Saturday Afternoon--Fort Union, We Dip Slightly Into Montana

with the bridge of terror behind us, we drove on to Fort Union which james thought looked pretty boring from the oustide. he became slightly more interested when we had to park in montana and walk up a trail to the fort. along the trail were placards, telling us about the history of the fort as a fur trading establishment and asking us to imagine we were river travelers disembarking our steamboat and entering a hub of commerce on the plains.


have to admit, we were enchanted with crossing back and forth between the north dakota and montana state lines on the sidewalk.




at the moment we arrived, we were the only visitors to the fort besides two other people. james was the only kid and so got lots of attention from the re-enactors who man the fort. the first one had james convinced that he could be a cabin boy on a steamboat as soon as he turns 12 and maybe someday be a clerk making $300 a year if he was good at math. they were all interested that he was from st. louis because that's the end point for all the furs that were shipped downriver from there.

james found that there was LOTS of things to explore at the fort and climbed every staircase, rattled every doornob, tried every lock, and checked every cannon to see if it was loaded.


when i shared with a re-enactor that james would not be happy until something exploded, the actor got out a musket (or rifle or something) and demonstrated how to load it with gunpowder, wadding, a bullet, and a cap for spark. then he fired the gun which, if not an explosion, was still quite loud!


he also charmed the blacksmith (who was originally from around columbia/fulton missouri) into demonstrating all the tools and letting him pump the bellows. the blacksmith made him a little nail hook as a souvenir and talked to us about moving to ND.


before we left, james insisted we check out the teepees. the pic i took of him is from a distance because the prairie out there was buzzing ominously and i wasn't sure i could sing enough verses of Jesus Loves Me to keep from getting stung by whatever can make that deep of a noise.