Painting done by Harry Miller, Works Progress Administration staff artist of SHS, in the 1930s. "The Historical Society's WPA Project for collecting, cataloguing and indexing historical material and for making historical models, paintings, etc. was inaugurated on October 21. It provides for forty workers, employment for one year and a total expenditure of $42,210. Progress of the work will be reported in successive issues of our magazine." Colorado Magazine 13 no. 1 (1936): 39., In 1833 a company formed by brothers Charles and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built Bent's Fort on the upper Arkansas River in present southeastern Colorado for fur traders and particularly trade with the Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians for buffalo robes. The non-military, private fort on the Santa Fe Trail quickly became a rendezvous point for traders and Indians and supply center for emigrants, adventurers, explorers, travelers, and the U.S. Army. In 1835 William Bent, resident manager of the fort, married Owl Woman daughter of a prominent Southern Cheyenne Indian, White Thunder. He fostered good relations with the Indian tribes, encouraged inter tribal peace, and required his employees to conduct fair trade with the Indians. During the War with Mexico (1846-1848) the fort became a staging area for Colonel Stephen Kearny's Army. Bent tried to sell the fort to the U.S. Army but rumor has it that the price offered was too low and he destroyed the fort by burning it down. It is also possible that the fort's demise came due to a cholera epidemic in 1849. In any case it was destroyed by fire in 1849. In 1853 Bent built a new fort thirty miles east at Big Timbers, but trade continued to decline. Bent remained a mediator and friend of Native Americans. In 1960 the site was designated as a National Historic Landmark and today guided tours help visitors relive the history of this important post in the development of the West.
David Lavender, Bent's Fort (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1954).
Lubers, H. L. "William Bent's Family and the Indians of the Plains." Colorado Magazine, Jan. 1936, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 19-22.