Bent's Fort: Important Historical Landmark

 

 

My husband and friend approach the fort.

One of the historical places of interest I visited this summer was Bent's Old Fort. Located outside of La Junta, Colorado, the fort, originally built by Bent, St. Vrain & Company in 1833, was rebuilt by the National Park Service in 1975, faithfully following sketches made by James W. Abert, an Army officer who stayed at the fort while recovering from an illness.

The fort was built just north of the Arkansas River, which at the time was the boundary between the United States and Mexico. Spain had lost control of Mexico in 1821, and Mexico had opened trade with America. 

Charles and William Bent, sons of a St. Louis judge, had come west to earn their fortunes in the fur trade. Together with Ceran St. Vrain, the son of French aristocrats who had come to America to escape the French Revolution, they formed a trading company and built the fort to be its base of operations. The fort traded for beaver pelts and buffalo hides brought in by the Indians, for hardware, glass, silver, blankets, axes, firearms, horses, and mules. The company dominated the Indian trade on the southern plains and was an important stop on the newly opened Santa Fe Trail.

A beaver hat sitting on a pile of beaver pelts.

Looking into the interior. The fort's trading post.

In 1835, the fort was the site of a peace council between the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and their old enemies, the Pawnee. The fort was also instrumental in getting much of Mexican territory into American hands. In 1848, Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny used the fort as an advance base for his invasion of New Mexico. Going to the fort now is like stepping back in time. Visitors are greeted by a guide in 19th century clothes. The smell of a cottonwood campfire decreases the heady smell that comes from the stables at the back of the fort. Blacksmiths and others go about their day to day duties. It is open year round and has special events scheduled seasonally.

Bent's Fort is a great place to experience what it was like to live on the plains in the middle 1800s.