TRADING POSTS
During most of the fur trade era in the GreatPlains, trading post architecture typically followeda ground plan ultimately derived frommilitary fortifications, thus the common useof the word "fort" in trading post names. Thestrong, defensive nature of trading posts was aby-product of the very nature of the trade. Forthe (typically) European American builders,the fortified post provided asylum from arough and dangerous world far from the comfortsof home. The fortified architecture alsoafforded protection for valuable trade goodsand provided sanctuary from sometimes hostileNative American trading partners. NativeAmerican traders coming to the post may haveperceived conflicting messages of promise andthreat in the strong defensive character of thefort. The structures were a source of seeminglyendless material goods, but the goods couldonly be acquired from heavily armed andsometimes incomprehensible traders.
Trading posts typically incorporated astructural assemblage encompassed by asquare or rectangular palisade. This enclosurewas generally constructed of vertical timbersset in a trench and about twelve to eighteenfeet in height. Two square bastions or blockhouseswere often built on opposing cornersof the palisade. More rarely, these had a circularfloor plan. The bastions generally had apitched roof and loopholes from which smallcannon and shoulder arms could be fired. Toimpede hostile intruders from climbing overthe top, palisade pickets were occasionallysharpened or surmounted with chevaux-defrise(crossed, pointed sticks). A gallery (orbuilding roofs in smaller posts) was usuallybuilt about four to five feet below the top ofthe pickets to allow sentries to patrol and firefrom the palisade perimeter.
Inside the palisade, buildings were raisedaround a commons area or open courtyardoutfitted with cannon and flagpole. In smallerforts, buildings were constructed directlyagainst the palisade's interior walls. Largerposts usually had structures set out from thepalisade with the space between the palisadeand structures frequently used for storage oras stables. A house, or "mansion," for thebourgeois or fort superintendent, generallythe most imposing structure in the complex,was usually placed opposite the main entranceto the post and would have been the firststructure seen by those entering. It often displayedpainted wooden siding. Aside fromserving as a home for the superintendent,clerks, and guests, the mansion would housethe post's business office and dining hall. Aseparate kitchen was placed behind or nearthis building. The remaining three sides of thecourtyard incorporated ranges of lesser structures.These were usually constructed morecrudely without siding and left unpainted.Earth or sod was most commonly the roofingmaterial of choice for these buildings. Structuresin the ranges served the trading companyas icehouse, powder magazine, employeeresidences, fur storage, trade and dry goodsstorage, blacksmith shop, and trade store.
With rare exceptions, trading posts wereconstructed according to vernacular buildingtraditions common to the region in whichthey were raised. Aside from typical notchedlogstructures, vernacular French Métis constructionmethods were commonly employedin the Canadian Plains. Poteaux en terre (postsin earth) structures utilized a wall or buildingframe of vertical whole or split timbers placedinto trenches in the ground. A more challengingconstruction method was poteaux sur sole(posts on sill), which placed vertical posts onwood or stone sills to prevent wood rot andthus provide greater structural endurance.Spaces between vertical framing were packedwith mud and grass (bouzillées) or stone andplaster mortar (pierrottées).
Another common construction methodseen on the Canadian Plains was Red Riverframe, or pièce sur pièce (timber on timber).Like poteaux sur sole, this French Métis constructionmethod used vertical logs raised ona wooden sill. In this instance, however, thevertical members were grooved. Spaces betweenvertical members were filled with horizontallogs whose tongues or tenons were insertedinto the vertical grooves to make a wall.Interior walls were commonly plastered andwhitewashed.
Occasionally, adobe was used in the constructionof trading posts on the NorthernPlains (e.g., Fort William, North Dakota).This building material was more commonlyused on the Southern and Central Plains, reflectingthe greater Hispanic influence in theseregions. Examples of adobe trading posts includeFort John (later Laramie) in Wyoming,Fort John in Nebraska, and Bent's Fort in Colorado.Adobe provided an excellent substitutefor wood in the relatively dry climate of theHigh Plains, an area with few trees. Asidefrom its excellent insulating qualities, adobeconstruction allowed more free-form structures.Bent's Fort, for example, had circularbastions and generally displayed an abundanceof curved structural elements. As such,it had a less forbidding look to it than FortUnion in North Dakota, for example.
Trading posts in the Great Plains were generallyof three types, their structural complexityreflecting their position in the fur tradebusiness hierarchy. At the pinnacle of the hierarchywas the major post. These fortified complexes(such as Fort Union, North Dakota,and Fort Garry, Manitoba) functioned as theregional headquarters of a company or tradingoutfit. They supplied and directed thetrade of a number of subsidiary trading postsand wintering posts. Like posts subsidiary tothem, however, major posts also served as acenter for trade over an extensive area withone or more Native American bands. Majorposts were usually quite large, imposing in appearance,and designed to last for a relativelylong period of time.
Subsidiary posts such as Fort McKenzie,Montana, and Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan,were under the administration of a majorpost. Subsidiary posts were located in thegeneral wintering area of an individual tribalgroup or band and operated year-round. Althoughusually smaller in size than the majorposts, they were fortified similarly. In keepingwith their secondary status, subsidiary postswere constructed more simply and usuallybuilt to last for a much shorter duration.
Wintering houses were the smallest andmost temporary of trading posts. Administrativelysituated under one of the other twokinds of posts, they tended to be unfortifiedand often consisted of little more than a rudelog cabin or even a skin lodge. Winteringhouses generally formed the "front line" ofthe fur and bison robe trade, and as such theywere usually placed in or near the village of anomadic group. Since the nomads rarely winteredin exactly the same place from year toyear, these establishments typically served thetrade for a single trading season. Small-scaleindependent trading companies tended to resortto this type of post as a necessity, theirfinancial resources being too meager to allowconstruction of larger palisaded posts.
Fortified trading posts in the Central andSouthern Plains were largely replaced by smallentrepreneurial operations during the 1840s.The large trading posts of the previous erawere similarly reduced in scale to small log oradobe structures. On the Northern and CanadianPlains, however, large enterprises continuedto operate fortified trading posts forseveral decades past the demise of their southerncousins. By 1870, however, even that region'selaborate trading posts were being replacedby small posts comprised of simple,unfortified log structures similar to those thathad been built on the Southern Plains in previousdecades.
See also INDUSTRY: Fur Trade.
William J. Hunt Jr.National Park Service
Burley, David V., Gayle Horsfall, and John Brandon.Structural Considerations of Métis Ethnicity: An Archaeological, Architectural, and Historical Study. Vermillion:University of South Dakota Press, 1992.
Chittenden,Hiram M. The American Fur Trade of the Far West. Lincoln:University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
Moore, JacksonW., Jr. Bent's Old Fort: An Archeological Study. Denver:State Historical Society of Colorado, 1968.
