pAP.^alsf* ^ORT PIERRE n — SMITH 91 



maintaining British ties and sympathies) , of wliich William Laidlaw, 

 Kenneth McKenzie, and James Kipp were prominent members, seems 

 to have operated its post — named "Fort Tecumseh" for the Shawnee 

 leader in the late war — until 1827, when the company was absorbed by 

 the American Fur Company (DeLand, 1902, pp. 329-335). The pre- 

 cise location of the site of Fort Tecumseh is also in doubt. Some 

 students believe that it was situated in Ni/^ sec. 28, T. 5 N., R. 31 E. 

 (Mattison, 1954, p. 23). DeLand (1902, p. 281, map), however, 

 placed the site in sec. 21 of the same township and range. 



Another post was also soon established nearby — that usually re- 

 ferred to as the Teton Post from an alternate name of the Bad River, 

 and built in 1828 or 1829 by the St. Louis group of Pierre D. Papin, 

 Gabriel P. and Michel S. Cerre, and Plonore Picotte, a group some- 

 times referred to as the "French Company," apparently to distinguish 

 it from the American Fur Company, and perhaps from the Columbia 

 (cf. DeLand, 1902, p. 374; Abel, 1932, p. 202, n. 20). Once again, 

 precise location seems impossible ; the site of the Teton Post is said to 

 have been at the mouth of the Bad, but whether on the north or south 

 side is uncertain (DeLand, 1902, pp. 374-375). 



At this late date, it is improbable that the actual sites of Lafram- 

 boise's post, of Fort Tecumseh, or of the Teton Post could be re- 

 located. The entire area in question, adjacent to the mouth of the Bad 

 River, has been much altered in recent years as a result of the growth 

 of the city of Fort Pierre and through extensive changes in surface 

 levels in and near it after the disastrous flood of 1952, and by the 

 establishment of new street and highway grades. With the building 

 of Fort Pierre Chouteau in 1831-32, however, the student is at last 

 upon solid ground, the location and character of the post having been 

 recorded in several sources contemporary with its actual use. 



For the earliest trading establishments in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood of the mouth of the Bad River, bottom lands had been chosen 

 as sites, easy access to both the Bad and the Missouri having appar- 

 ently weighed more heavily with the traders than other considerations. 

 Experience with seasonal flooding, however, seems at length to have 

 dictated that any new post be differently located. With the build- 

 ing of Fort Pierre Chouteau by the American Fur Company, as head- 

 quarters for its Upper Missouri Outfit, a new site was selected, ap- 

 proximately 3 miles upriver from the Bad and beyond the reach of its 

 flood stages or of a conjunction of flood waters from the Missouri 

 and the Bad, while retaining ease of access to the channel of the 

 larger river. This site, located in NEi^SWi/4 sec. 16, T. 5 N., 

 R. 31 E., was marked in 1930 with a boulder bearing a bronze 

 historical tablet (Mattison, 1954, pp. 24-28). 



Still another early post was destined to rise in this vicinity, that 

 of the firm of Sublette and Campbell, begun in 1833 as an opposition 



