Bent's Fort

The room where trades were conducted

They used buffalo hide for weather stripping on doors and windows--pretty clever

KOA in La Junta, CO: Took a nice, long shower this morning. Felt great! Supposed to hit 100 today! A record high I guess. This morning the humidity was 100%. Wow! Left this morning while it was cool and had breakfast at Village Inn. Then headed to Bent’s Fort. What a neat place! The fort was built in 1833 by Charles and William Bent of St. Louis. They led trade caravans from Missouri to Santa Fe on the Santa Fe trail in the late 1820s and decided to build a fort half way in between and settled on this site on the Arkansas River, which was then the border with Mexico. Charles Bent was familiar with the comfort of adobe homes and decided he wanted the fort built in the adobe style. They hired Mexican adobe builders out of Taos and Santa Fe—150 of them. And this was a screaming hot day and it was really comfortable inside this adobe structure. This was the biggest “settlement” west of the Mississippi except for California. And it was a great center of cultural diversity. Eight languages were spoken here. It was a welcome stop for many travelers of the day—mountain men who came to trade, Cheyenne Indians, Mexicans, French fur traders, and it was also a stage stop. There were about 60 full-time residents here. The trade they established was very successful—mainly because they were very fair with the local Indians. I bought two books—one on the fort and one on the Santa Fe Trail. Left there and drove around La Junta a little. Cute little town with several neat parks and a cute, historic downtown area. After that we stopped at Wal Mart to pick up some things and then back to our site. It was 103 when we got back! Tomorrow we leave for Dodge City, KS.