Chadron Creek Trading Post

The creek gave Chadron its name, but the town got it through a newspaperman. The first settlement here was called O'Linn, after Fannie O'Linn, who kept the post office on her homestead. E. E. Egan, starting the paper that became the Chadron Record, refused to date it from O'Linn and used Chadron, the name of a closed post office. When the railroad came in 1885, talks with O'Linn broke down, a ranch on Bordeaux Creek became the townsite, and on August 1 the settlers moved O'Linn there, buildings and all, nearly overnight. Merchants kept selling as their stores rolled.

What the plaque says

Chadron Creek Trading Post Employees of Lancaster P. Lupton built a trading post on the creek near here in 1841 to trade with the Sioux Indians. From 1842 until at least 1845 this post was managed by Louis B. Chartran, first for Sibille & Adams and later for Pratte & Cabanne. These companies were successively headquartered at Fort Platte about eighty-five miles southwest of here and competed aggressively with Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Co., which owned Fort Laramie. As a result of this competition, fur traders were very active in this region during the 1840's, bringing liquor, blankets, guns, ammunition and other trade goods to exchange for fine Indian-tanned buffalo robes. This creek is shown on the earliest maps of the area as "Chartran's Creek" in tribute to the trader Louis Chartran. The French settlers of Missouri pronounced it "Shattron," and from this the modern name of "Chadron" evolved. Today this creek is Chadron Creek, and from the creek the city of Chadron received its name. The Museum Of The Fur Trade Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Fur Trade — 6.5 mi
  A museum of what traders and Native nations exchanged, from the oldest known point blanket to a Lakota leader's silver cross, beside the rebuilt Bordeaux trading post east of Chadron.
• The Heritage Center at Red Cloud — 31 mi
  A free gallery of Lakota art on the campus of the old Holy Rosary Mission, where Red Cloud asked for a school and is buried on the hill above it.

More markers nearby

• Chadron State Park — 2.8 mi
• Fort Robinson-Camp Sheridan-Pine Ridge Indian Agency Road — 4.6 mi
• Chadron State College — 5.0 mi
• The First Church in Chadron — 5.5 mi