Bent's Old Fort is a fort located in
Otero County in southeastern
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, United States. A company owned by
Charles Bent and
William Bent
William Wells Bent (May 23, 1809 – May 19, 1869) was a merchant, frontier trader and rancher in the American West, with forts in Colorado. He also acted as a mediator among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding U ...
and
Ceran St. Vrain built the fort in 1833 to trade with Southern
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...
and
Arapaho
The Arapaho ( ; , ) 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 bands formed t ...
Plains Indians and trappers for
buffalo robes. For much of its 16-year operation as a trading post, the fort was the only major white
American permanent settlement on the
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the ...
between
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
and the Mexican settlements. It was initially abandoned by William Bent in 1849.
The fort was reconstructed in 1976 and is open to the public. The area of the fort was designated a
National Historic Site under the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
on June 3, 1960. It was further designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
later that year on December 19, 1960.
[
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]
History

The adobe fort quickly became the center of the Bent, St. Vrain Company's expanding trade empire, which included
Fort Saint Vrain to the north and
Fort Adobe to the south, along with company stores in
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
at
Taos
Taos or TAOS may refer to:
Places
* Taos County, New Mexico, United States
** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico
*** Taos art colony, an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico
** Taos Pueblo, a Native American ...
and
Santa Fe. The primary trade was with the Southern
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...
and
Arapaho
The Arapaho ( ; , ) 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 bands formed t ...
Indians for
buffalo robes.
From 1833 to 1849, the fort was a stopping point along the
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the ...
. From 1833 to 1849, the fort was a key trading hub along the Santa Fe Trail. Although founded by American traders, it was located on Mexican territory and operated under Mexican jurisdiction until 1848. Bent, St. Vrain & Company obtained Mexican trading licenses and paid customs duties on goods moving through the region.
[David J. Weber, ''The Mexican Frontier, 1821–1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico'', University of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 182–185.] The fort maintained close economic and legal ties to Mexican New Mexico, serving as a critical link between U.S. and Mexican trade networks. The U.S. Army,
explorer
Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
s, and other travelers stopped at the fort to replenish supplies, such as water and food, and perform needed maintenance to their wagons. The American frontiersman
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and United States Army, U.S. Army officer. He became an American frontier legend in his own lifetime ...
was employed as a hunter by the Bent brothers in 1841, and regularly visited the Fort. Likewise, the explorer
John C. Frémont
Major general (United States), Major-General John Charles Frémont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was a United States Army officer, explorer, and politician. He was a United States senator from California and was the first History of the Repub ...
used the Fort as both a staging area and a replenishment junction, for his expeditions. During the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...
in 1846, the fort became a staging area for Colonel
Stephen Watts Kearny's "Army of the West".
Ralph Emerson Twitchell
Ralph Emerson Twitchell (1859–1925) was an American attorney, historian, and politician who served as the mayor of Santa Fe, New Mexico and chairman of the International Boundary and Water Commission, Rio Grande Commission, which drafted a tr ...
makes the following statement.
Bent's Fort is described as having been a structure built of adobe bricks. It was 180 feet long and 135 feet wide. The walls were 15 feet in height and four feet thick and it was the strongest post at that time west of Ft. Leavenworth. The construction of this fort was commenced in 1828 ... at a point on the Arkansas somewhere between the present cities of Pueblo and Canon City, having been disadvantageously located. Four years were required in which to complete the structure. On the northwest and southeast corners were hexagonal bastions, in which were mounted a number of cannon. The walls of the fort served as walls of the rooms, all of which faced inwardly on a court or plaza. The walls were loopholed for musketry, and the entrance was through large wooden gates of very heavy timbers.
Abandonment
In 1849 when a great cholera epidemic struck the Cheyenne and other Plains Indians, William Bent abandoned Bent's Fort and moved his headquarters north to
Fort Saint Vrain on the South Platte. When he returned south in 1852, he relocated his trading business to his log trading post at
Big Timbers, near what is now
Lamar, Colorado
Lamar is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Prowers County, Colorado. The city population was 7,687 at the 2020 United States census. The city was named after Lucius Quintus Cincinnatu ...
. Later, in the fall of 1853, Bent began building a stone fort on the bluff above Big Timbers,
Bent's New Fort, where he conducted his trading business until 1860.
When the fort was reconstructed in 1976, its design was based on the use of
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
excavations, paintings and original sketches, diaries and other existing historical data from the period, as well as significant guesswork.
In popular culture
* The Fort was used as Fort Laramie in the 1979 CBS mini-series ''
The Chisholms
''The Chisholms'' is a CBS western miniseries
In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and ...
'', starring
Robert Preston.
* In
George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a Scottish author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Harry Paget Flashman, Flashman. Over the course of his career he wrote eleven n ...
's 1982 novel, ''
Flashman and the Redskins'', the anti-hero Flashman is present at the destruction of Bents' Fort.
* Bent's Fort is featured briefly in
Larry McMurty's 1985
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
-winning novel ''
Lonesome Dove'', as well as in the 1989
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
-winning
four-part TV miniseries adapted from the book.
* Bent's Fort in the spring of 1834 is a major setting for
Terry Johnston's 1988 novel ''One-Eyed Dream''.
* Bent's Fort is featured briefly in episode 3 of
James Michener
James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations, set in particular geographic locales ...
's ''
Centennial
A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century.
Notable events
Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include:
* Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...
'' miniseries in 1978.
* Bent's Fort inspired video game developer
Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...
to recreate its likeness in the 2010 game ''
Red Dead Redemption
''Red Dead Redemption'' is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. A successor to 2004's ''Red Dead Revolver'', it is the second game in the ''Red Dead'' series. ''Red Dead Redemption'' is se ...
'' as Fort Mercer in the Rio Bravo region.
* A restaurant named "The Fort" in
Morrison, Colorado
Morrison is a home rule municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The population was 396 at the 2020 census.
History
This small foothills settlement is named after George Morrison (April 16, 1822 – June 11, 1895), a builde ...
, near Denver has architecture and decor adapted from Bent's Old Fort, with motif and cuisine inspired from the region in the 1830s.
Restaurant Website
Gallery
File:Bent's Old Fort entrance sign, CO IMG 5703.JPG, Bent's Old Fort entrance sign in Otero County, Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
File:Outside view, Bent's Old Fort, CO IMG 5704.JPG, Bent's Old Fort outside view
File:Gentlemen's lodging, Bent's Old Fort IMG 5705.JPG, "Gentlemen" who stopped by the fort while traveling the Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the ...
stayed in the upstairs quarters.
File:Row of rooms inside Bent's Old Fort CO IMG 5706.JPG, Row of rooms on the right side of the fort
File:Billiards room at Bent's Old Fort IMG 5707.jpg, The billiards room was located on the second floor of the fort.
File:Clothes washing at Bent's Old Fort, CO IMG 5708.JPG, Clothes washing area at Bent's Old Fort
File:Entrance view from inside Bent's Old Fort, CO IMG 5709.JPG, View of the entrance from inside Bent's Old Fort
See also
* First Battle of Adobe Walls
* List of forts in Colorado
*List of ghost towns in Colorado
This is a list of some notable ghost towns in the U.S. State of Colorado. A ghost town is a former community that now has no year-round residents or less than 1% of its peak population. Colorado has over 1,500 ghost towns, although visible remai ...
*List of National Historic Landmarks in Colorado
This is a list of National Historic Landmarks in Colorado. There are 29 National Historic Landmarks in Colorado, two of which extend into New Mexico.
__TOC__
National Historic Landmarks in Colorado
See also
* L ...
* List of protected areas in Colorado
* List of trading posts in Colorado
* Owl Woman
Notes
References
*David Fridtjof Halaas and Andrew E. Masich, ''Halfbreed: The Remarkable True Story Of George Bent - Caught Between The Worlds Of The Indian And The White Man'', Da Capo Press (March 15, 2005), hardcover, 458 pages,
Further reading
* ; for juvenile audience
*
* ; reprinted in 1972 by University of Nebraska Press,
*
External links
State of Colorado
History Colorado
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
Bent's Old Fort: Amphibians and Reptiles
nited States Geological Survey
Photos of Bents Fort provided by Rocky mountain Profiles
Architectural drawings and documentation
at Historic American Buildings Survey
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
{{authority control
1833 establishments in unorganized territory of the United States
1849 disestablishments in unorganized territory of the United States
1960 establishments in Colorado
Archaeological sites in Colorado
Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
Former populated places in Otero County, Colorado
Forts in Colorado
Geography of Otero County, Colorado
Ghost towns in Colorado
Living museums in Colorado
Museums in Otero County, Colorado
National Historic Landmarks in Colorado
National Historic Sites in Colorado
National Register of Historic Places in Otero County, Colorado
Populated places established in 1833
Pre-statehood history of Colorado
Protected areas established in 1960
Protected areas of Otero County, Colorado
Santa Fe Trail
Trading posts in Colorado