Bent’s Fort, Colorado, part 3

After the War with Mexico Charles Bent became the Governor of New Mexico. Unfortunately, his governorship was short lived. It ended in tragedy when he and other Americans in the vicinity were brutally murdered in Taos on January 19, 1847, by revolting Mexicans and Pueblo Indians. In the riot Bent's wife and her sister Josefa, the present Mrs. Kit Carson, escaped.

William Bent died on his Purgatory River ranch in May of 1869.

Bent's Fort Today

The National Park Service, in 1975 and 1976, rebuilt Bent's Fort on its old foundations. It is fortunate that a Lt. James W. Abert, a topographical engineer who was attached to Kearny's army, had recorded complete measurements of the fort. Those records survive today as well as many of the original plans and drawings of the fort. It is believed that the reconstructed fort is 95 percent accurate.

Index of Forts in this series can be seen at:

Forts of the West: An Introduction http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1379...

For further study of the Santa Fe Trail and other above-mentioned persons and locations, on the Internet, please see:

The Santa Fe Trail http://sangres.com/history/santafetrail0... This is an excellent site with links to maps of the old trail. Included here are photos and historical drawings.

SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI: Where the American West Began http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/grea... Marie Bourgeois of New Orleans married René Chouteau in 1748. Pierre Laclede began a trading post that became St. Louis, Missouri.

Thomas Fitzpatrick and South Pass http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1379...

Sources:

Comptons, The Complete Reference Collection. CD Rom, 1997 The Learning Company, Inc.

Chittenden, Hiram Martin. The American Fur Trade of the Far West, Volume 1. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1986.

De Voto, Bernard. Across the Wide Missouri Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1947.

Lavender, David. The Great West. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1965.

Simmons, Marc, Wallace Stegner, Charles McCarry, Robert, Laxalt, Don Dedera, Louis De La Haba. Trails West. The National Geographic Society, 1979.

Sunder, John E. The Fur Trade on the Upper Missouri, 1840-1865. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman and London, 1965.

Utley, Robert M. A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1997.

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