Competition for the Great Plains was intense, as the United States, France, Spain, and Great Britain all sought its resources. Much of the early contact between the Native people and the early explorers was peaceful. The Natives brought furs to the trading posts and exchanged them for guns, tools, and food. The traders then sold the valuable furs to the European markets. The fur trade between the indigenous inhabitants and the newcomers proved to be lucrative.
Rival fur companies engaged in intense competition. Different companies established trading posts in prime locations. These were often near rivers that were convenient for transporting the furs to shipping centers. The American Fur Company established Fort Union in 1828. Over the next forty years, Fort Union was the most important trading post on the upper Missouri River, but it was by no means the only one. On this date in 1833, William Sublette and Robert Campbell established Fort William at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, only two and a half miles from Fort Union.
The fur traders were determined to give the American Fur Company a run for their money, but it was an expensive undertaking. They built a large cabin, a store, a warehouse, a carpenter shop, and a blacksmith shop. The buildings were surrounded by a fifteen-foot stockade made of cottonwood logs. Desperate to compete with the American Fur Company, Sublette and Campbell attracted fur trappers, who they paid twelve dollars for a beaver pelt when the going rate was three dollars. That may have been their undoing. A year later, they sold Fort William to the American Fur Company.
The American Fur Company then closed Fort William and used it as a storage depot for Fort Union. The Union Fur Company was the next competitor attempting to take on the American Fur Company, and built a trading post called Fort Mortimer a half mile from the Fort William site. Just as Sublette and Campbell discovered, the newcomers were no match for the established company and the American Fur Company quickly bought them out. Fort Mortimer was demolished, and the salvaged material went into building Fort Buford.
Dakota Datebook by Dr. Carole Butcher
Sources:
- Grand Forks Herald. “Fort Buford Historical Spot in North Dakota.” Grand Forks ND. 8/19/1922. Page 3.
- Lauren W. Rittenhouse. “Fur Trade of Northeastern North Dakota, 1738-1861. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.history.nd.gov/hp/PDFinfo/fur-trade-northeast-nd.pdf Accessed 7/9/2024.
- State Historical Society of North Dakota. “Today in North Dakota History.” https://www.statehistoricalfoundation.org/todayinndhistory/?&offset=300 Accessed 7/9/2024.
- State Historical Society of North Dakota. “Summary of North Dakota History – Fur Trade.” https://www.history.nd.gov/ndhistory/furtrade.html Accessed 7/9/2024.
- Legends of America. “Fort William.” https://www.legendsofamerica.com/fort-william-north-dakota/ Accessed 7/9/2024.
