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Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site facts for kids

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Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
Fort Union Trading Post NHS.JPG
View inside Fort Union from the Southwest bastion looking towards the Bourgeois (manager's) house.
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site is located in North Dakota
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
Location in North Dakota
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site is located in the United States
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
Location in the United States
Location McKenzie and Williams counties, North Dakota, and Richland and Roosevelt counties, Montana
Nearest city Williston, North Dakota
Area 444 acres (1.80 km2)
Built 1828
Architectural style Greek Revival
Visitation 16,940 (2005)
Website Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
NRHP reference No. 66000103
Quick facts for kids
Significant dates
Added to NRHP October 15, 1966
Designated NHL July 4, 1961
Designated NHS June 20, 1966

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site is a partial reconstruction of the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri, 1829-1867. The fort site is about two miles from the confluence of the Missouri River and its tributary, the Yellowstone River, on the Dakota side of the North Dakota/Montana border, 25 miles from Williston, North Dakota.

In 1961, the site was designated by the Department of Interior as one of the earliest declared National Historic Landmarks in the United States. The National Park Service formally named it as Fort Union Trading Post to differentiate it from Fort Union National Monument, a historic frontier Army post in New Mexico.

The historic site interprets how portions of the fort may have looked in 1851, based on archaeological excavations and contemporary drawings. Among the sources were drawings by Swiss artist Rudolf Kurz, who worked as the post clerk in 1851.

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