Inside a Trading Post

Once the yearly rendezvous ended, trading posts became the place to trade.  Bent's Fort was the key trading post in the Southwest.  Protected by 14' high adobe walls, 2 musket towers with cannons, Bent's Fort was an important part of the Southwest's history.  Inside the fort were the stock and horse corrals, the smithy, the trader's rooms and even rooftop billiard rooms.

Bent's Fort was unsurpassed in size and importance west of the Mississippi River.  It could hold 200 men, and 300 animals.  The 4' thick walls were topped with a blooming cacti, a belfry and a watchtower complete with a telescope.

The ramparts surrounded an area 137 by 178' enclosing warehouses, wagon sheds, clerk's office, meeting halls, staff apartments, and a central square of small guest rooms that opened onto an inner court.  In the courtyard was a well and a huge press for the prime export - skins to the East.

The fort was a crossroad for many Indian tribes - Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowi, Utes, and Gros Ventres.  Here Indians could trade for tools, trinkets like glass beads to decorate clothing or sheaths, and weapons.  For a time Kit Carson and Tom Fitzpatrick were the official game hunters for the fort.
The fort was also a haven for sick travelers.  On their way to Santa Fe long caravans stopped and were resupplied with flour, sugar, coffee, cloth, tobacco, weapons, and whiskey.

Who were the entrepreneurs of this establishment?  Two Bent brothers, Charles and William.  As young men they left the cutthroat trading of the Northwest and decided to try what is now Colorado.  Cheyenne (William had saved the life of two Cheyenne) helped choose the fort's location - near the intersection of the Arkansas and Purgatory Rivers which was the southern boundary of the fur trade territory and the heart of buffalo country.

William became the resident manager until late 1840 when the US Army decided it wanted to buy it but offered William so little for it (surprise!) that he just abandoned it and built a smaller fort 30 miles to the east. 

Next time...the Great Southwest
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On this Day in Pioneer History: "On May 19, 1836,  Comanche, Kiowa, and Caddo Indians in Texas kidnap nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker and kill her family. Adopted into the Comanche tribe, she lived a happy life until Texas Rangers recaptured her and forced her to return to live again among Anglo-Americans.