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In the decades after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, America's economic frontier
expanded westward. As trappers went into the Rockies for beaver and Plains
Indians showed their willingness to trade buffalo robes, the first wagons
rolled between the Missouri River and Santa Fe. Bent's Old Fort was built
in 1833 by Charles and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain, specifically to
take advantage of its location on the north bank of the Arkansas River,
on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail. Charles and William had made
their first crossing of the Trail in 1829 and made a partnership with St.
Vrain a year later. They opened company stores in Santa Fe and Taos and
plied the whole length of the Trail with their goods. Their business grew
rapidly, carrying goods and freight between Santa Fe and Independence. It
quickly became clear that a stopping place in the middle of the journey
would be quite useful and they built the fort. For travellers 2 months on
the Trail, it became a greatly anticipated haven, the only place between
Independence and Santa Fe where they could refresh themselves and their
livestock, repair wagons, and replenish supplies.
For much of its 16-year history, the fort was the only major permanent white
settlement on the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and the Mexican settlements.
The fort provided explorers, adventurers, and the U.S. Army a place to get
needed supplies, wagon repairs, livestock, good food, water and company,
rest and protection in this vast "Great American Desert." During
the war with Mexico in 1846, the fort became a staging area for Colonel
Stephen Watts Kearny's "Army of the West". Disasters and disease
caused the fort's abandonment in 1849. Archeological excavations and original
sketches, paintings and diaries were used in the fort's reconstruction in
1976.
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