Living History Weekend at Fort Union

Living History weekend September 1-3, and the story of Missionaries coming to Fort Union are this years’ Last Bell Tour for the Saturday night.

The setting for this year’s Last Bell Tour is based on events that occurred over July 1 & 2, 1858 when two German Lutheran missionaries briefly visited at Fort Union. On June 22, 1858 the steamboat Twilight, an opposition boat leased to Frost, Todd & Co. off loaded Indian annuities for the Crow & Assiniboine. Also aboard were the two Missionaries, western artist Carl Wimar, Indian Agents Alexander Redfield [for the Upper Missouri Agent] & Alfred Vaughn [agent for the Blackfoot] and replacement company personnel.

Saturday’s Last Bell Tours will begin in the upper parking lot at 8pm, where visitors will assemble. Tour leaders will orient visitors and escort them through the fort where they will be confronted by a series of period scenes. Beginning at 8pm, six tours of 20-25 people each will be conducted through the trading post at 15-minute intervals. Tours will begin at 8:00, 8:20, 8:45, 9:00 and 9:20. The fort will be illuminated by candlelight, lanterns and fireplaces.

The Last Bell Tours are only a part of Living History Weekend, September 1-3, when the muzzleloaders, staff and other reenactors become engages (laborers), clerks, traders, Indian Warriors and Metis women. Besides living in the fort, reenactors will eat meals cooked out behind the Bourgeois House on a wood-burning stove.

Fort Union’s Trade House will be open every day throughout most of September with living history interpreters. Stop in at the visitor’s center to get the latest updates on our changes or any upcoming events, or visit our website at http://www.nps.gov/fous or on Facebook.

Fort Union is open from 8:00 am to 6:30 pm CDT daily. Fort Union Trading Post is located 24 miles north of Sidney, Montana and 25 miles southwest of Williston, North Dakota, via highway 1804. While here, visitors are encouraged to tour the reconstructed fort, trade room and bourgeois house. Fort Union is free of charge to visit.

For more information on Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site contact the park at 701-572-9083.

 

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