Fort Chardon

In the Spring of 1844, American Fur Company traders Francis Chardon and Alexander Harvey constructed a trading post near here. Chardon had a reputation as an able and unscrupulous individual, while Harvey was “one of the most abandoned desperados known to the fur trade.” The previous year, the men participated in the massacre of many innocent Blackfeet Indians who had come to Fort McKenzie at the mouth of the Marias River to trade. The resulting hostility directed at Chardon and Harvey forced the men to abandon that post and build a new one, Fort Chardon. The Blackfeet, however, would not trade at the new fort and, instead, placed it under siege. For several months, the Indians stole the post’s horses, killed its cattle, and murdered employees who foolishly got caught alone outside the stockade. Chardon had no furs to send downriver to his boss, Alexander Culbertson, at Fort Union. Culbertson fired the men and made peace with the Blackfeet. He closed Fort Chardon and burned it to the ground. Trade was reestablished with the Blackfeet at a new trading post located upriver; Chardon and Harvey barely escaped with their lives. In 1855, Isaac Steven negotiated a treaty with the Blackfeet and the Gros Ventres Indians near here.