The first week of April my hiking partner and I went on an overnight to the Comanche National Grasslands just outside of La Junta, CO. We drove down on a Tuesday, and had extra time before we really needed to set up camp that we decided to make a little history stop at Bent's Old Fort.
This is an adobe fort that was reconstructed over the site of the original one from the 1840's. The reconstruction was done, I believe, in the 1970's as a part of the Bicentennial celebrations (is what an older cowboy from the fort told me).
The reconstruction is incredible, detailed, and this was only possible because of the extensive notes that exist from the time period for the fort.
In the 1840's, the fort was the center of trading on the old Santa Fe trail.
So let's start.
There is a small hiking trail to the fort, but we decided to pass on that seeing as how we were looking at a 10+ mile hike the next day. We took the direct root from the parking lot, about a quarter mile away from the fort itself.
The fort is removed from La Junta enough that at certain angles, if it weren't for the concrete we were walking on, a person could easily imagine they were back on the Santa Fe trail of over 175 years ago.
A small graveyard just outside the fort. Only two graves were marked, though looking at the plot as a whole, it was easy to see where others were buried, or may have been at one point.
A canon.
The entrance to the fort.
The courtyard. Bell in the middle, and places for various craftsmen or the people who lived there to do their work outside in the daylight.
So we did the self-guided tour with a map given to us by the older cowboy. It took us around the first floor of the fort in a counter-clockwise pattern, then upstairs to follow that same pattern. I'll try to remember what all the rooms were, and I think I got pictures of most of them. Some didn't have any light at all, so no pictures from them.
A small bed for travelers in the first room, a common guest room.
This checkers board amused me to no end.
What would essentially be the general store.
These are all photo's from the dining hall. Those stairs led up to the priests (I think) room. And the bottom photo is a window. We are so used to our clear windows everywhere, I personally never think about how recent a thing that must be.
My hiking partner and I were both drooling over this giant ass fireplace
The kitchen.
The giant pantry (I mean, it would have to be to keep food for a whole fort of people plus guests). I am actually much more superstitious than I like to say, and I don't know if it was the ropes blocking entrance through the door, or how much darker this room was compared to the kitchen, but I could get myself to go a handful of paces away from the door, so these are the pictures you got.
I would love to own a set of cast iron skillets like these one day
I think this was part of someone's office/living space.
One of several storage rooms
There were a few names constantly associated with the fort. Aside from Bent himself, I cannot at the moment recall any of them, but I am positive this is the desk of one of those people. (Helpful, aren't I?)
The Blacksmith's Shop
The Wood Workers Shop
Another storage room
The well for the fort.
Now it's time to go upstairs! The stairs were rather treacherous, especially for someone as unbalanced and clumsy as me, so no pictures of the stairs. Each step was bigger than today's standard stair, made of uneven wood, with thick railings on both sides, as the stairs did not sit against any wall of the fort.
These three are all photos from the doctor's quarters. Bed for him, bed for patient, his desk and the curios he'd keep in it along with books and notes.
View from the second level. There were only a handful of rooms up here, most of it was pathways to the battlements and the gatekeepers room.
The battlements.
The whole tour, self-guided, took us about an hour. There were a few rooms on the second level that were closed to the public, which was a bummer. The others were too dark to get pictures of. That's where a super small chapel was, which was open to the public, but the door was hard to open (I determined on this trip that it's good I didn't live back then, again. Reason 186493: I can't open the damn doors), there was the billiards room which was sadly closed off, and there was a closed room next to the doctor's that wasn't even on the map.
I highly recommend visiting if you ever get the chance. It was $3 per person, and then a donation of a dollar if you wanted to keep the map.
From there we walked back to the car, and made our way over to the grasslands and our awesome dinosaur centered hike, which will be the next post.
****I'm always looking for awesome historical places to go! Help me build a list of what to see, where. Put your favorite, or interesting, historical places in the comments, especially Seattle! I'm looking to visit later this year.******