Fort Osage Trading Post

by Catherine Sherman

Title

Fort Osage Trading Post

Artist

Catherine Sherman

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

"Fort Osage Trading Post, Missouri" by Catherine Sherman.

A man portraying a trader (factor) at Fort Osage, Missouri, presides at the counter of the fort's Trading Post and Factory.

Fort Osage (also known as Fort Clark or Fort Sibley) was part of the United States factory trading post system for the Osage Nation in the early 19th century in present day Sibley, Missouri.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through the area of Fort Osage in present-day Missouri in June 1804 on their journey west to the Pacific Ocean. Clark considered this spot to be a good place for a fort with its “high commanding position, more than 70 feet above high-water mark, and overlooking the (Missouri) the river, which is here but of little depth.”

The Osage - exchange for access to the trading post above the Missouri River in 1808 in the Treaty of Fort Clark - ceded all of their lands east of the fort in Louisiana Territory effectively leaving them with a small band of territory on the extreme western border of Missouri.

Fort Osage was one of the most successful of the 28 government-supervised trading posts that functioned from 1795 to 1822.

A replica of the fort was rebuilt on the site between 1948 and 1961. Re-enactors carry out activities at the fort.

This photograph was taken in 2013.

Featured in "Images That Excite You" group (08/04/2020); " ABC GROUP from the J IS FOR JUST ABOUT ANYTHING" group (08/17/2020); "Midwest America Photography" group (09/10/2020)

Uploaded

July 18th, 2020

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