POKER CHIP FROM FORT PEMBINA, ND

$95.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1052-534

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Excavations at Fort Pembina, ND, have provided a window on daily life and the material culture of a small US army frontier post. The anaerobic conditions of the dig have preserved all sorts of things too common at the time to be mentioned or preserved as mementos by veterans who served at the post. This lowly poker chip is a fine example of that. One might well expect poker games and the like to be going on to while away idle time off duty, but its hardly the thing one would write home about or bring back as a souvenir of military service. And, depending on the officers in charge, might well be frowned upon. This is typical for the period, simple clay and red in color, showing crazing on both sides, with some flakes missing on one side, but in place on the other.

The excavations at the fort were conducted on private property with the owner’s permission. Situated in the Red River Valley in North Dakota near the Canadian border, the Fort Pembina  was established in 1870 and in operation until 1895. Trading posts existed earlier in the area as part of the fur trade, and the first U.S. military post there was temporary- manned by a detachment of Minnesota troops in 1863-1864 following the 1862 Sioux uprising. In March 1870 a new fort was established south of the Pembina River and about 200 yards west of the Red River, completed by July and named in honor of Gen. George H. Thomas. The name was changed to Fort Pembina in September and the initial garrison consisted of two companies of the 20th US Infantry. Their main duty was to provide security for settlers worried about Sioux returning south from Canada, but the troops were more occupied with escorting boundary surveys along the Canadian border and preventing Fenian raids heading north into Canada.

The fort included enlistedmen’s barracks, officers’ quarters, guard house, ordnance storehouse, company kitchen, root house, laundress’s quarters, quarters for civilian employees, hospital and hospital servant’s house, a barn for the “hospital cow,” quartermaster and commissary offices and storehouse, stables, wagon shed, etc. The garrison reached peak strength in 1878 af 200, but the average was about 125 enlisted men and 8 officers. An October 1885 return listed 97 men, 2 field pieces, 1 mountain howitzer, 100 rifles, 19 pistols, 23 mules, and 9 wagons. By 1890 the post had just 23 men, and after an 1895 fire destroyed some 19 buildings it was decided to abandon the fort rather than rebuild, the last detachment left in September. The property was turned over to the Interior Department and later sold in 1902.  [sr][ph:L]

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