[Block 7E] More Information on the Fur Trade:

The public landing at Market Street served as the primary staging area for St. Louis' fur trade operations. Beginning in the 1790s, fur trade expeditions frequently departed from the St. Louis riverfront for Indian villages on the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Trade with the Osage Indians of modern southwest Missouri was very important, and traders ranged as far north as today's North Dakota. Supply storehouses, boatmaking and repair facilities were developed in the landing area. The riverfront received the furs and hides sent by Indians and traders living upstream. In turn, merchants sent back manufactured items to the traders and Indians by keelboat, including guns, metal tools, cloth, beads and blankets. The American officer Amos Stoddard reported that the annual value of furs brought through St. Louis was greater than $200,000 in the Lewis and Clark era. In 1772 alone, 950 packs of furs and hides, flour, and lead were exported from St. Louis to New Orleans.