Cabanne's Trading Post was established in 1822 by the American Fur CompanyasFort Robidoux near present-day Dodge ParkinNorth Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It was named for the influential fur trapperJoseph Robidoux.[2] Soon after it was opened, the post was called the French Company or Cabanné's Post, for the ancestry and name of its operator, Jean Pierre Cabanné, who was born and raised among the French community of St. Louis, Missouri.[3]
Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied, who toured the Louisiana Purchase extensively, visited the Post in 1823 and wrote highly of it, praising Cabanné and the accommodations.[5] Part of the success of Cabanné's Post was that it provisioned the garrison at nearby Fort Atkinson (1819–27) so had a steady business.[6] Cabanné recruited traders and trappers for the American Fur Company, which expanded under John Jacob Astor to monopolize the American fur trade. Among Cabanne's recruits was Joseph Marie La Barge, namesake of La Barge, Wyoming. Cabanné operated the post until 1833.
Consisting by then of a row of storehouses, shops, and houses, the post in 1833 was taken over by Joshua Pilcher. He managed it until the American Fur Company folded its operations about 1840 into those at Fontenelle's Post at present-day Bellevue, Nebraska, as the fur trade had declined in economic importance. Peter A. Sarpy later took over management of Fontenelle's Post.[7]
Dictionary of American HistorybyJames Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940.
Jensen, M. (1999) The Fontenelle and Cabanné Trading Posts: The History and Archeology of Two Missouri River Sites, 1822-1838, Nebraska State Historical Society.
