Fort Osage

George Sibley, the factor on the plaque, brought a teacher to the fort. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on April 1, 1782, he ran the Fort Osage trading house from 1808 until the government system ended in 1822, and in 1815 he married Mary Easton, daughter of St. Louis attorney Rufus Easton, who taught children at the post. Later, at St. Charles, around 1829 Mary began teaching her sister and some local children at home, the start of what is now Lindenwood University. George died in St. Charles in 1863.

What the plaque says

Fort Osage Four miles north are restored buildings of Fort Osage, westernmost frontier outpost of the U.S. government until 1819. One of 28 fortified Indian trading posts or "factories" operated on our Indian frontiers, 1795-1822, to promote and protect national expansion. In 1808 men of the U.S. Infantry and of the Territorial Militia, directed by William Clark, began fort construction. The location was a strategic spot on the Missouri named Fort Point by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The fort was sometimes called Fort Clark. The Osage Purchase Line was set here, 1808. Great and Little Osages, obeying a summons to settle near the post, ceded their land east of a line from the fort south to the Arkansas and claims to land north of the Missouri. In return they received annuities, trading privileges, and other considerations. Defended by blockhouses and a stockade, the post with George C. Sibley as a trader or "factor" played an important part in opening the Louisiana Purchase to settlement and to trade. The fort was a port of entry to the West for fur expeditions and a last outpost for first successful expeditions to Santa Fe. (See other side) Fort Osage (Continued from other side) Federal survey of the famed Santa Fe Trail started from Fort Osage, 1825. George C. Sibley was one of survey commissioners. Among famous guests at this frontier fort were the Lewis and Clark guide, Sacagawea; Mandan Chief Shahaka; fur traders Chouteau, Lisa, Henry, Menard, Hunt, Crooks, Ashley; naturalists Bradbury and Nuttall; and writer Brackenridge. Daniel Boone at 82 rested at this fort on his last long hunting trip. Closed during the War of 1812, the fort was regarrisoned in 1815. In 1819 the Army's Yellowstone Expedition, with Long exploring party on steamer Western Engineer, moved the garrison to a post at Old Council Bluffs. The fort was shut down by the government, 1822, and abandoned, 1827. Jackson County settlers used fort timbers in building homes. In 1836 Archibald Gamble bought the site and laid out a town he named Sibley in honor of the factor. In 1941 Jackson County Court began the projected restoration of the fort as a monument to westward expansion. The project originated with and is sponsored by the Native Sons of Kansas City, Missouri. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1953

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Osage National Historic Landmark — 2.9 mi
  A reconstructed 1808 fort and government trading house on a Missouri River bluff at Sibley, where Osage leaders signed the treaty that gave up most of present Missouri.
• Harry S Truman National Historic Site — 12 mi
  The Independence house Harry Truman lived in for half a century without owning it until 1953, kept as Bess Truman left it and seen only on small ranger tours.
• National Frontier Trails Museum — 13 mi
  The City of Independence museum of the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trails, told from travelers' journals, with a research library of more than 2,300 trail diaries, letters and recollections.
• Battle of Lexington State Historic Site — 17 mi
  The Anderson House and the Missouri River bluff at Lexington, where the Missouri State Guard rolled river-soaked hemp bales toward the Union lines in September 1861.

More markers nearby

• Liberty — 14 mi
• Richmond — 15 mi
• Kansas City — 22 mi
• This Gateway to Kansas — 23 mi