The American Fur Company

• by George Bailey • Published: May 31, 2007

The upper Missouri River valley was the seat of American fur trading in the nineteenth century and, as a result, a major center of trafficking between American settlers and Native Americans. The single most looming figure in the history of American fur trading is Kenneth McKenzie, a Scottish Canadian immigrant. McKenzie spent the early 1820's in St. Louis at the Columbia Fur Company, climbing the proverbial fur trading ladder several rungs at a time. By the middle of the decade he owned it. In 1828, after the close of tiresome negotiations with American Fur, who came to meet all of McKenzie's exceptional demands, he sold and moved north. He built Fort Union at the intersection of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers and headed the Upper Missouri Outfit branch of American Fur there. Beaver pelt and buffalo hide were dominating the market at the time. McKenzie, who was famous for his mastery of trading in the field, incorporated the Blackfeet Indians into his network. In the early 1830's, Congress had begun to forbid Native Americans access to alcohol-- the most valuable item in trade with them. McKenzie built his own still at Fort Union in order to surpass fear of customs. He would give the Natives real (though probably diluted) whiskey to taste, and a non-alcoholic imitation in trade. In 1833, McKenzie showed his still off to the wrong people: Nathaniel Wyeth and M.S. Cerre. They reported him and Congress in turn passed a law forbidding distilleries on Indian territory. McKenzie retired in Affton, Missouri.