William and Charles Bent, along with Ceran St. Vrain, built the original fort in 1833 to trade with Indians and trappers. Trading goods were moved between St. Louis and Sante Fe then south on the El Camino Real to Mexico City. Trade goods included buffalo hides, beaver furs, horses, silver, leather goods, glass and tobacco. For much of its 16-year history, the fort was the major white settlement on the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and Mexico. The fort provided explorers, trappers, and then the U.S. Army with needed supplies, wagon repairs, livestock, good food, rest and protection in the vast land of the Great Plains. Famous explorers like Kit Carson and John Fremont met there with others to talk about the changing life on the Plains and this new country - America.
When the war with Mexico came in 1846, the fort became a staging area for the United States Army. When Mexico was defeated, the boundary between these two great countries was moved south along the Rio Grande River which begins in the Colorado Rockies too. |

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