Bordeaux Trading Post

About this property

The Bordeaux Trading Post near Chadron, Nebraska was built during 1845–46 by James Bordeaux. It has been reconstructed faithfully, in the same location with the same post-holes, using weathered old lumber from a nearby ranchhouse. It is now the Museum of the Fur Trade. In 1972 the post was listed as an archeological site, with potential for information to be gleaned in the future, on the National Register of Historic Places. James Bordeaux's trading post is located on the museum grounds. Reconstructed in 1956 on its original foundation stones and formally opened, the reconstructed storehouse followed soon after. The precise location of the post, by the 1950s a large sloping depression on a natural terrace a few yards from Bordeaux Creek, had been conclusively identified by eyewitnesses including Hudson Mead, the first county surveyor, and Welcome Naylor, son of the first homesteader on Bordeaux Creek. Both had seen the collapsing ruins in the 1880s. Most amazing, however, were the recollections of Herbert and John Bissonette, the sons of fur trader Joseph Bissonette who was a competitor and contemporary of Bordeaux. During the 1870s Joseph had operated a trading post less than a mile away, and both brothers had visited the Bordeaux post on countless occasions when it was still in business. The brothers' descriptions of the Bordeaux post interior, with details of shelves, counters, window locations, and furnishings were important details that were often corroborated by the archeological record. Although the walls and the stumps of the upright supports were clearly revealed during the excavations, all wood components of the structures had deteriorated beyond any possibility of reuse. Early settlers had even removed the easily accessible stones from the chimney. However, the hearthstones of the fireplace and the threshold stones in the entry are the original ones laid down in 1837 and found in place in 1956. The walls, of hand-hewn native timber, follow the exact alignment of the originals, and all supporting uprights are sized to match the originals and are reset in the original postholes. The reconstruction is included in the National Register of Historic Places, a rare honor for any rebuilt structure. The trading post itself was established in the fall of 1837 on orders of Frederick Laboue, a trader for the American Fur Company and known to the Sioux as “Grey Eyes.” The company had just purchased Fort Laramie, a hundred miles (160 km) southwest, from William Sublette, and Laboue was anxious to maximize its trade in prime buffalo robes by establishing satellite posts in the protected valleys where the Indians wintered. As post manager, Laboue selected Jim Bordeaux, a Missouri Frenchman called “The Bear” by the Indians. He was married to two Brulé Sioux sisters whose brother, Swift Bear, was chief of the Corn Band.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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