| After a drive of a couple of hours or
so, the scenery changes from snow-capped mountains and pines to flat
grassland. Also, I'm below a mile-high elevation for one of only a
couple of occasions on the trip. This is Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. It was here that I bought a NPS annual pass so that I could get into several more parks on my trip to be better cost efficient. |
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| Edward Dorris Died July 21, 1865 Aged 31 years 2 Ms. 28 Ds. EDWARD Thou Hast Gone to Rest In This Far Country of the West Brothers and Friends Mourn and Weep Thou in this Tomb Dost Sweetly Sleep Edward was a stagecoach driver who dies of a sunstroke or heart attack. |
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| Now we come to the part of our tour
that looks a lot like other forts I have been to on other trips. The
fort is a recreation of the original as it was destroyed at one
point. But because there were such detailed sketches and historical
records of the original, it was rebuilt in 1976. Anyway, this would have been the main trade room. |
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| You see, the fort was not built as a
military installation but as a trading post where people from all
around could trade their wares or get some rest on a long journey. This is the dining room. |
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| The kitchen. |
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| Upstairs was company partner Ceran St. Vrain's quarters. His plans and measurements of the post provided necessary information for the reconstruction of the fort. |
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| More kitchen area. |
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| Out back was space for animals. |
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| I think this was William Bent's quarters, well I guess a reasonable facsimile of it anyway. |
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| William Bent was born in St. Louis in 1809 and spent most of his life as a trapper, trader, freighter, Indian Agent and rancher. |
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| The tailor's shop. |
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 The sun was blazing and there was nary a cloud in the sky/ |
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| Blacksmith shop, or as we call then nowadays, an African-Americansmith shop. |
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| I don't recall whose quarters this was supposed to be, but look, there's a banjo. |
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| I believe these are just laborers quarters. They sure do like their bear rugs. |
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| Trained in the field of medicine, Edward L. Hempstead's main role at Bent's Fort was head clerk. As a doctor, he would use the most modern medicines and techniques from the States, as well as Indian remedies. But the most common cure was the removal of bodily liquids through bleeding, puking and purging. |
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| This was the billiard room. There was some renovating going on at the fort, so they had the table covered. |
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 Back in the day, the fort was on the old border with Mexico, which would have been located just across the Arkansas River over there. |
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