Las Animas - Bent County Library District

Bent's Fort was the largest trading post for hundreds of miles. It was a crossroads of culture for the Indians of the Plains, the trappers of the mountains, and the traders of the Southwest. Yet, in August of 1849, this guiding light of western expansion burned out. What happened to Bent's Old Fort - the fur trading empire that helped fuel the flow of commerce on the Santa Fe Trail? What kind of legacy did it leave behind for the American West - and...