William Bent
Photo © Neal Ulevich. All rights reserved.
Heavily involved in the Santa Fe trade, William Bent and his partners built two trading forts along the Arkansas River in Colorado. An authentic reconstruction of Bent's Old Fort exists today near La Junta, CO. During it's heyday in the 1840s visitors heartily sick of Santa Fe Trail travel described the looming adobe-walled fort as a magnificent castle on the plains. William Bent died a wealthy man May 19, 1869. He is buried at Las Animas, CO.
Photo © Neal Ulevich. All rights reserved.
A 1997 twilight view of Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site shows Comet Hale-Bopp illuminating the northern sky. The faithful reconstruction of the trading fort is operated by the National Park Service at La Junta, CO.