Fort St. Vrain
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Fort St. Vrain
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture & Enhancement
Description
In November 1836, the Bent brothers and Ceran St. Vrain received a license authorizing them to trade on the South Platte in what is now Colorado. The main business at Fort Lookout, as it was first named, was trading trinkets and beads for buffalo hides and tongues and beaver pellet, and accommodating passing mountain men. Fort Lookout was renamed fort George in honor of George Bent, one of the Bent brothers; however, this fort was generally known as St. Varin’s Fort or Fort St. Vrain.
Fort St. Vrain was located one mile north of St. Vrain Creek on the east side of the South Platte River, on the “Trapper’s” or Taos trail, which ran from Fort Taos, New Mexico, past Bent’f Fort in Colorado to Fort Laramie in Wyoming. Fort St. Vrain was said to be exactly halfway between Bent’s Fort and Fort Laramie.
During the years it operated as a trading post, St. Vrain’s Fort served as a waystation and provisioning point for travelers. The Fort’s history includes a stopover on July 4, 1843 by John Charles Fremon’ts second expedition to the Rocky Mountain area. In the party were Kit Carson and William Gulpine, later governor of Colorado.
With Fort St. Vrain’s mission accomplished and with the rapid decline of the fur trade, the Bent and St. Vrain Company ended its operation of the fort in 1845.
Fort St. Vrain was located at the confluence of Saint Vrain Creek and the South Platte River, about 20 miles east of the Rocky Mountains in what was then the unorganized territory of the United States, in present-day Weld County, Colorado.
Image copyright 2018 Jon Burch Photography
Uploaded
November 28th, 2018
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