The Washburn leader., 1906-02-16
EARLY TRADING POSTS
Fur Trade as Incentive to
EARLY Development. Old :
Fort Atkinson.

I. = 4. ~
Editor Bismarck Tribune: have
read your published article relating to
old Fort Atkinson with interest
The history of that old trading post
at the Mandan villages, together with
Forts Tilton, Clark, Berthold and
Stevenson, are intensely interesting
The rapid development of the fur
trade on the upper waters of the Mis-.
souri-of which these posts were
early exponents followed the return
OF the Lewis and Clark explorers in
1sCr.
Tho Mandan Indians were then
located in two fortified villages at the
mouth of Knife river, near the pres
ent town of Washburn, North Dakota.
During the year 1907 an enterprising
Spaniard, named Manuel Lisa, headed
a trading expedition from Saint
Lewis to the Yellowstone river.
Learning from the. explorers that
valuable fur grounds were in that
favored region. He was, accompanied
on his voyage up the Missouri by
George Dranilard, John Coulter and
William Potts, three of the members
of the Lewis and Clark expedition,
who acted ais partners, guides and
interpreters to Lisa in the wilds of
the upper Missouri country. Two
trading posts. We're established by
Lisa: Fort Manuel at the Mandan vii
lagos, and Fort Lisa, (Which was oc-
cupied by Andrew Henry) at the
mouth Of the Big Horn, chi the Yello7i.
stone. -
In 1911 Lisa headed another. expedf.
ton up the Missouri to the Mandans,
in search of Andrew Henry and his
companions; who were driven by the
Rlaclsfeet Indians to the three forks
of tie Missouri; where Drcaillard
was killed.
During the voyage up the great
river, Lisa overlook the Hunt-Astoria
expedition at the Grand Detour, or big
bend, near the present town of Cham
berlain, S. D. The two expeditions
made famous through Washington
Irving's astoria" voyaged together
as far aus the mouth of Grand river,
where Hunt and his men started out
from the Ariakara villages, which
was then located there, to the Colum-
bia river and Pacific Ocean.
In descending the Missouri river in
the fall of 1911, Lisa abandoned his
posts until the close of
our second war with England; owing
to the hostility of the Indians, caused
by the British fur-traders, who oc-
cupied posts on the Assindboine and
Red river of the North.
In 1921, the Columbia Fur Company
was organized, with Joseph Renville
Kenneth Mckenzie and William Laid
law as active members; all of whom
were fur-traders from the British
Northwest Fur Company, whose
farther operations in the territory of
the United States was prohibited by
act of congress passed in 1916.
The legal title of the new fur
was known as Tilton &
Company, with their principal trad
ing house at Fort Tecumseh-Laid-
laws trading post-near Pierre. S. D.
A small trading post was built for
The Columbia Fur Co. in a bend of the
Missouri near the .Mandan villages,
by James Kipp, in 1922, which was
named Fort Tilton.
Here, near this old trading post, a
party Of fur-traders were attacked byI
a band of Arickaras in the summer of
1923; all of whom were murdered ex-
cept John Glasse, who reached Fort
Tilton in safety, assisted by friendly
Manuans. 50. 'es -
The American and Columbia fur
companies were in active competition ,,
in the Indian trade until union was
JiiIy, 1927; the property and
trading houses reverting to the Ameri-
can Fur company.
In 1881, James Kipp built Fort
Clarke for the American Fur company,
on the west bank Of the Missouri,
above wooded bend near the Man
dan villages. It was located three
quarters of mile below and on the
opposite bank of the river from old
Fort Mandan, built by Lewis and
Clarke in 1905. This post became an
important trading house in the upper
Missouri country; second only to Fort
Union at the mouth Of the Yellow
stone. Here Catlin spent a month
during the summer of 1882, painting;
and writing his Indian stories.
During the year 1888, smallpox was
carried to the Mandan villages by an