In 1841, employees of Lancaster P. Lupton built a trading post on the creek near here to trade with the Sioux Indians. From 1842 until at least 1845, Louis B. Chartran managed the post, first for Sibille and Adams and later for Pratte & Cabanne. These companies were successively headquartered at Fort Platte about eighty-five miles southwest of here and competed aggressively with Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Co., which owned Fort Laramie. Because of this competition, fur traders were very active in the region during the 1840's, bringing liquor, blankets, guns, ammunition, and other trade goods to exchange for fine Indian-tanned buffalo robes. Earlier maps showed this waterway as Chartran's Creek in tribute to Louis Chartran. French settlers of Missouri pronounced it Shattron, from which the modern name Chadron evolved, and the city of Chadron later took its name from the creek.