From July 28, 1806, when William Clark passed Rosebud Creek on his way down the Yellowstone, the Rosebud river valley served as one of the major avenues for development and trade in eastern Montana. Innumerable trappers and traders followed Clark's route, including the American Fur Co., which constructed Fort Van Buren at the juncture of the Rosebud and Yellowstone in 1835, but the fort proved unprofitable and was abandoned in 1843. Buffalo hunters took over 40,000 robes from this area alone during the 1860's and 1870's, shipping them out by riverboat, and the slaughter disrupted eastern Montana's Indian culture and precipitated several years of bloody confrontation culminating in the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn eight days later. In late 1882, the Northern Pacific R.R. established a siding in the Rosebud vicinity as it pushed westward, and soon a town sprang up as a livestock shipping center with Butte Creek and the Rosebud forming a natural corral. Rails and auto transportation quickly replaced wagon and river traffic, and as Rosebud grew it even acquired its own car dealership, the Otis Davis Agency, featuring the E.M.F. line, which many old timers said meant Every Morning Fix'em.