Fort Clark on the Missouri (February, 1834)
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Tableau 15. Fort Clark on the Missouri (February, 1834)
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Prince Maximillan and Karl Bodmer spent five months at Fort Clark over the winter of 1833-4, becoming well acquainted with the Mandan and Hidatsa who frequented this place. At the time, the Mandan had consolidated their numbers into two permanent villages, one for use in the summer months, and the other during the winter.

The summer village was situated near Fort Clark, on a bluff above the Missouri's flood plain. The winter village was located in the heavily timbered bottoms, out of the way of bitter winds that frequently howled across the high plains in winter.

During those months when the Missouri was ice-covered, usually between the latter part of November through February or March, there was a constant coming and going between the village and the fort, as Bodmer described it in February, 1834. This view of the frozen landscape, with Fort Clark in the distance, is one of the very few he made which suggests the severe conditions under which he sometimes worked.

In both the Joslyn watercolor and the published aquatint, figures of a large party of Mandan are to be seen carrying trade goods and firewood across the ice to the stockade. This site, near the modern Bismarck, North Dakota, now is occupied by an electrical generating plant.

Another view of the Mandan summer village is reproduced in Tableau 16 of this series. See Tableau 26 for Bodmer's view of a Hidatsa winter village. For a subject of related interest, see also Vignette XXIX.

Aquatints based on studies made at Fort Clark are featured as Vignettes XIII, XIV, XXIV through XXIX, and Tableaux 12 through 27.

Text by David Hunt, Director, Stark Museum, Orange, Texas, USA

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