A cornerstone of North America’s fur trade heritage, the Museum of the Fur Trade allows visitors to explore the life and times of the traders and trappers who helped to open a continent, and the Indians with whom they traded. The museum is located on the site of an original trading post built in 1837 by the American Fur Company and Operated until 1876.

Visitors to the museum can see the history of the first business in North America—the fur trade; including the entire range of goods traded to the Indians, such as textiles, costumes, beads, paints, kettles, knives, and silver. The museum also has the largest and most complete collection of Northwest guns made for the Indian trade from 1670 to 1900.

One of the museum’s five gallery spaces is an outside exhibit where a reproduction of the Bordeaux Trading Post, built on its original footings, can be seen. Also in the outside space is an Indian heirloom garden featuring varieties of corn, squash, and bean used by Northern Plains Indians. Other exhibit pieces include a trade house and Indian tipi.