The Museum of the Fur Trade combins an outstanding collection and scholarship to interpret the story of the fur trade, the non-profit museum’s exhibits discuss the fur trade from early colonial days to the present century. The exhibits trace the everyday lives of British, French, and Spanish traders, voyageurs, mountain men, professional buffalo hunters, and typical Plains and Woodland Indians. Exhibits include the entire range of trade goods, including munitions, cutlery, axes, firearms, textiles, costumes, paints, and beads.
The museum, standing on the site of James Bordeaux’s trading post established for the American Fur Company in 1837, began as an exhibit plan-then only a dream-in the minds of its founders. Nearly fifty years later, it has become an institution whose collections and research are known and respected worldwide, and whose exhibits provide a unique educational experience for more than 40,000 visitors every year, leaving them, young and old, with a sense of adventure and faith in our economic and political freedom.
