Missouri-Yellowstone Interpretive Center
The Ft. Bufford reconstructed Barracks.
The Field Officers Quarters (the building in which Sitting Bull surrendered)
Nearly 10 years ago in August 2003 the 8,600-square-foot facility known as the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center, held its grand opening. The $2.2 million facility was built with local, state and federal funding approximately one-half mile east of Fort Buford, to tell the stories of the area near the Confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers and to share the views that Lewis and Clark Expedition members enjoyed when they visited in 1805 and 1806.
In addition to the Confluence Center, visitors from nearly every state have visited the Fort Buford State Historic Site which is located one-half mile east of the Confluence Center.
Fort Buford State Historic Site was built in 1866 near the Confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. It was one of a number of military posts established to protect overland and river routes used by immigrants settling the West and it became a major supply depot for military field operations. Many original features still exist on the site. It is best known for the surrender of the great Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux chief, Sitting Bull, who due to hunger and desperation, led thirty-five families to Fort Buford to return to their relatives and then later, July 19, 1881 surrendered himself. The day following his surrender, Crow Foot, Sitting Bulls son, surrendered his fathers Winchester lever-action carbine to Major David H. Brotherton, commanding officer of Fort Buford.
The history and prehistory of these combined sites draws spectators and history buffs from all over. Each year the Fort Buford State Historic Site and the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center holds several concerts, events and activities.
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