Bent's Old Fort NHS Landscape: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, National Park Service
Cowley J, Hartzler B, Gasper S, Yaryan H. 2009. Bent's Old Fort NHS Landscape: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 890238. NPS Intermountain Regional Office. Intermountain Regional Office/CLI Database
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site (NHS) is approximately 7.5 miles northeast of La Junta, Colorado, in the southeast quadrant of the state. The original Bent’s Fort was built by the Bent, St. Vrain & Co. and completed by 1833 or 1834; the historic record is incomplete, and the exact date is not known. For sixteen years, it flourished on the north bank of the meandering Arkansas River, positioned in the broad, relatively flat floodplain. In this strategic location, it functioned as a prairie headquarters in support of an extensive trading network reaching across the plains of Colorado and New Mexico. Although the trading post only operated for a brief period before being abandoned in 1849, it continued to play a vital role in movement and trade through the plains. It functioned as a stage coach stop along the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail from 1861 until 1876, when railroads replaced this method of travel. This period is also significant a cemetery that contains only one marked grave, marking the 1865 burial site of Civil War soldier and stagecoach driver Edward Dorris. A U.S. Post Office operated at Bent’s Fort between the years of 1963 and 1873, further evidence of the role the landscape played in communications and transport through the American West. Bent’s Old Fort NHS Landscape is significant for associations with the development of trading networks, westward expansion, and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). As a trading post, it provided numerous services to travelers: rest, supplies, repairs, communication, and protection. It continued to serve many of these functions after the trading post evolved into a stage coach station. The landscape is also associated with various significant individuals. Brothers Charles and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain, all from St. Louis, formed a partnership to pursue the Indian trade and build trading forts. Other legendary explorers and soldiers associated with the site include Christopher “Kit” Carson, John C. Fremont, Stephen Watts Kearney, and Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. The landscape is significant for the discintive construction of the fort, built by New Mexican workers with adobes made on-site and timber harvested from distant mountain foothills. Parts of the fort were burned with its abandonment in 1849; as late as 1915, some remnants still stood. In 1930, the La Junta Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who had owned the trading post since 1920, dedicated the Bent’s Old Fort memorial arch at the site’s entrance. Today, Bent’s Old Fort landscape is a reconstruction of the trading post, built in 1976 on its original foundations. The fort plan was based on the best available archeological evidence and on drawings and descriptions documenting the fort during its peak years. The site is largely surrounded by farm land, and the river course supports much mature vegetation that was not present during the trading period. The park has made aggressive efforts to eliminate invasive species. A wetland has developed in the north-central part of the site, probably the result of proximity to modern irrigation channels. The National Register district boundary contains 178 acres of the nearly 800-acre NHS, focusing on the area north of the river where a majority of the structures are clustered. This CLI recommends increasing the size of the district to 795 acres, placing the cultural landscape in closer alignment with the boundaries of the NHS.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Cowley, Jill; Hartzler, Bob; Gasper, Shalie; Yaryan, Heather
- Date of Issue
- 2009-06-29
- Publisher
- NPS Intermountain Regional Office
- Units
- BEOL , IMR
- Keywords
- (Bent, Adobe, Agriculture, arapaho, Arkansas river, Bent's Fort, Cattle Ranching, cemetery, Ceran St. Vrain, Charles Bent, Cheyenne, Chief Black Kettle, Christopher "Kit" Carson, Colorado, Comanche, Commerce, Daughters of the American Revolution, Defense Structure, Edward Dorris, Ethnographic/Traditional Landscape, Exploration-Settlement, Fire Destruction, Frontier Trading Post, historic site, Indian Trade, Irrigation, James Beckwourth, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, John C. Fremont, Kansas Pacific Railroad, kiowa, La Junta, Lakota Sioux, Memorial Arch, Mexican-American War 1846-1848, Military, Native American, Otero County, Plains Apache, Plains Tribes, Political and Military Affairs 1783-1860, Post Office, Railroad, Reconstruction, Richens Lacy "Uncle Dick" Wootton, Sand Creek Massacre, Santa Fe Trail, Social History, Southwest Fur Trade, St. Vrain & Co.), Stagecoach Station, Stephen Watts Kearny, Taos Rebellion, Ute, Vernacular Landscape, Westward Expansion of the Colonies and the United States 1763-1898, William Bent, Wood