Last updated: May 3, 2024
Place
The Fur Press
NPS/Stuart West
Quick Facts
Location:
In the center of the plaza
Amenities
2 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit
Fur trading posts had several kinds of pressing techniques, from mallet driven wedges to fulcrum-and-lever, to rotary screws. Whatever the style, the intent was to compress animal hides into manageable, and easily inventoried packs, averaging around 100 pounds each. Think of the toil as men struggled to fold heavy buffalo robes with the hair side inward, and then push and pull on heavy metal as the squeaking press was lowered into position.
It is thought this type of press was a late addition to the fort, probably 1845/46 - a fact born out by eyewitness accounts. Lieutenant Abert clearly shows the press in several of his 1845 drawings, while the traveler George Ruxton wrote two years later that employees were "...pressing packs of buffalo robes...." The archeological record of the fur press includes three massive posts, a charred horizontal beam, and several postholes 1.4 ft. to 2.4 ft. deep.
It is thought this type of press was a late addition to the fort, probably 1845/46 - a fact born out by eyewitness accounts. Lieutenant Abert clearly shows the press in several of his 1845 drawings, while the traveler George Ruxton wrote two years later that employees were "...pressing packs of buffalo robes...." The archeological record of the fur press includes three massive posts, a charred horizontal beam, and several postholes 1.4 ft. to 2.4 ft. deep.