Southwest Bastion

Surprisingly, as a fur trading post, the fort's bastions were used primarily as storage and housing.

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Scenic View/Photo Spot

Although the bastions, towering and imposing structures, were present as the primary defense system of the trading post, they were rarely, if ever, needed. The Assiniboine tribe controlled the land on which Fort Union was built and requested the fort's construction to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with the fur traders. The fort's strategic location at the intersection of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers made it a vital hub for trade and commerce. The Upper Missouri Tribes and the traders collaborated to establish trust and cooperation, resulting in mutually beneficial relationships. As a result of the exchange of goods and ideas, both the tribes of Upper Missouri and the fur traders benefited, leading to long-lasting relationships.

Despite their main purpose of defense, the bastions also served other crucial functions. They served as storage facilities and housed the fort's employees and visitors. 

In 1832, the renowned artist George Catlin used one of the bastions as his studio. The bastion provided an ideal environment for Catlin to unleash his creativity, with its isolation, natural light, and ventilation. It's also worth mentioning that the Northeast Bastion, located across the courtyard, is an exact replica of the bastion used by Catlin. In the Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Conditions of North American Indians, Volume I, Catlin describes his studio in the second level of the bastion. He writes, “My easel stands before me, and the cool breech of a twelve-pounder makes me a comfortable seat, whilst her muzzle is looking out at one of the port holes.”

Learn More:
Southwest Bastion Park Video

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Transcript

Hi. Welcome to Fort Union. My name is Sawyer Flynn. And today, I'm going to be showing you a little bit about our Southwest bastion.

So now we're up on the wall tops. The wall tops, or the palisades, as it would have been called in the historic period, are the security of the Fort. They prevent just anyone from coming into your Fort compound, into your Fort courtyard.

Fort Union is responsible for $100,000 worth of trade goods, as well as any money they're making off of the firms that are here. And this obviously represents a very tempting target to somebody who might want to steal anything. Fortunately, Fort Union was never attacked, and we will never quite know if that was because of good intentions or because of these walls. Maybe it's a combination of both.

The Missouri River is right out there from where we're standing right now. You can see the course of it all the way over there with those banks and then some water even over there. Up close, historically, the Missouri River would have been right up next to this bank just 20 yards right off the front gate.

And so in this current recessed area, this current depression, this is actually where the Missouri River would have been flowing as the main channel. It shifted as a result of an ice jam in 1991. And originally, in 1991, it would have been out about midway between where it is now and where it would have been in 1851.

River supplied steamboat travel. It supplies water for the Fort, and it supplies an excellent view from the wall tops.

You can see the prairie off on this side. This is where the Indian tribes would have camped in the historic period, and this is actually why Fort Union was built at this site because it offers a lot of camping ground, a lot of good, flat ground close to water.

You can also see this depression over here. This is the gravel pit. The gravel pit actually is after the Fort. It's going to be dug in the 1930s. And that is where our parking lot is today.

It does help us conceal our parking lot, but historically, what you would have seen here was one flat riverbank extending all the way down to the edge of that gravel pit. This actually helped the area find the Fort because the bastian's stones in the base of this bastion are original to the original Fort Union. And when the steam shovel that was being operated in this gravel pit was right here, it actually scraped against those bastion foundation stones, and that is what resulted in the second discovery of Fort Union. Everyone kind of knew it was already here, but that's what actually prompted a women's group in the 1930s to purchase the Fort site, transfer it to the State Historic site, and then that State Historic Society transferred it over to the National Park Service.

So right now, we're standing inside the Southwest bastion here at Fort union. Bastians are things that protrude out of the wall of any fortification. And this protrusion allows you to shoot back at the wall that you are trying to defend.

So if people are right next to your wall you don't want to be leaning all the way over top of your wall to defend your post. You want to be able to attack them from a place where you have the full advantage, where you are well-fortified and protected from their fire. That is the stated purpose of the bastion, and that's why they are here originally.

But during the historic time frame of Fort Union, the bastions were seldom, if ever, used for defense. For the most part, the bastions are going to be the place where you store arms and your cannon. So things like our muskets and our cannons will be stored inside of the bastion ready for defense, very seldom used though. Oftentimes,

It'd be used as storage for other supplies. And they were sort of a hotel or guest quarters. They are extra space that you have inside your Fort that you can use for a variety of different purposes.

George Catlin actually used the Southwest bastion in the historic time period to paint many of his greatest works up here in the upper Missouri, paintings of of Stu-mick-o-súcks, paintings of the The Light, one of the Assiniboine chiefs out here. Paintings of many of these different Indian chiefs were done inside this bastion. And Catlin knows that he did many of his paintings of both that and exterior scenes sitting on a cannon very similar to the one we have in here. He said that it was very cool in here, and that cannon barrel's very cool, both of which were probably very welcome during the summertime.

You can see a couple different features of this bastion. One is that we have cannon ports, which are these large ports right here. This obviously allows us to fire cannons out of this. And then we have our rifle ports, which are these much smaller ports up here.

Rifle ports permit a full range of motion to the person inside, and they present only a very small target from the outside. So these are some of the defensive features of this Fort, but more often than not, they'll be used just the way that we're using them today-- to let a little light and a little bit of air into here.

Duration:

5 minutes, 21 seconds

Find out the purposes of Fort Union's two bastions.