Fort Bellefontaine

This monument marks Fort Bellefontaine, built in eighteen oh five and the first United States military post west of the Mississippi River. It rose on the south bank of the Missouri, near where that river meets the Mississippi, in the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. The name comes from a nearby spring the French had called Belle Fontaine, meaning beautiful fountain.

The fort became a launching point for the exploration of the American West. Zebulon Pike set out from here, as did Stephen Long and Henry Atkinson on their expeditions. Lewis and Clark spent the last two nights of their long journey at this fort before reaching Saint Louis. Soldiers who died in camp here between eighteen oh six and eighteen twenty-six lie nearby. The post moved up the bluffs in eighteen oh nine and was abandoned by eighteen twenty-six when the garrison shifted to Jefferson Barracks.