Bent's Old Fort

snippet: One of the best restored sites along the Santa Fe Trail, Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, is worth rerouting your trip to walk on the adobe walls, looking into rooms stuffed with trade goods, and talking to the costumed interpreters who wander the site..

Historical Context

Throughout the long history of Europeans' contact with native people, few interactions have gone well for the natives. It is essential to note those who bucked the trend and treated the indigenous people as equals. The Bent brothers, Charles and William, were two such people. Along with a partner Ceran St.Vrain, they built a thriving business near where the plains and Rocky Mountains meet in Southwest Colorado. Their enterprise was centered on an adobe compound known then as Fort William, after one of the brothers. Today we call it Bent's Old Fort and honor it with the designation of a National Historic Site.

Beginning in the 1830s, the lives of trappers started to change. European fashion no longer favored beaver felt hats. At the same time, the supply of beaver dried up in the Missouri River area. Some returned to civilization, and some, like the Bents, moved south to the Arkansas River and buffalo hides trade. After pursuing the life of a mountain man and fur trapper from an early age, the brothers were well suited to the role of a trader to the natives. 

By 1833, the Bents and Ceran St.Vrain formed a partnership. St.Vrain would mostly handle the business in Taos and Santa Fe. Charles would haul freight from St. Louis along the Santa Fe Trail, and William would manage their new compound located on the US side of the Mexican border.

The compound was made in the Mexican style with adobe bricks. The thick walls soared up to fourteen feet high. There were round bastions on two corners armed with a small canon. A stout wooden gate closed off the main section. Corrals and livestock pens were located inside the thick walls. The two stories were filled with living quarters, work rooms, warehouse spaces, a kitchen, a dining hall, and, most importantly, the trading room. Little wonder the visitors and employees alike called it Fort William.

The Bents not only traded fairly with the surrounding tribes, but they also married indigenous women. And these were not like many of the trapper's marriages, just someone to keep them warm at night until they returned to civilization. William married the daughter of a Cheyenne Chief named Owl Women around 1836. William became a sub-chief with the tribe in the 1840s because of his success in trading with them. The marriage lasted until 1847, when she died. He then lived with her sisters as secondary wives, typical of Cheyenne culture. They left him at some point, and he married a mixed-race woman shortly before he died in 1869.

Charles Bent married Maria Ignacia Jaramillo, born in Taos, then a Mexican city. He was not as involved with the native people as his brother. Charles was more of a politician, which cost him his life. After conquering Mexican territory north of the Rio Grande, General Steven Kearny named him the territory's governor. During the Taos Revolt of 1847, some citizens unhappy with the US takeover killed Charles, leaving his wife and children unharmed.

The third partner, Ceran St. Vrain, was from a noble family that fled France during the French Revolution, settling in Louisiana. He became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 1831. This allowed him to run a business in Taos and Santa Fe. The most successful businessman of the three, after the partnership dissolved, he went on to found and run a business in the territory. The mill he ran is crumbling with huge cracks in its stone walls.  But it still stands in Mora, New Mexico. Records do not show any official marriages, but he was known to have at least six children.

During the peak of trading activity, with as few as little more than a dozen to well over a hundred, the fort was a beehive of activity. Company employees came and went with furs, bison robes, and trade items for the tribes. Hunting parties left and returned with food for the kitchen. Independent traders visited to conduct business. Travelers on the Santa Fe Trail that ran past the fort would stop for a bit of civilization after weeks on the trail.

Those with the right connections might be invited to stay inside, while most just slept under their wagons. Meals were served in a large dining room, and guests could then retire to the billiards room, with a bar, on the second level. With a lack of women, the few who lived or worked at the fort were in high demand during the frequent dances. 

The center of activity was the trading room. There, furs and robes were exchanged for goods ranging from rifles, axes, and knives to trinkets and cloth. The trade added to the wealth the partners accumulated in their other ventures.

Looking like a fort and called a 'fort,' it was always a private enterprise, not part of any military. At least not officially. During the fifteen years Bent's Fort was open, the world changed, sometimes violently. The peaceful nature of the fort and relations with the area tribes suddenly stopped in the summer of 1846 with the arrival of Brigadier General Steven Watts-Kearny and the Army of the West on their way to invade Mexico.

The troops used the area around Bent's Fort as a bivouac. The adobe building was a military hospital, supply depot, and commanding officer's quarters. The soldiers and all their weapons frightened the tribes, and they stopped trading. After the troops left to invade Mexico, the stores and hospital remained. The natives never returned in the same numbers as before. The firm was never paid for the use of its buildings or the loss of trade. Along with his brother's death and the partnership's dissolution, William Bent became a broken man.

What happened next to Bent's Fort is cloudy at best. What is known is that in August 1849, William loaded up several wagons with his trade goods and valuables from the fort and headed east. He built a fort in a new location several miles east of the original site, known as Bent's New Fort, and the original became Bent's Old Fort. 

His trouble with the US Army did not end. He tried to sell the new building to them, then he tried leasing it. In the end, the Army decided it was built on land William did not own, so the fort was illegal, and they took it and renamed it Fort Wise, later Fort Lyon.