Touring Bent's Old Fort in La Junta, Colorado

Eric found Bent's Old Fort on Atlas Obscura.  He used this website to find places to stop as we drive US 50 East across the country.

Bent's Old Fort was opened in 1833

by brothers Charles & Willam

Bent with Ceran St. Vrain.

This fort is located on the Arkansas River, on the 19th-century boundary between Mexico, on the south, and the United States, on the north.  The Bent brothers and Ceran St. Vrain operated a thriving fur processing and trading business in the 1830s and 1840s.

A class of 4th graders clusters around their teacher in front of the adobe walled fort.

Because of where the fort is located, it played a major role in US expansion into the Southwest.

Eric & I walk closer to the 

Bent's Old Fort.

By 1849 the fur trade was drying up because the region's Buffalo herds were in decline and Cottonwood Trees, the major source of wood was exhausted.  Local Plains tribes were struggling with the loss of their source of meat, fur, and wood. Their day-to-day existence was further imperiled by growing numbers of settlers and soldiers during and after the Mexican American War.

Eric inspects the cannon's barrel.

It isn't loaded.

William Bent moved east to the present-day Lamar area and built Bent's New Fort in 1853.  Congress established Bent's Old Fort Historic Site in 1960 and reconstruction was completed in 1976.

The previous rain hasn't

yet dried out.

It becomes obvious to me that

19th-century life was mud

splattered.

The courtyard from the second floor...

There's plenty of room to clean up

& dry Buffalo hides.

Eric walks the parapet.

The two bastions are armed

with a cannon & gun opeings

for defense.

Staff dressed in 19th-century

garb performs daily tasks.

The ground floor of Bent's Old Fort is devoted to daily activities including:

Fur Storage

Food Supplies

The Tack Shop stores 

horse reins & oxen yokes.

Chickens & other animals

are kept in pens at the fort.

The Carpenter's Shop

The Blacksmith Shop

The hearth in the Kitchen

Laborers & Traders ate in this

section of the Dining Room.

The Commander, the Indian Agent

& affluent travelers sat in this

section of the Dining Room.

The Trade Room

The second floor is devoted to living quarters...

William Bent's Quarters

Thomas Fitzpatrick, the regional 

Indian Agene, lived at the fort.

The Laborers' Quarters

After seeing all the mud in the courtyard, I realize that Bent's Old Fort is immaculately kept for the public to explore.

I'm glad Eric found this fort on Atlas Obscura.  We enjoyed learning about the fur trade in this region of Colorado and the fort's strategic location in America's Westward expansion.