Fort Clark Historic Site

This site preserves the remains of a large earthlodge village originally settled by the Mandan Indians around 1822 and of the trading forts Clark and Primeau. Before Fort Clark was established, an unnamed post was built in the area by James Kipp and a Mr. Tilton for the Columbia Fur Company around 1822-1823, but it was abandoned shortly afterward because of pressure from the Arikara. Tilton returned to St. Louis, but Kipp remained at the Mandan village and built Fort Clark in 1831 for the American Fur Company. Named for Captain William Clark, Fort Clark was one of the three major American Fur Company posts on the upper Missouri River established to deal directly with various tribes. The Mandan village became a center of activity visited frequently by neighboring tribes and by early white explorers and adventurers, including Catlin in 1832 and Maximilian and Bodmer in 1833-1834. In 1837, smallpox was introduced by the steamboat St. Peters, and the catastrophic epidemic that followed nearly annihilated the Mandan Tribe and forced survivors to flee the village to escape the disease. The abandoned village was occupied by the Arikara in 1838. About 300 yards from Fort Clark, a second trading post, Fort Primeau, was established around 1848 to compete for Indian trade. Both posts were abandoned before 1861, when the Arikara left to join the Mandan and Hidatsa at Like-a-Fishhook village.

North Dakota · United States