Blacksmith at Fort Osage Fort, Missouri Postcard

A blacksmith forges an iron hook in a shop at Fort Osage in Missouri in this digitally enhanced photograph. Fort Osage was the second U.S. outpost built following the Louisiana Purchase. William Clark, of the William and Clark Expedition, noted the site, which overlooks a bend of the Missouri River, on June 23, 1804, as a likely spot for a fort. Under Clark's direction, soldiers erected the Fort in 1808 as an outpost in the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase, where it housed soldiers to guard the new territory and to protect the United States Factory Trade House there. Fort Osage also aided the American government in befriending the area's Osage Indians. The Fort was a sanctuary to Missouri's first settlers as they ventured westward. Under the direction of George Sibley, trade flourished at the Fort, and relations with the Indians grew stronger. Traders and soldiers abandoned the Fort by 1827. Fort Osage was recognised as a National Historic Landmark in 1961. The Fort is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an archaeological district because of significant Hopewell and Osage Indian sites neighbouring the Fort. The National Park Service also designates Fort Osage as a certified site of the Santa Fe and Lewis and Clark National Historic Trails.