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On the Arkansas River Near La Junta, Colorado Click on any picture to see a full-screen view (large view pictures are 1+ mb) |
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William and Charles Bent, along with Ceran St. Vrain, built the original fort on this site in 1833 to trade with plains Indians and trappers. The adobe fort quickly became the center of the Bent, St.Vrain Company's expanding trade empire that included Fort St.Vrain to the north and Fort Adobe to the south, along with company stores in Mexico at Taos and Santa Fe. The primary trade was with the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians for buffalo robes. For much of its 16-year history, the fort was the only major permanent white settlement on the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and the Mexican settlements. The fort provided explorers, adventurers, and the U.S. Army a place to get needed supplies, wagon repairs, livestock, good food, water and company, rest and protection in this vast "Great American Desert." During the war with Mexico in 1846, the fort became a staging area for Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny's "Army of the West". Disasters and disease caused the fort's abandonment in 1849. Archeological excavations and original sketches, paintings and diaries were used in the fort's reconstruction in 1976. Interesting site on the preservation of historic adobe buildings |
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| Walking toward Bent's Fort | There are 13 graves of early trappers & frontier folk outside the fort | Details on one gravestone still present | Inside the fort looking outside toward hostile territory |
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| The trade room for trappers & hunters; Indians were not allowed access to this trade room | Historic guns in the trade room | Some of the wares in the trade room | Another view of the trade room |
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| "First Table" in the fort's dining room. Called the "First Table" because it was the first table served (only for "gentlemen" of the fort | Room reserved for Ceran St. Vrain, one of the founders of the Bent, St. Vrain & Company | Looking toward the kitchen (lower level, corner) and St. Vrain's quarters (upper level room) | Looking toward the trapper and hunter quarters on the upper level (right top) |
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| The clerk's room (a clerk was like a company CEO) furnished with period antiques | A view of the fort from the upper level | Inside the trapper's quarters on the upper level | Construction of an adobe roof. The main beams are called "Vigas" while the smaller, cross beams are known as "Latias" |
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| Wooden eaves | The room where gunpowder was stored | The fort's corral | Mark with one of the fort's cannon |
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