Editing Fort Pierre, South Dakota (section)

==History==
On March 30, 1743, Francois and [[Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye]] reached the area of present-day Fort Pierre during an expedition west from Quebec, a French colony in present-day Canada.<ref name=hogan>{{Cite book|last1=Hogan |first1=Edward Patrick |last2=Fouberg |first2=Erin Hogan |year=2001 |title=The Geography of South Dakota |edition=Third |publisher=The Center for Western Studies – [[Augustana College (South Dakota)|Augustana College]] |location=Sioux Falls, SD |isbn=0-931170-79-6}}</ref> They left a lead plate buried in a hill in what is now the city to claim the land for the King of France.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/pierre_fortpierre/verendrye_site_pierre.html |website=[[National Park Service]] |title=Vérendrye Museum |access-date=March 12, 2015}}</ref> In the 1803 [[Louisiana Purchase]], the United States acquired this area and the remainder of France's vast territory west of the Mississippi River.

President [[Thomas Jefferson]] commissioned the [[Lewis and Clark]] [[Corps of Discovery]] Expedition in 1804 to explore the territory, especially by traveling west to the Upper Missouri and Platte rivers, in the hope of finding a water route to the [[Pacific Ocean]]. They met with the [[Sioux|Teton Sioux]] on the south side of the mouth of the [[Bad River (South Dakota)|Bad River]] on September 24–28, 1804.

In 1817 fur trader Joseph La Framboise, Jr., an agent for the [[American Fur Company]], established Fort Tecumseh a mile to the north, on what is now La Framboise Island in the Missouri River. The fur trade was highly lucrative and attracted competitors. In 1832, [[Pierre Chouteau, Jr.]], a major [[fur trader]] from [[St. Louis#19th century|St Louis]], replaced that early facility with [[Fort Pierre Chouteau]], a trading post and fort on the west side of the Missouri and north side of the Bad River's mouth in what is now the city.

The city of Fort Pierre gradually developed around the trading post. Fort Pierre celebrated its Bicentennial in 2017, marking 200 years of continuous permanent settlement at the confluence of the Missouri and Bad rivers.

In 1880, the settlement of [[Pierre, South Dakota|Pierre]] was founded on the east side of the Missouri River in [[Hughes County, South Dakota|Hughes County]]. Because it was centrally located and reached first by the railroad, it was designated by the state legislature as the state capital when South Dakota was admitted as a state.