Fort Union Trading Post Historic Structures Report (Part II) Historical Data Section

This, the fifth, completed the five huts that stood under the north gallery. Larpenteur's diary, 1835, discussed underpinning and paving this building. Later on it was shingled and plastered. The carpenter built for it a door frame and a window frame. At one time, four men had to stop work elsewhere in order to bail this house out. This last may have suggested that the floor was sunk into the earth a few feet in order to keep the structure cool.

Denig continued his 1843 description of the fort by saying that on the west and south sides, under the galleries, were additional structures similar to the five above. One of these was the storage house for the blacksmith's charcoal. Denig did not make clear if it was on the west or south side; however, it probably was close to the blacksmith's shop itself, which, as has been noted, was in the southwest part of the fort. Denig's statement implies this coal house was a part of the same structure that contained the ten stables discussed above (HS 14); if so, the whole structure was 117 feet by 10 feet.

Bodmer's 1833 sketch appears to show a low building erected against the outside of the east wall. Strangely enough, very little mention of outside structures is made by those at the fort over the years. However in the Wimar sketch, 1858, we see clearly this small house and a fenced in area on either side of it. These fenced areas might be considered to be pens or yards. In the written documents, there are references to calf pens and to the pigs at Fort Union. Whether or not any relationship exists between these pens in Wimar's sketches and those in the written sources can be but conjecture. Audubon mentioned a pig's trough immediately "under the side of the fort."

Wimar's 1858 sketch also shows a small wooden house that is about 100 feet east of the fort, near the bluff, and just east of the ravine that led down to the river. Nothing else is known about this building at this time. It is also noted that the Bedticking sketch has several small buildings in this area.