William Bent built what came to be called “Bent’s New Fort” at this location, just west of Lamar, Colorado, and near the Arkansas River, when circumstances rendered Bent’s Old Fort unusable.
As you can see in the photo above, today there is little here to commemorate the fort’s existence. There are some National Park Service signs, explaining that Bent’s New Fort was a trading site on the Santa Fe Trail beginning in 1849.
Even though William Bent maintained good trading relationships with Native Americans at his fort, exchanging goods and food for buffalo hides, changes in the fur trade and the ecology of the area limited his financial success. He sold the fort to the U.S. Army in 1860.
In 1905, John Squire Semmons purchased four and a half acres here, including the site once occupied by the fort. He made a down payment of $5.00 and paid a total of $46.60. His descendants have said they plan to preserve the site because of its archeological importance.