Fort Carondelet was a
fort
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
located along the
Osage River
The Osage River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 31, 2011 tributary of the Missouri River in central Missouri in the United States. The eighth-largest river i ...
in
Vernon County, Missouri
Vernon County is located in the western region of the U.S. state of Missouri, on the border with Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 21,159. Its county seat is Nevada. The county was organized on February 27, 1855, considerably la ...
, constructed in 1795 as an early
fur trading
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...
post in
Spanish Louisiana
Spanish Louisiana ( es, link=no, la Luisiana) was a governorate and administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1762 to 1801 that consisted of a vast territory in the center of North America encompassing the western basin of t ...
by the
Chouteau
Chouteau was the name of a highly successful, ethnically French fur-trading family based in Saint Louis, Missouri, which they helped found.
Their ancestors Chouteau and Laclède initially settled in New Orleans. They then moved-up the Mississipp ...
family. The fort also was used by the Spanish colonial government to maintain good relations with the
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation ( ) ( Osage: 𐓁𐒻 𐓂𐒼𐒰𐓇𐒼𐒰͘ ('), "People of the Middle Waters") is a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 BC along ...
. Sold by the Chouteau family in 1802, the fort was abandoned the same year by its new owners.
[Hoig, 24.] By the time of an 1806 visit by
Zebulon Pike
Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813) was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions under authority of President Thomas Jefferson th ...
on
his expedition through southern Louisiana, the buildings were in disrepair. Although archaeological remains of the fort and its buildings were extant in 1874,
[Campbell, 623.] a congregation known as the
Church of Israel
The Church of Israel (formerly the Church of Our Christian Heritage) is a denomination that emerged from the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) in the Latter Day Saint movement.J. Gordon Melton, ''Encyclopedia of American Religions'' (Detroit: Gale, ) ...
(affiliated with the
Christian Identity
Christian Identity (also known as Identity Christianity) is an interpretation of Christianity which advocates the belief that only Celtic and Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic nations, or Aryan people and people of kindred blood ...
movement) has occupied the site since the 1940s.
Origins
Starting in the mid-1700s, the
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation ( ) ( Osage: 𐓁𐒻 𐓂𐒼𐒰𐓇𐒼𐒰͘ ('), "People of the Middle Waters") is a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 BC along ...
traded furs with French and Spanish settlers, especially the French brothers
Pierre Chouteau
Chouteau was the name of a highly successful, ethnically French fur-trading family based in Saint Louis, Missouri, which they helped found.
Their ancestors Chouteau and Laclède initially settled in New Orleans. They then moved-up the Mississipp ...
and
Auguste Chouteau
René-Auguste Chouteau, Jr. (September 7, 1749, or September 26, 1750 – February 24, 1829Beckwith, 8.), also known as Auguste Chouteau, was the founder of St. Louis, Missouri, a successful fur trader and a politician. He and his partner had a mo ...
from the settlement of
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
. The Chouteaus were authorized to trade by the Spanish colonial government, and by 1787 built a temporary trading post along the
Osage River
The Osage River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 31, 2011 tributary of the Missouri River in central Missouri in the United States. The eighth-largest river i ...
in what is now western
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
.
![Retrato del Barón de Carondelet - Anónimo (siglo XIX)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Retrato_del_Bar%C3%B3n_de_Carondelet_-_An%C3%B3nimo_%28siglo_XIX%29.jpg)
Spanish Governor General
Esteban Rodríguez Miró
Esteban Rodríguez Miró y Sabater, KOS (1744 – June 4, 1795), also known as Esteban Miro and Estevan Miro, was a Spanish army officer and governor of the Spanish American provinces of Louisiana and Florida.
Miró was one of the most popular ...
first proposed a fort in western Missouri in 1791, looking to strengthen Spanish allies living among the Osage. Before the fort was built, Miro was replaced as Spanish governor general by
Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet
Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet y Bosoist, 5th Baron of Carondelet, (born 1748, Noyelles-sur-Selle, County of Flanders, Flanders – died 1807 Quito, Ecuador) was a Spanish administrator of partial Burgundy, Burgundian descent in the employ ...
. Concerned that the Osage would ally themselves with the French, Carondelet requested a peace meeting with six Osage chiefs in mid-1794, at which the Osage chiefs agreed (in exchange for peace) to allow the construction of the fort. Carondelet was informed that the fur trader,
Auguste Chouteau
René-Auguste Chouteau, Jr. (September 7, 1749, or September 26, 1750 – February 24, 1829Beckwith, 8.), also known as Auguste Chouteau, was the founder of St. Louis, Missouri, a successful fur trader and a politician. He and his partner had a mo ...
, would financially support the construction of the fort as a replacement for his temporary trading post along the Osage River.
[Houck, 210.] In a letter to Carondelet, Chouteau described the proposed fort buildings in detail:
Given his desire for peace with the Osage, Carondelet accepted Chouteau's proposal. According to the terms of the agreement between Chouteau and Carondelet, Chouteau received $2,000 annually to support twenty soldiers at the fort and a six-year monopoly on trade with the Osage, unless the Spanish government itself supplied the soldiers (in which case, Chouteau would receive the monopoly but no more).
Use and abandonment
After its construction in 1795, Fort Carondelet was used as the farthest western outpost for the Chouteau trading operations and not as a military fort.
[Hoig, 23.] Pierre Chouteau operated the post, bringing his sons to live among the neighboring Osage. His sons in turn became familiar with the culture of the Osage and the life of indigenous peoples in general. For their part, members of the Osage Nation accepted Chouteau and his family.
[Hoig, 22.] Other tribes (such as the
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
) became jealous of the perceived favoritism shown to the Osage Nation.
One of the major effects of the fort was its role in expanding the Chouteau trade operation. While commander of the fort, Pierre Chouteau (along with his son,
Auguste Pierre Chouteau
Auguste Pierre Chouteau (9 May 1786 – 25 December 1838) was a member of the Chouteau fur-trading family who established trading posts in what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma.
Chouteau was born in St. Louis, then part of Spanish colonial ...
) expanded trade from Fort Carondelet to other Osage settlements near the
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...
by 1796.
By 1800 rivals to the Chouteau operation began demanding that the government break its contract monopoly.
That same year, new Spanish Governor General
Juan Manuel de Salcedo
Juan Manuel de Salcedo was the 11th and final governor of Spanish Louisiana, from 1801–1803. He was governor at the time of the cession of the Louisiana territory to France in fulfillment of the terms of the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, Tr ...
gave the Chouteau's trade rights to one of their Spanish rivals,
Manuel Lisa
Manuel Lisa, also known as Manuel de Lisa (September 8, 1772 in New Orleans Louisiana (New Spain) – August 12, 1820 in St. Louis, Missouri), was a Spanish citizen and later, became an American citizen who, while living on the western frontier, ...
. In 1802, abandoning his effort to maintain his monopoly, Pierre Chouteau sold Fort Carondelet to Lisa, who withdrew the garrison and abandoned the fort.
During the transfer of the Louisiana territory to the possession of the United States in 1804, Auguste Chouteau was employed by Spain to remove any remaining Spanish property from the fort.
![Zebulon Pike](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Zebulon_Pike.jpg)
After 1802, the fort's buildings fell into disrepair, and by 1806, they were overgrown with vegetation. According to an entry in the journal of Zebulon Pike during his expedition through southern Louisiana:
After the Pike Expedition, few travelers reported the site of the fort. The last report of the fort's existence derives from an 1874 Missouri travel guidebook relating the physical characteristics of Vernon County. While not explicitly mentioning the fort, the guidebook noted the top of Halley's Bluff had "the foundations of three furnaces" and "the remains of works—both earth and stone, covering the approaches to the furnaces and the descent to the excavations below, as if thrown up for fortifications.
Later, the guidebook suggested that the works were remnants of French explorers who had built a headquarters for their operations there.
[Campbell, 623–24.]
In the early 20th century, Halley's Bluff (and the site of the fort) became the possession of a Mormon group that eventually separated from the
Church of Christ (Temple Lot)
The Church of Christ, informally called Hedrickites and the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), is a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement headquartered in Independence, Missouri, on what is known as the Temple Lot. The nickname for members of ...
.
[Kaplan, 183.] This group, known as the
Church of Christ at Halley's Bluff Church of Christ at Halley's Bluff (formerly known as the Church of Christ at Zion's Retreat) is a small denomination within the Latter Day Saint movement. It was formed in 1932 by former members of the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), and in 1972 it ...
, controlled the property as a compound from 1945 until 1979.
Since a dispute over control of the church in the 1970s, the compound has been the property of the
Church of Israel
The Church of Israel (formerly the Church of Our Christian Heritage) is a denomination that emerged from the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) in the Latter Day Saint movement.J. Gordon Melton, ''Encyclopedia of American Religions'' (Detroit: Gale, ) ...
, a
Christian Identity
Christian Identity (also known as Identity Christianity) is an interpretation of Christianity which advocates the belief that only Celtic and Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic nations, or Aryan people and people of kindred blood ...
group.
[O'Neill, 1] In the 1980s, the church compound was home to
Eric Robert Rudolph
Eric Robert Rudolph (born September 19, 1966), also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is an American domestic terrorist convicted for a series of bombings across the southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed two people and inju ...
, who committed the
Centennial Olympic Park bombing
The Centennial Olympic Park bombing was a domestic terrorist pipe bombing attack on Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, on July 27, 1996, during the 1996 Summer Olympics, Summer Olympics. The blast directly killed ...
in 1996.
Notes
References
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Alt URL
{{coord, 38.0370052, -94.2111969, display=title
Fur trade
History of the American West
Trading posts in the United States
Pre-statehood history of Missouri
Buildings and structures in Vernon County, Missouri
Car
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as ...