Museum of the Fur Trade, Nebraska

This museum in northwestern Nebraska claims to be home to the most comprehensive collection of historical artifacts covering the fur trade period in the world, and the only museum dedicated to the fur trade on a national, as opposed to local, scale. The museum was established here at the site of the James Bordeaux Trading Post, as small fur trading post that was acquired by the current museum director’s father in 1953, with the intent of establishing a national museum of the fur trade. The museum has thousands of artifacts, including hundreds of guns, knives, and clothes, given to Indians in exchange for furs desired by the European traders. The museum focuses on the effects of this trade on native populations, and the material and methods of this early form of commerce established by European settlers in the New World.