The Museum of the Fur Trade Capital Campaign

Rendering of the front view of the Museum of the Fur Trade, 2001
Front view January 6, 2006—under construction

The Building Fund

The Museum of the Fur Trade, a non-profit institution, was founded over half a century ago; it had no library, no artifacts, and no financial resources.  It was only an idea.  No millionaire has underwritten the museum; no private collector has donated his collection.  The museum has been built with great care, one brick at a time.

The museum does not seek or accept government funds; a policy established many years ago.  While that means it must generate its own budget, it also means the institution is free to speak truthfully to its visitors without fear of political direction or pressure.   

The museum has received donations and pledges for half of the $1,260,000 capital campaign; enough to allow us to begin construction.  We have received funds from museum members, the local community, all of our volunteers and board members, and many organizations.  All gifts to the Museum of the Fur Trade, a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization, are tax-deductible. We depend on people who love history for our support.   Please consider a gift.

Museum Expansion & Renovation Opportunities

• Renovation of the Library & Vault:  $50,000

  The museum's 10,000-volume library and rare-objects vault are the heart of its ongoing research program.  The area also contains hundreds of rolls of microfilm, videos, maps, and documents vital for research and for accurate preparation of both publications and exhibits. Renovation will include appropriate climate control, space saving storage technology, and conservation for fragile maps, books, and documents.
• Native Landscaping & Heirloom Indian Garden:  $25,000

  The museum's unique agricultural exhibit perpetuates all-but-extinct crops grown a thousand years ago by the first High Plains farmers.  The museum grounds should be landscaped as native prairie with grasses and flowers to teach visitors about the High Plains environment of pre-settlement times.
• The Opening Exhibit: The Mountain Man:  $50,000

  The first exhibition to be held in the new addition, planned for August 2006, will celebrate the bicentennial of the Age of the Mountain Man, and the return from the Pacific of Lewis and Clark. It will be the first museum exhibit anywhere devoted exclusively to mountain men and their impact on American and Canadian history.
• Textiles and the Fur Trade:  $25,000

  Textiles were the single most important class of goods traded to American Indians, and the Museum of the Fur Trade's collection is the most comprehensive in the world.  The collection includes gorgeous and irreplaceable blankets, woolen strouds, fine cloth, colorful calicoes, linens, and an awesome array of early Indian-made blankets.  The textile collection includes the oldest known trade blanket and the cloth samples William Clark sent to Washington in 1811 ordering more yard goods for the western Indians.
• The History of the Fur Trade Exhibits:  $10,000 each

  Exhibits introducing the fur trade to museum visitors are now painfully compressed and abbreviated. Redesigned and redeveloped, new exhibits will showcase the broad sweep of fur trading nations and companies across the continent throughout the 500-year history of the enterprise. Each sponsor will be individually recognized.

• Objects of the Fur Trade Exhibits:  $5,000 each

  Thousands of objects now in storage, including a priceless collection of jewelry, a comprehensive collection of knives, as well as tomahawks, axes, kettles, beads, traps, medicines, saddles, trunks, and other items must be reorganized and prepared for exhibition. Each sponsor will be individually recognized.

• The Bordeaux Endowment

  The Endowment will guarantee a perpetual base of financial support for the museum.  Endowment funds and continuing donations will be invested and managed separately from other museum funds.  A portion of the annual income from the endowment will be utilized for museum programs; the remainder will be reinvested to increase the principal and provide even greater support each year.  The Bordeaux Endowment will support: