The last couple of days I've been posting pictures that I took at Bent's Old Fort Historic Site on Sunday. As you can see, it's been completely restored back to the way it would have looked in its 1830s heyday. That's pretty remarkable, considering the fact that Bent himself purposely burned the place to the ground in 1852! In fact, the fort was only in service for about 16 years, from 1833 to 1849, when a cholera outbreak forced Bent to abandon the place. He came back a couple of years later to salvage what he could and burn the fort down (though I don't know if it was completely destroyed). He soon built a new place, Bent's New Fort, to the east of his old one.
Bent's Old Fort was reconstructed in 1976 and is quite an interesting and fun day trip. It's definitely an intriguing look into Colorado's history.
The logs that protrude from adobe buildings like this are called vigas.
Although it was not a military installation, Bent's Old Fort was prepared to defend itself if need be.
1 comment:
It was well worth re-creating.
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