History Colorado

Between 1833 and 1849, weary Santa Fe Trail travelers cheered when they saw Bent's Fort - a marketplace like no other. Before Colorado was even a state, Bent's Fort was a hub of activity and a place where goods from around the world could be traded for or purchased.

Bent’s Fort: Colorado’s First Trade Center

Explore the most important settlement in Colorado during the mid 1800s!

Explore the Fort

Draw the 4 main trade routes on the map: Santa Fe Trail, American Indian Trade Networks, El Camino Real, Overseas Routes

Draw the Trade Routes!

They wandered the uncharted Rocky Mountains, they went in harm’s way, and they captured the imagination of Americans, then and now. But the mountain men were neither so free nor so independent as their legend insists. They toiled at the end of a long economic chain that stretched from the icy beaver ponds of the Rockies to the uncertain fashion markets of New York and London. Then in the 1840s, the supply of beaver ran out, and hat fashion changed from fur to silk. Suddenly, the day of the mountain men was done. Kit Carson became a guide, Jim Baker a rancher, and Thomas Fitzpatrick an Indian agent. Others were unable to fit in, forever of the move, always on the fringe of society, misfits to the end.

Famous Mountain Men

During the Great Depression, History Colorado hired unemployed artists through the Works Progress Administration to do many tasks, including create dioramas. These images are from the Winter Camp, Summer Rendezvous, and River Trading dioramas created between 1934 and 1941.

Trapping and Trading: A Diorama

Starting in the 1600s, furs and hides were traded among American Indians, Canadians, Spaniards, and English, French and Russian traders. Follow the history of the fur trade in Colorado from 1600 to 1850!

Fur Trade in Colorado Timeline

Goods from all over the world made their way to Bent's Fort long before highways, railroads, cars, and airplanes. You could find tea from China, glass beads from Italy and France, sugar from Mexico, or Hudson Bay blankets from Canada. How did all of these fabulous goods make their way to an adobe fort on the arid plains, 600 miles from the United States?

1848 Trade Routes

Mountain men camped and trapped alone in the mountains throughout the winter, so they carried everything they needed with them to get them through to the following spring. They did most of their hunting during the winter, because beaver furs were thickest. Here are some of the important supplies that mountain men used in order to survive. Image: Gear spread

Mountain Man Gear

The United States looked very different in the early 1800s. Much of what we now know as the United States of America were territories that belonged to other countries. Here are some maps of what Colorado and the surrounding territories looked like at the time. Can you imagine what it would be like to explore these areas as a trader? What are three things that are different about these maps compared to the maps we see today?

Historic Maps of the Colorado Territory

During the era of the mountain men, people of many different cultures came together to trade furs, goods, and information. How did people live during this period of time? What role did Bent’s Fort play in international trade? How did beliefs and prejudices affect how people were treated and cultural relations? Explore this brief, but important, era in our history!

Location! Location! On the Santa Fe Trail at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site

Location! Location! On the Santa Fe National Historic trail at Pecos National Historic Park

Educator’s Guide to Bent’s Fort- International Trade during the Fur Trade Era

Bent’s Fort Teacher Resource Guide-Secondary 

Fur Trade-Trappers and Traders Activity Sheet

History Colorado: Bent’s Fort Trade Game

Class Develops Book about Bent’s Fort for a Younger Grade

Bent's Fort and the Fur Trade

Civics and Government

Social Studies

Economics

Geography

U.S. History

Jim Baker was born in Belleville, Illinois in 1818. He was hired as a trapper for the American Fur Company by Jim Bridger. Over time, he married into several different tribes, including the Shoshone and Sioux. In 1859, he took up a homestead near Denver on Clear Creek at about what is now 53rd and Tennyson St. Baker never felt comfortable with city life. Complaining that Denver was too crowded, he retired to a homestead near Craig, Colorado, in 1873. He died in 1898, at the age of eighty.

Jim Bridger began his career when he was eighteen years old as a member of General William Ashley’s Upper Missouri Expedition. He worked alone as a fur trapper and mountain man until 1830, when he took over the Rocky Mountain Fur Company with three other partners. He spoke English, French, and several American Indian languages. Jim Bridger married the daughter of a Flathead Indian chief, named Cora, in 1834. His marriage helped him keep up friendships with different tribes. By 1840, he had grown tired of being a trapper. He built a trading post called Fort Bridger along the Green River section of the Oregon Trail. Bridger continued to explore new routes through the West (including today’s Berthoud Pass) and served as a guide and scout.

Kit Carson was a mountain man, hunter, guide, and rancher. He first headed west on the Santa Fe Trail as a 17 year old, working for merchants on a caravan. Carson worked for  Bent’s Fort as a hunter in 1840. He met explorer John C. Frémont at Bent’s Fort in 1842 and was hired as a guide for his first expedition into the Rocky Mountains. Over the course of his life, Carson killed and contributed to the deaths of thousands of Native Americans, and destroyed their homes and livelihoods. Many racist accounts glorified this cruel and violent treatment of Native Americans throughout the West.


“Uncle Dick” Wootton headed west in 1836 and found work as a hunter at Bent’s Fort. He also drove a supply caravan to trade with the Sioux Indians. In 1866 he built a toll road through Raton Pass (south of today’s Trinidad, Colorado). In 1878, he sold the road to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, which offered him $50,000. Part of the agreement included a lifetime railroad pass for Wootton and his family and $25 in groceries each month for his wife and daughter. “Uncle Dick” Wootton died at the age of seventy-seven in 1893. The railroad made good on its promise, providing his wife with groceries and a free ride on the train until her death, forty-two years later.


Jim Beckwourth was born into slavery in 1805 in Virginia. Later, he moved to St. Louis with his father and learned to be a blacksmith. In 1822 he joined an expedition headed west for the Missouri lead mines. Two years later, he joined another expedition that set out to explore the Rocky Mountains. He became a famous fur trapper and mountain man, and was named chief of the Crow Indian tribe. He was well known for telling lore about his many adventures.

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Bent's Fort and the Fur Trade

Famous Mountain Men

Jim Baker