THE LATE FUR TRADE:

1
THE LATE FUR TRADE BUFFALO AND BENTS FORT
2
IN THE 1830S BUFFALO ROBES BECAME THE CHIEF
ARTICLE OF WESTERN TRADE.

• CHANGES THAT OCCURRED
• Heavy wagons created to carry heavier, larger
  loads
• Buffalo robes obtained through trade not
  trapping
• Permanent trading posts replaced the rendezvous

3

• SEVERAL TRADING POSTS ESTABLISHED ON THE
  EASTERN PLAINS
• 1832 Gantt and Blackwell near Pueblo
• 1833 Bents Old Fort between Las Animas and
• La Junta
• 1835 Fort Vasquez near Platteville
• 1836 Fort Lupton
• 1836 Fort St. Vrain (Fort Lookout)

4
GANTT AND BLACKWELL - PUEBLO
X

• Short-lived
• Too Far From
• Sources of Buffalo Robes (Cheyenne Arapahoe)
• Santa Fe Trail Principal Trade Route for
  Colorado area

5
FORT VASQUEZ
20 miles south of Greeley
Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette Former Mountain
Men

• Brisk business for 5 years
• Sold in 1840

6
FORT LUPTON
X

• Lancaster P. Lupton
• Retired military
• Post in existence until 1845
• After trade died attempted to row crop

7
FORT ST. VRAIN

• Bent and St. Vrain Company
• Built to spy on
• Fort Vasquez
• Fort Lupton
• Overland Trail

8
BY 1840 ONLY ONE FORT REMAINED IT DOMINATED THE
PLAINS TRADE IT LAY SOUTH ON THE ARKANSAS IT WAS
KNOWN AS BENTS OLD FORT
9
1833 1848 BENTS OLD FORT DOMINATED THE PLAINS
From its position on the north side of the
Arkansas River, astride the Mountain Branch of
the Santa Fe Trail
10

• Rectangular, Grey Adobe Structure 180 feet by
  135 feet
• Round bastions at SE and NW corners
• Walls 2 4 thick and 15 high
• Midway along eastern wall sheet metal and iron
  doors
• Inside rows of low rooms with dirt floors
• sheds for harnesses and equipment
• livestock corral to the west

11

• BENTS OLD FORT
• Stood for nearly 20 years
• International Center of Commerce
• It was the DIA of its time

BENTS OLD FORT Represents CONVERGENCE
CONFLICT CONTINUITY on the Plains
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• CONVERGENCE
• Brought many cultures together
• Anglo-American William and Charles Bent
• French Ceran St. Vrain
• Mexican Builders carpenters, skilled laborers
• Native American Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Comanche
• Bents Fort was neutral ground

• Brought different economic systems together
• American capitalist system
• European Mercantilist system
• Native American Barter system

13

• CONFLICT
• Competition/Profit was the reason Bents Fort
  existed
• Complained about unfair competition 1836, 1842

• Competing technologies met head-on
• Native American traditional technology competed
  with the manufacturing technology of the
  American East Coast
• Staging center for War with Mexico
• Stephen Kearney rested and recuperated on the way
  to Santa Fe in 1846. (5,000 men and supplies)

14

• CONTINUITY
• Once introduced, Anglo-American presence was
  permanent
• Anglo-American culture was the only acceptable
  standard
• for all visitors to Bents Fort
• American-style capitalism entrenched
• Native Americans became tied to necessities
• Ricos of Santa Fe tied to Santa Fe Trail trade
  controlled from Bents Old Fort
• Political conditions turned in favor of Americans
• Mexican government in Santa Fe lost control over
  the economy of New Mexico

15

• MEXICAN LAND GRANTS
• In order to win back the loyalty of RICOS,
  Mexican government granted them immense tracts
  of land
• Some of these grants went to Mexicanized
  Americans

Luis Baca
Gervacio Nolan
War Veterans
Stephen Lee /Charles Beaubien
Cornelio Vigil/Ceran St. Vrain
Lucien Maxwell
Manuel Martinez
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BY THE LATE 1840s Era of the Mountain Man OVER

• WHAT IS THEIR SIGNIFICANCE?
• Assisted settlement
• Attempt to assist Native Americans
• Opened the West
• Established a system that
• Shifted axis of trade from N/S to East/West
• Incorporated all groups into American capitalism
• Opened the door for American invasion of the 1850s

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CREATED A MYTHOLOGY