On the first exploration to the Pacific in 1804, Lewis and Clark named this site Fort Point, and in 1808 William Clark returned to build a fortified post to win the Indians from Spanish and British influence. It was operated by the United States until 1822. Events associated with the fort included the Louisiana Purchase in 1803; Lewis and Clark's exploration in 1804; the building of Fort Osage in 1808 as the Osages ceded lands to the east; troops going to the Mandans in 1809; Astorians going to the Pacific and Sibley visiting the Kaws and Pawnees in 1811; war with Great Britain in 1812; Daniel Boone at the fort in 1816; a garrison going to Council Bluffs in 1819; Mexican independence and the opening of the Santa Fe trade in 1821; the closing of all U.S. factories in 1822; the surveying of the Santa Fe Trail from the fort and another Osage land cession in 1825; and the organization of Jackson County in 1827, when logs of the port were used by settlers. Fort Osage played an active and important part in the earliest development of the Louisiana Purchase through the Missouri River and Rocky Mountain fur trade and the plains trade with Mexico.
