Bent’s Fort

Description

Author: Lavender, David  (1910-2003)

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Pub Date: 1972 (Eighth printing)

Binding: Paperback

Condition: Fair.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, folds.  Lower front and rear cover corners each have wear, extends to next few pages.  Smudges to bottom text block.  Light edge wear.  Appears unused.

Notes: This was Lavender’s second book, and it established his reputation for scholarly history.  Bent’s Fort, in southeastern Colorado, was built by the brothers Charles and William Bent.  The fort was the first commercial center on the plains, and a “must stop” on the Santa Fe Trail.  The Bent’s trade with the regional Indian tribes–Cheyenne, Arapaho, Plains Apache, Ute, Kiowa, and Comanche–for horses, buffalo hides and beaver made it a gathering place not just for the Indians but the trappers, mountain men, explorers, and travelers, and a “middle ground” between the expanding United States and Mexico, who claimed the territory.  The original fort was destroyed in 1849, and a new fort was begun in 1853 and stood until 1867.  BIG history–pioneers, explorers (Kit Carson), Indians, military, Mexico, Manifest Destiny, Santa Fe Trail.