Fort Vasquez is a former

fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...

post northeast of

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, United States, founded by Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette in 1835. Restored by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

in the 1930s, it now lies in a rather incongruous position as

U.S. Route 85 U.S. Route 85 (US 85) is a north–south United States Highway that travels in the Mountain and Northern Plains states of the United States. The southern terminus of the highway is at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, connecting wi ...

splits to run either side of the building.

History Colorado History Colorado is a historical society that was established in 1879 as the State Historical Society of Colorado, also known as the Colorado Historical Society. History Colorado is a 501(c)(3) organization and an agency of the State of Colorado un ...

(then the Colorado Historical Society) took possession of the property in 1958 and runs it as a museum to display exhibits of the fur-trade era.

History

After building a temporary trading post called Fort Convenience on the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/ Mountain West. It ...

and Clear Creek in 1834, Vasquez established Fort Vacquez with Sublette. The present day Fort Vasquez located, literally, on Highway 85, next to

Platteville, Colorado Platteville is a Statutory Town in Weld County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,485 at the 2010 census. It is adjacent to Fort Vasquez on U.S. Highway 85. History Platteville was founded on May 27, 1871, and was incorporated on ...

is a reconstruction of the adobe trading post established by the trappers Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette. They built the fort in 1835 after obtaining a trading license in St. Louis, Missouri, from

William Clark William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Miss ...

, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Ftvasquezwindow

They traded with other furriers, trappers, mountain men, and Native American tribes (including the

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

and

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

), amidst competition with other trading posts. Unable to turn a profit, they sold Fort Vasquez to Lock and Randolph in 1840 who subsequently went bankrupt and abandoned the structures in 1842. Due to the bankruptcy, Vasquez and Sublette could not collect the sum owed to them for the sale. The Census of 1880 lists several residents of Vasquez Fork, and it appears to be a mining community. One resident was Othello Reed Ostrander, born 1843 in New York. The census taker lists him as being in Vasquez Fork AND living in Georgetown with his wife and two young sons. He was listed twice. His wife was Isabelle Irene and sons were Arthur and Albert. The fort was almost demolished during the construction of US Route 85. It was saved, in part, due to the efforts of local resident Fern Miller, who would later become Superintendent of the Denver Mint.

References

Other sources

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External links

Fort Vasquez Museum
History Colorado {{National Register of Historic Places Vasquez Vasquez Unused buildings in Colorado Mexican–American War forts Museums in Weld County, Colorado History museums in Colorado History Colorado Fur trade National Register of Historic Places in Weld County, Colorado 1835 establishments in the United States Trading posts in the United States

History

See also

References

Other sources

External links