5 Sights & Landmarks in Williston That You Shouldn't Miss

The Grandest Fort on the Upper Missouri River Between 1828 and 1867, Fort Union was the most important fur trade post on the Upper Missouri River. Here, the Assiniboine and six other Northern Plains Indian Tribes exchanged buffalo robes and smaller furs for goods from around the world, including cloth, guns, blankets, and beads. A bastion of peaceful coexistence, the post annually traded over 25,000 buffalo robes and $100,000 in merchandise.

130 years ago, Sitting Bull, the most revered of all Lakota Indians, presented himself to American agents at Fort Buford on July 19, 1881. Fort Buford is located 25 miles southwest of Williston on State Highway 1804. A statue of Sitting Bull statue by renewed artist Michael Westergard was unveiled at the front entrance of Stevens Hall, Williston State College Saturday, July 16, 2011.

Here, where two great rivers meet, people have gathered for thousands of years. At the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center, people still gather to understand a spot little changed since Lewis and Clark visited two centuries ago. The site, located about 22 miles southwest of Williston, features permanent and temporary exhibits, modern facilities, a picnic area and campgrounds, a walking trail, and bird watching.

Fort Buford State Historic Site preserves remnants of a vital frontier plains military post. Fort Buford was built in 1866 near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, and became a major supply depot for military field operations. Original features still existing on the site include a stone powder magazine, the post cemetery site, and a large officers' quarters building which now houses a museum. Fort Buford, located near present-day Williston, was one of a number of military posts established to protect overland and river routes used by immigrants settling the West. While it served an essential role as the sentinel on the northern plains for twenty-nine years, it is probably best remembered as the place where the famous Hunkpapa Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, surrendered in 1881.

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