Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, near La Junta, Colorado, commemorates one of the most famous Plains trading posts and the first permanent American settlement in Colorado. In 1831, brothers William and Charles Bent partnered with Ceran St. Vrain, an American trapper, to form a trading operation called the Bent, St. Vrain Company. The company built a fort, supervised by William Bent, in 1833 to trade with Plains Indians and trappers. The fort was first named Fort William. The name was later changed to Bent’s Fort.
The fort’s location helped it to become the center of the company’s trading empire. The fort stood on the north bank of the Arkansas River, which was then the border between the United States and Mexico. The fort was also on the Santa Fe Trail, one of the longest commercial routes in the United States in the era before railroads. The Arapaho, Kiowa, and Southern Cheyenne lived nearby and often came to trade buffalo hides.
The fort also served as a place for explorers, soldiers, and other travelers to rest, repair their wagons, and get food, water, and other supplies. Well-known figures who found work or shelter at the fort include the frontiersman Kit Carson, the trapper and Indian agent Thomas Fitzpatrick, and the explorer John C. Frémont. During the Mexican War (1846-1848), Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny used the fort as a place where troops would prepare to move into battle.
In 1847, a group of Mexicans and Pueblo people killed Charles Bent, who had become governor of New Mexico, during a revolt against American rule. St. Vrain tried to sell the fort to the United States Army but could not make a deal. William Bent abandoned the fort in 1849, probably because of an outbreak of disease. In 1853, he built Bent’s New Fort about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the first fort. Bent’s Fort then became known as Bent’s Old Fort.
Congress authorized Bent’s Old Fort as a historic site in 1960. Researchers used original sketches, contemporary descriptions, and archaeological findings to plan an authentic reconstruction of Bent’s Old Fort. Workers built the fort using the same materials and construction methods that were used in making the original adobe structure. Construction was completed in 1976. Rooms of the fort include a kitchen, blacksmith and carpenter shops, storerooms, a billiard room, and quarters for laborers, trappers, and soldiers. Most of the fort’s furnishings are reproductions.
