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Bents Fort, Colorado, part 1

© Mary Trotter Kion

BENT'S FORT, COLORADO

Bent's Fort, established in 1833, by William Bent was located on the north side of the Arkansas River in present-day Colorado along the Santa Fe Trail. This branch of the Trail crossed the river near where present-day La Junta, Colorado is located.

Historically, the fort has also been referred to as Fort William or William's Fort in honor of its founder who located his establishment on the plains some 160 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. This location, on the upper portion of the Santa Fe Trail, is some 80 miles north by east from Taos and situated where the trading caravans traditionally turned southward towards the town of Santa Fe. The purpose of the fort's location was to make it readily accessible for trade with both the inhabitants of Santa Fe and Taos as well as the Eutaw, Cheyenne and Comanche Indians. An additional concern utilized Bent's Fort extensively.

The livelihoods of independent mountain men, those not connected with one of the established fur companies, had, in years past, relied on the abundance of beaver to trap and their pelts to sell. Now, in the 1830s and early 1840s, these men were quickly coming to realize that the hay-day of the beaver was nearing its bitter end. Many of these men found themselves leaving the mountains in search of other employment. Many, such as the famed Kit Carson, came to Bent's Fort for that purpose.

It was in the fall of 1841 that Carson finally accepted the fact that the day of the beaver had passed. With a group of comrades he came to the adobe trading post that William Bent had built, seeking employment. For one dollar per day, they signed on as hunters. Carson's name would later find fame with the expeditions of Lieutenant John C. Fremont who also, over the years, made numerous stops at Bent's Fort.

Just as suddenly as the trade in beaver pelts dwindled a new item of major trade was taking its place-buffalo robes. The year before Bent's Fort was established William B. Astor, in a letter to Pierre Chouteau, made note that every buffalo robe that had been sent to his concern was sold, and that had he had even 300 more packs of the robes they would have sold as well. This was a time before the day of the white buffalo hunter who made the final near depletion of the buffalo on the Plains. In these earlier years the Indians killed the buffalo, not just for the purpose of meat and robes for their own needs but for the purpose of bringing the robes to trading posts to swap for white mans goods and whiskey if they could get it.