Royalty-free images by Mike1 — No. 145 of over 1200 images
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, near La Junta, Colorado, September 5, 2018
Bent’s Old Fort – History and Culture2
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site preserves the resources associated with the Bent–St. Vrain trading empire, which radiated from Bent’s Old Fort into what is now Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and Missouri. The fort solidified one of the most important and last established trading cartels in the Rocky Mountain West.
William and Charles Bent, along with Ceran St. Vrain, built the original adobe fort on this site in 1833 to trade with Plains Indians and trappers. The fort quickly became the center of the expanding holdings of Bent, St. Vrain & Company, including Fort St. Vrain to the north and Fort Adobe to the south, along with company stores in 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.
Bent’s Old Fort was an important point of commercial, social, military, and cultural contact between Anglo-American, Native American, Hispanic, and other groups on the border of United States Territory. The fort served as a point of exchange for trappers from the southern Rocky Mountains, travelers from Missouri and the east, Hispanic traders from Mexico, and Native Americans, primarily from the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa Tribes.
Today, Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site features a reconstructed version of the 1840s adobe trading post. Archeological excavations and original sketches, paintings, and diaries were used to replicate the features of the fort, which was reconstructed during the country’s bicentennial and Colorado’s centennial in 1976. The architecturally accurate, reconstructed fort and its historic setting allow visitors to “step back” in time to learn about and reflect on the westward expansion of the United States.
Post Endnotes
- I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.
- History & Culture – Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site
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