pip.Na'lsf" FORT PIERRE II— SMITH 93 



little timber fit for building (Lt. G. K. Warren to Maj. O. F. Winship, 

 Fort Pierre, Aug. 7, 1855, in U.S. War Dept., 1902, p. 392) . The site 

 of Galpin's Camp near Chantier Creek is indicated on a map, made 

 to accompany the letter, by Warren and Paul Carrey, entitled "Pre- 

 liminary Sketch of a survey of the Missouri E. near Ft. Pierre for the 

 purpose of laying out a reserve for that Post," approved by Maj. 

 W. K. Montgomery, commandant. Fort Pierre, August 8, 1955. ( This 

 original map, as yet unpublished, is in the National Archives, Record 

 Group 77 (126-1) , and a photostatic copy is in Missouri Basin Project 

 files.) The camp is shown as situated immediately below the mouth of 

 a small unnamed stream next above Chantier Creek, on the west side 

 of the Missouri, at a distance from the creek of approximately 4 miles. 



Of this new site at which the traders were located, some 16 miles 

 upriver from old Fort Pierre, the comment was also made that while 

 the landing was not good, it was better than that at Fort Pierre, and 

 that, in general, the location was a "more eligible one" — i.e., probably, 

 for trade purposes. There appears to have been some doubt on the 

 part of the traders at this time of the wisdom of reestablishing them- 

 selves in the region. Warren comments "that the trade with the Sioux 

 in this vicinity is ruined forever, and that it will not be profitable to 

 incur the expense of establishing a trading post" — i.e., to replace Fort 

 Pierre Chouteau (ibid., p. 393) . Galpin himself revealed something of 

 the problem in writing that "Fort Pierre is a barren and exhausted 

 place" (Galpin to Turnley, Fort Pierre, Nov. 8, 1855, op. cit., p. 412). 



The general area of Chantier Creek, the location of the traders in 

 the summer of 1855, despite the comment on its suitability seems to 

 have been utilized by them as headquarters for only a short time. The 

 area previously had been used by the traders from old Fort Pierre as a 

 source of timber, not available in sufficient quantities in the immediate 

 vicinity of the mouth of the Bad River, and it is possible that depletion 

 of timber near Chantier Creek and the advantage of location near the 

 old site combined to cause a return downriver. It is probable that the 

 establishment near Chantier Creek was used only during the winters 

 of 1855-56 and 1856-57. 



DeLand states that Galpin in 1857 began a new post to take the place 

 of the old, and that this establishment was situated "about two miles 

 north of the site of old Fort Pierre" (DeLand, 1902, p. 865 ; his map 

 places this site in sec. 5, T. 5 N., R. 31 E., near its northeast corner ; 

 Mattison, 1954, p. 30, is in doubt about the precise location). This 

 statement appears to be based upon testimony of Marcel C. Rousseau, 

 who came to the area in the fall of 1857 as bookkeeper for the Chouteau 

 firm, and later stated that when he arrived the stockade of this post 

 was under construction. This new post (according to DeLand, whose 

 data were doubtless from Rousseau) was about 125 feet square, and 

 built similar to tlie first Fort Pierre except for the fact that it had no 



