La Junta, Colorado

Bent's Fort, 1833 to 1849

Brothers William and Charles Bent are some of Colorado's most famous earlier explorers. The Bent brothers and partner Ceran St. Vrain formed a trading company and built a series of three "private" forts and a number of trading posts across territories that today are called Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, Arizona, and Utah.

Much of this trading empire was in Mexico; this was after President Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase of territories from France in 1803, but before the Mexican-American War in 1846-48, which resulted in the U.S. acquiring what we now regard as the American Southwest.

Everything on the map labelled "United States and Spain", west and south from Colorado in the Louisiana Purchase zone, was in those days Mexico, mostly unsettled territory. Bent's Fort in southeastern Colorado was only 1/2 mile away from the US-Mexico border, and much of the Bent / St. Vrain trading empire was in Mexico.

Bent's Fort was placed on the Arkansas River, in south-eastern Colorado near what is today's La Junta, and became the center of this trading network. The three built it in 1833 on the Sante Fe Trail which at that time was used by cattle ranchers, especially in Missouri, to drive live cattle to the many Mexican settlements in the southwest.

William Bent established friendly relations with the American Indians of the area, especially the Cheyenne, after he helped save two of Cheyenne braves' lives from hostile Comanches while he was on a hunting trip. William's first two wives were Cheyenne women (Owl Woman, then her sister Yellow Woman), his third a Blackfoot half-breed (Standing Out Woman).

The original purpose of Bent's Fort was to trade with the Indians for buffalo and deer skins, but that quickly expanded to trading with trappers for beaver pelts, and for supplying early adventurers, explorers, wagon-train pioneers, cowboys on the Sante Fe Trail, and trappers with supplies, good home-cooked meals, quality blacksmith and wagon-repairing facilities, and much needed contact with other people.

Bent's Fort was on the original Sante Fe trail, used by ranchers (especially in Missouri) to drive cattle to Mexican settlements to the south and west, and the cowboys driving the cattle welcomed a stop at Bent's Fort. To call the Bents / St. Vrain partnership a "trading empire" is no exaggeration.

Successful trades with the Indians also meant Bent's Fort needed to treat the Indian tribes, usually Cheyenne or Arapaho, to a feast and pipe-smoking session, especially with the leaders of the tribes. The success of that opening night would often determine if the deal would happen or not. William Bent was often successful, and the fort poured out a stream of buffalo skins, deer skins, and beaver pelts to ravenous markets "back East".

William Bent established such good relations with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians that he led those tribes to accept the white man's presence in Colorado, something the Indian tribes would greatly regret in the 1860's as Colorado's Gold Rush brought a huge influx of prospectors, adventurers, and settlers...and eventually, the infamous Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. (The Indian tribes had been promised they could have Colorado's eastern plains for hunting, living, and migrating. White Man broke that promise when the gold rush started.)

Everything soured when U.S. President Polk manufactured pretexts to start the Mexican-American War in 1846. The U.S. Army used Bent's Fort as a depot for arms and ammunition, and a staging area for military operations. By 1848, the US successfully took over half of Mexico's territory away, awarding Mexico $18,250,000 in compensation.

Bent was unhappy with the U.S. government over the war and the outbreaks of diseases brought on by the Army's presence, and likely for other reasons; at the war's end, he offered to sell his private fort to the U.S. The government turned down his offer because the strategic value of the fort was much diminished, the border between the U.S. and Mexico was now far away instead of 1/2 mile.

In 1849, Bent's Fort came to an end. An early historian in 1889 attributed the fort's demise to an Indian attack, but this is now widely discounted. Accounts from the time and archeological evidence show instead that William Bent, very unhappy with the government, used the gunpowder in the Army's supplies at the fort to blow it to pieces on August 21, 1849.

William Bent continued to be a presence in the area, and finally died in 1869. He is buried in the Las Animas Cemetary.

In 1974-1976, the fort was reconstructed, using archeologic evidence, diaries, sketches, and artists' paintings. Today Bent's Old Fort is a National Historic Site, and a fascinating place to visit.

Read about the Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site.