The reconstruction is so painstaking, in fact, that the James Bordeaux Trading Post is included in the National Register of Historic Places, a rare honor for any rebuilt structure.

The trading post itself was established in the fall of 1837 on orders of Frederick Laboue, a trader for the American Fur Company and known to the Sioux as “Grey Eyes.” The company had just purchased Ft. Laramie, a hundred miles southwest, from William Sublette, and Laboue was anxious to maximize its trade in prime buffalo robes by establishing satellite posts in the protected valleys where the Indians wintered.

Friendly Sioux under Red Leaf and Two Strikes pursued the war party and fought an inconclusive battle 25 miles west at Crow Butte, named in honor of the fight.

After the Civil War, conditions on the Northern Plains were unsettled and the trade often degenerated into the supplying of contraband arms to Indians resisting government efforts to force them onto reservations.

In 1872 Jim Bordeaux abandoned his western interests and moved to Ft. Randall on the Missouri, where he had several government contracts to supply hay, firewood, and other services to the army.

Probably with the tacit support of Spotted Tail, Boucher, known as “Bushy” to the Indians, played a dangerous game of smuggling arms and ammunition to the warriors valiantly fighting against the army.

An official state historical marker detailing the history of the Bordeaux Trading post was placed on the museum grounds in 1967.