, Canadian Iroquois, Mexican trappers and traders, Negroes and European immigrants.  Rent was free, and whiskey was paid for in beaver.  It served as a sort of destination resort for Mountain Men who tired of winters in the mountains, but didn’t want to travel as far as St. Louis or other civilized parts.  The permanent settlers had Mexican wives from Taos.  Flour and other food stuffs, as well as Taos Lightning were also obtained from Taos.  The fort was a center for whiskey trade both to the Indians and Mountain Men.  Business declined after the Mexican War (1846-1847) and at the time of the Colorado gold rush the post consisted of a single adobe house and three inhabitants.

Fort Davey Crockett (Fort Misery)

Fort Hall:  Originally constructed by Nathaniel Wyeth, the fort was later sold to the Hudson’s Bay Company where it was used with devastating efficiency against American fur trading outfits in the Northern Rocky Mountains. 

Fort Jackson

Fort Laramie (See Fort William)

Fort Lupton

Fort McKenzie:  Principle American Fur Co. post for the Blackfoot Indians on the Upper Missouri River from 1832 through early 1844.

Fort Piegan: A post established for the Blackfoot Trade by the American Fur Company on the Upper Missouri River in 1831. 

Fort Platte

Fort St. Vrain  

Fort Uncompahgre: A trading post constructed by Santa Fe trader Antoine Robidoux.  The post was located in what is now Western Colorado.  

Fort Union

Fort Vasquez

Fort William (Fort Laramie): A trading post constructed by William Sublette and Robert Campbell, it would eventually become a military installation on the Oregon Trail.

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