In one year, 1847, the American Fur Company shipped from Fort Mitchell, then just being established as Fort Fontenelle, and from Fort Laramie, then soon to be transferred to the government, forty-seven thousand buffalo robes.

Fort Mitchell was the last trading post of the American Fur Company, and remained their property until 1864, when it was sold to the Northwest Fur Company, of St. Paul. This company was organized by J. B. Hubbell and associates.

There seems to be no record in the war department showing any establishment or occupation of Fort Mitchell by the government or any date of its abandonment, but it was used by the government from 1865 to 1869 as a sub-station of Fort Laramie; I have this from the Adjutant General's office.

And with the abandonment of Fort Mitchell the "Commerce of the Plains," in the old sense passed away.

PART II

INDIAN WARS AND LEGENDS

INDIAN MIGRATION ACROSS THE PLATTE

Hyde tells us that from his best information the Comanches or "Paducas" were on the north side of the North Platte river up to about the year 1800. Perrin de lac in his book, 1802. puts on his map "Ancient Village of the Paducas," on the upper Niobrara near Rawhide Buttes. Robert Harvey, when doing some surveying in Sioux county, about forty years ago, came upon "old ruins" northwest of Agate. An early map of Nebraska indicates "ancient ruins" across the river and some distance north of the present site of Bridgeport. These were likely the former establishments of "Paducas," and date back to about the beginning of the last century.