Road Trip Through History: Fort Robinson

Forts and so-called “Indian agencies” and the relationship between them were a recurring them on our trip through the western plains.* The simple version is that agencies were established at various locations to manage trade and treaty obligations between the United States and the Native American nations. In theory, the agencies were intended to insure…

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Russia, Siberia, and the Fur Trade

And speaking of the fur trade, as I believe we were, the Russian fur trade did not begin in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest of North America. At the same time that French and British (and to a lesser extent, Dutch, and Swedish) fur traders were exploring the virgin forests of North America in the…

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History on Display: The Museum of the Fur Trade

Our long road trips usually begin with an idea or a destination. * In the case of our recent trip through the Western plains, our route was shaped by two museums that have been on our road trip bucket list for a long time. One of those was the Museum of the Fur Trade, just…

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