PAP.^0.18f* ^ORT PIERRE II — SMITH 89 



a military post — in a sense, fortuitous late records. (See plan and 

 descriptions of this post in 1855 in DeLand, 1902, pp. 296, 348-349.) 

 It is true that visitors such as Prince Maximilian and Edward Harris, 

 the latter of whom accompanied John James Audubon to this place, 

 left descriptions and a plan of the post that are of great value to the 

 student (Mattison, 1954, pp. 24r-25) . Carl Bodmer, who accompanied 

 the prince, even sketched the post from a distant point (Pope, 1954, 

 p. 16 ; Kathbone, 1954, p. 220, reproduction of an aquatint from the 

 Maximilian atlas). These sources, however, afford little more than 

 a general impression of the establishment — literary and artistic in- 

 terests, understandably enough, having centered upon the scenery and 

 native peoples of the upper Missouri. In this fortunate instance. 

 Federal archives thus materially aid the student in any study of design 

 or construction of the post since archeological investigation is lacking. 

 In such records alone, so far as is known, are specific details available 

 concerning Fort Pierre Chouteau, such, for example, as would be 

 required for authentic reconstruction. 



These mercantile establishments of the past century — outposts of 

 the first permanent occupation of the West — are, furthermore, less well 

 known than other early White communities, such as military posts. As 

 is apparent from comparison of sources compiled by the National 

 Park Service (Mattison, 1954), military posts are, in general, well 

 recorded in surviving archival materials, records contemporary with 

 the design and construction of the forts. Such being the case, addi- 

 tions to knowledge of such military posts, possible or expectable from 

 actual site excavation, are limited, and excavations, therefore, seem 

 the less urgent. The fact that, by contrast, specific data for the 

 trading posts are comparatively rare affords a justification for care- 

 ful excavation, quite apart from any consideration of the importance of 

 such sites in their own right. It may be added that, as compared 

 with the fate of the military post on the Plains — several excellent 

 examples of which still survive, some of them relatively little changed — 

 the trading post, for various reasons, is less well remembered, no 

 original posts having survived. 



In view of the fact that the site here reported lies below the Oahe 

 Dam, a word should be added explaining why it qualified as a salvage 

 problem. The site lies near the alinement of a vast spillway, the 

 function of which is that of a safety valve. Like several native sites 

 of the area, this site is thus liable to almost instantaneous and total 

 destruction, without warning, in an emergency, and clearly constituted 

 a true salvage problem, if not one of the usual sort. In keeping with 

 the principle hitherto applied to all large sites of the reservoir areas 

 of the Missouri basin (historic and prehistoric alike) , the excavations 

 were designedly partial, sampling investigations. The data obtained, 

 however, seem for the present to be fully adequate, affording as they 



