Fort Uncompahgre today, photo courtesy of Malachite’s Big Hole.
Fort Uncompahgre, Colorado, pronounced “un-come-paw-gray,” was a non-military trading post that Antoine Robidoux, an influential trader from Santa Fe, New Mexico, established in 1828.
Near the present-day city of Delta, Colorado, the post was located about two miles down from the Gunnison and Uncompahgre Rivers. Robidoux established several trails to supply goods to Fort Uncompahgre, including the Mountain Branch of the Old Spanish Trail and Robidoux’s Cutoff, which left the Santa Fe Trail near Bent’s Fort. The trading post was probably little more than a few log buildings surrounded by a fence of cottonwood pickets and employed between 15 and 18 Mexican traders.
As remote as it was, the trading post was successful for many years. However, in the summer of 1843, hostilities broke out between the Ute tribe and Mexicans of the Santa Fe area. In September of the following year, all of the Mexican traders at the fort, except for one, were killed by Ute Indians, and their women were taken prisoner. Only one trapper, Calario Cortez, escaped to tell the tale. Robidoux, who wasn’t present during the attack, never returned, and a few years later, the post was burned by Ute warriors.
Today, a replica of Fort Uncompahgre stands in Delta, Colorado. The living history museum recreates the feel and experience of frontier life in a trading post, with interpreters in period attire. The Fort Uncompahgre History Museum is located at 204 Gunnison River Drive in Delta, Colorado.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.
Also See:
Colorado – The Centennial State
See Sources.