This is not a regional-history afterthought — it’s the museum scholars use. The Museum of the Fur Trade stands on the actual site of Bordeaux’s 1837 American Fur Company post, three miles east of Chadron, and its 6,000-plus artifacts are all original: the oldest known Hudson’s Bay point blanket, the most complete collection of Northwest trade guns anywhere, and a full reconstructed trading post on its original footings.
The staff publish the books on this subject, and it shows. The exhibits treat the trade as what it was — the first big business in North America, and a genuine exchange between traders and the Lakota and other nations, told with artifacts on both sides of the counter.
Open May through October, daily, with winter visits by appointment. Admission is cheap (kids free), photography is allowed, and the heirloom garden of Indigenous corn, squash, and beans is a quiet highlight most visitors walk right past.