Missouri Forts of the Old West

Missouri Forts - Page 2

Fort de Cavagnal (1744-1760?) - Also known as Fort Cavagnolle, Post of the Missouri, and Fort de la Trinité, this was a French fort on the Missouri River, situated somewhere between Kansas City, Missouri and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Built in 1744, the fort was the furthest west on the Missouri River at the time and was first commanded by François Coulon de Villiers. The fort also doubled as a trading post operated by Joseph Deruisseau who had a monopoly on trade on the Missouri River from January 1, 1745 to May 20, 1750. It was described as: a small but substantial fort with a surrounding stockade of stout piles and with bastions at each of the four stockade corners. Internal buildings included a commandant's house, a guardhouse, a powder house, a trader's house, and a house for the trader's employees. The buildings were constructed of logs and most were covered with mud.

Conference of Kanza (Kaw) Indians with the U.S. Commission of

Indian Affairs, Illustrated London News, 1857

The exact location of the fort is not known because of conflicting reports about its relationship to trade with the Kanza tribe. British reports placed it below the confluence of the Kansas River and Missouri River in what is today Kansas City. However, most reports place it on the bluffs above the confluence of Salt Creek and the Missouri River just north of modern day Fort Leavenworth. This was a site of a major Kanza village, which Lewis and Clark visited on July 2, 1804. The fort was abandoned by France after Louisiana Territory was ceded to Spain in the treaties concluding the French and Indian War.

Fort Hovey (1861-1864) - Also called Fort Curtis, this fortress was a small Civil War era earth-and-wood post built on a hill overlooking the junction of the road that connected Ironton and Pilot Knob with Fredericktown in 1863. The fort's objective was to protect the Arcadia Valley and the iron mines located on Pilot Knob Mountain. It was initially named Fort Hovey in honor of Union Colonel Charles E. Hovey, who commanded the 33rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, who built the fort in the winter of 1861-62.

After the Union victory led by Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas on March 8, 1862, the post was renamed Fort Curtis in his honor. The fort continued to be occupied until Confederate troops advanced into Missouri in 1864. The fort was then abandoned because it was to far from the rail terminus and supply depot in Pilot Knob. The Union troops were relocated to Fort Davidson, about 2 ½ miles north at the town of Pilot Knob. Fort Curtis was briefly used as an observation post by Confederate Soldiers just before, during and shortly after the Battle of Pilot Knob.

Though there is nothing left of the fort today, the site is designated with a historic marker located on the Arcadia Valley United Presbyterian Church ground at Church and Spring Streets in Arcadia, Missouri.

Fort Orleans (1723-1726) - Also called Fort D'Orleans, this was a French fort -- the first built by any European country on the Missouri River and the first settlement in what is the State of Missouri today.

It was established in November, 1723 by Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont and 40 French soldiers on the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Grand River, but its exact location is unknown. The fort was to be the Missouri River headquarters of the newly created Louisiana (New France) territory and was named for the Duke of Orléans. When complete, the post included a chapel, the first Catholic church in the Missouri Valley.

De Bourgmond, a friend to many Indian tribes and author of the first navigation report on the Missouri River in 1714, was chosen to build the fort by a French trading concern, The Company of the Indies. The fort was to serve as a check to any advance by the Spanish from the southwest and as a base for New Mexican and Indian trade. Bourgmond was later made Commandant on the Missouri River and was in charge of making peace with the Comanche Indians. n 1724, De Bourgmond traveled to Kansas via the Kansas Riverto the southwest, where he fulfilled his commission to make peace with the Comanche tribe, as well as the Osage, Iowa, Pawnee, Oto and Makah tribes .

In 1725 he returned to France taking several Indian chiefs and a young Missouri maiden along for a visit. The whole party delighted the French who called the girl "Princess of the Missouri," saw her baptized in Notre Dame, and married to a sergeant. De Bourgmond was made a noble and had for his coat of arms an Indian against a silver mountain. Bourgmond did not acompany the chiefs back to Missouri, instead choosing to stay at his home in Normandy. The following year, the fort was abandoned. One story says that it was left manned by only eight soldiers, who were killed by Indians.

The exact location of the fort is unknown; however a marker is located on US Highway 24 in the Wiese Roadside Park about one mile northeast of De Witt, Missouri.

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