Bent's Fort National Historic Site

COLORADO LEGENDS

Bent's Fort National Historic Site

Situated on the north bank of the Arkansas River in southeastern Colorado, this non-military post was one of the most significant outposts on the Santa Fe Trail and as the principal outpost of American civilization on the southwestern Plains, was instrumental in shaping the destiny of the area. In the heart of Indian country, buffalo hunting grounds and at the crossroads of key overland routes, it was a fur trading center and rendezvous point for traders and Indians; a way station and supply center for emigrants and caravans; and the chief point of contact and cultural transmission between white settlers and Indians of the southern Plains. In its later years it was a military staging base for the U.S. conquest of New Mexico.

Bent's Fort, September, 2009, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints

and downloads HERE!

Among the earliest western fur traders were the brothers William and Charles Bent and Ceran St. Vrain, all of whom, in the 1820's began to engage in the Mexican and Indian trade. In about 1830, Charles Bent and St. Vrain formed a partnership, which in time became Bent, St. Vrain, and Co., and entered the Santa Fe trade. In the late 1820's or early 1830's William Bent, who had apparently been trading independently, erected a large adobe fort on the north bank of the Arkansas River, 12 miles west of the mouth of the Purgatoire River. At first named Fort William, it was also known as Bent's Fort and finally as Bent's Old Fort. Elaborately constructed, it was eventually a massive adobe structure of quadrangular shape having 24 rooms lining the walls. Two 30-foot cylindrical bastions, equipped with cannons, flanked the southwest and northeast corners. The walls were 15 feet high, 2 feet thick and extended 4 feet above the building roofs to serve as a platform for armed soldiers and were pierced with loopholes. On the south side, was a cattle yard, enclosed by a high wall. A self-sufficient institution, the fort was operated by about 60 persons of many nationalities and vocations, including blacksmiths, trappers and traders, carpenters, mechanics, wheelwrights, gunsmiths, cooks, cattle herders, hunters, clerks, teamsters, and laborers.

The fort was the headquarters of Bent, St. Vrain, and Co. and the great crossroads station of the Southwest, for it was located at the junction of the north-south route between the Platte River and Santa Fe, New Mexico and the east-west route up the Arkansas River to the mountains. Mountain men stopped by to exchange their beaver skins, obtain supplies and traps, and visit with one another. Traders forwarded their fur shipments and obtained goods. For 16 years Bent, St. Vrain, and Co. managed a highly profitable trading empire stretching from Texas to Wyoming and from the Rocky Mountains to Kansas, as well as participating in the Santa Fe trade.

In 1835, William Bent, who acted as resident manager at the fort, married the daughter of a prominent Southern Cheyenne Indian and became especially influential with that tribe. Besides encouraging intertribal peace, he required his employees to trade fairly with the Indians and restricted the use of whisky when trading. His influence helped the Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne remain friendly to the United States until well after the Mexican-American War. Because of its reputation as a neutral area in Indian country, the post was a natural meeting place for southern Plains tribes and U.S. officials, as well as for intertribal councils.

Bent's Fort, September, 2009, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints

and downloads HERE!

In 1835, Colonel Henry Dodge met at the fort with the chiefs of several tribes to discuss depredations on the Santa Fe Trail. Five years later, at a major peace council held three miles to the east, William Bent served as mediator among several tribes, including the Cheyenne and Comanche, who made a peace pact. Taking advantage of the fort's location and Bent's singular influence, the Government in 1846, designated the post as the Upper Platte and Arkansas Indian Agency. The agent was Thomas Fitzpatrick. His activities among the Indians inhabiting a huge area, running eastward from the Rocky Mountains and from the Arkansas River on the south to the Missouri River on the north, helped bring about treaties at Fort Laramie, Wyoming in 1851, and Fort Atkinson, Nebraska in 1853, that temporarily brought a degree of peace to the Plains.

As powerful as the Bents and St. Vrain were, as the Mexican-American War (1846-48) approached, events beyond their control were destined to destroy the company and the trade.

In 1846, the U.S. Army decided to use the post as a staging base for the conquest of New Mexico. That summer General Stephen W. Kearny and his Army of the West, consisting of about 1,650 dragoons and Missouri Volunteers from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, followed by some 300 to 400 wagons of Santa Fe traders, rested at the fort before proceeding to occupy New Mexico.

When Kearny departed, Government wagon trains congregated in ever-increasing numbers. Horses and mules overgrazed nearby pastures. Quartermaster stores piled up at the fort, and soldiers and teamsters in Government employ occupied the rooms. Not only did the Government fail to compensate the company adequately, but trade also suffered because the Indians were reluctant to come near when so many whites were present. Following the soldiers into New Mexico were scores of settlers, gold seekers, and other adventurers who slaughtered the buffalo, fouled the watering places, destroyed scarce forage, and used up precious wood. The company soon found itself caught between the the resentful Indians and invading whites.

Several other factors accelerated the company's demise. In 1847, Charles Bent, who the year before had been appointed the first Governor of New Mexico Territory, was assassinated during the Taos Revolt. The following year, St. Vrain sold his interest in the company to William Bent. The final blow was a cholera epidemic, which in 1849, spread from emigrant wagons and decimated the Plains tribes. That same year, a disillusioned William Bent abandoned the fort, moved 38 miles down the Arkansas River, and founded Bent's New Fort in an ill-fated attempt to restore his trading business.

Bent may have partially blown up and burned Bent's Old Fort at the time he departed. By 1861, at the end of more than a decade of disuse, the fort's rehabilitated walls sheltered a stage station on the Barlow and Sanderson route between Kansas City and Santa Fe, New Mexico. When the railroads replaced stagecoaches, the buildings served as cattle corrals and gradually collapsed and disintegrated. However, as late as 1915 parts of the old walls were still standing.

Early in the 1950's the Colorado State Historical Society acquired Bent's Old Fort and soon arranged for archeological investigation to determine the fort's general outlines. The site was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1960. More archeological excavations occurred after it became part of the National Park System. The information obtained in these excavations provided the information to entire reconstruct the old adobe trading post. Today, living historians recreate the sights, sounds, and smells of the past with guided tours, demonstrations, and special events.

Contact Information:

Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site
35110 Hwy.194 East
La Junta, Colorado 81050

719-383-5010

Compiled and edited by Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, January, 2010.

Primary Source: National Park Service

Bent's Fort, September, 2009, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints

and downloads HERE!

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