Tag: Bent's New Fort

Bent’s New Fort

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.

Bent’s Old Fort, Colorado

Built in 1833, near a ford on the high plains where the Santa Fe Trail crossed the Arkansas River, Bent’s Old Fort was primarily a trading post. It is east of today’s La Junta, Colorado, and north of Route 50.

In its heyday, the fort served travelers on the Santa Fe Trail who were two months out from Independence, Missouri, as well as fur trappers and Native American tribes.

In 1846, it became a staging point for U.S. troops during the Mexican-American war. It was an important factor in the development and settling of the territories west of what was then the extent of the United States. As time went on, though, changing conditions affected the fort. Military animals overwhelmed the ecology of the surrounding land, relations with the Native American tribes soured, and there was a cholera epidemic.

By 1849, only 16 years after it was built, the fort was no longer useful, and a new fort, which came to be called Bent’s New Fort, was built 40 miles away.

The fort you see in the pictures is a reconstruction, though I was assured by a park employee that it is “as close as possible to the original.” It is a National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service.