When Beaver Skins Were Money 
IV.—Life at Bent’s Fort —Bull Teams on the Road- 
Trading with the Indians—One-Eyed Juan 
—Frolics at the Fort—Conclusion 
By GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL 
B ENT'S OLD FORT was a stopping place 
for all travelers on the Santa Fe trail and 
visitors often remained there for weeks 
at a time, for Colonel Bent kept open house. On 
holidays, such as Christmas and the fourth of 
July, if any number of people were there, they 
often had bails or dances in which trappers, 
travelers, Indians, Indian women and Mexican 
women all took part. Employed about the post 
there was always a Frenchman or two who could 
play the violin and guitar. On one occasion 
Frank P. Blair,* then twenty-three years old, 
afterward a general in the Union Army and at 
one tune a vice-presidential candidate, played the 
banjo all night at a ball at the fort. 
Just before each Fourth of July a party was 
always sent up into the mountains on the Purga- 
toire River to gather wild mint for mint juleps 
to be drunk in honor of the day. For the brew¬ 
ing of these, ice from the ice house was used. 
This drink was in those days called "hail-storm.’ 
The employees at the fort were divided into 
classes, to each of which special duties were 
assigned. Certain men remained always at the 
post guarding it, trading with Indians and trap¬ 
pers and keeping the books. These we may call 
clerks, or storekeepers and mechanics. Another 
group took care of the live stock, herding and 
caring for the horses and mules, while stid 
others had charge of the wagon train that hauled 
the furs to the States and brought back new 
goods to the fort. Other men, led by veteran 
traders, went to trade in the Indian camps at a 
distance. 
Excepting in summer when the trains were 
absent on their way to St. Louis, the population 
of the fort was a large one. There were traders, 
clerks, trappers, hunters, teamsters, herders and 
laborers, and these were of as many races as 
there were trades. The clerks, traders and trap¬ 
pers were chiefly Americans, the hunters and 
laborers might be white men, Mexicans or 
Frenchmen. Some of the Delawares and Shaw- 
nees _ 0 f whom Black Beaver was one of the 
most famous—were hunters and trappers, while 
others of their race were teamsters, and went 
* Appointed Attorney-General of New Mexico by Gen. 
Kearney in 1846. Took an active part on the side of the 
Union in Missouri in 1860-61. 
back and forth with the trains between \\ est 
port and Fort William. The herders were 
chiefly Mexicans, as were also some of the 
laborers, while the cook of the bourgeois .was 
a negro. Almost all these people had taken In¬ 
dian wives from one tribe or another, and the 
fort was plentifully peopled with women and 
children as well as with men. 
During the summer season matters were often 
very quiet about the fort. In April, just about 
the time that the Indians set out on their sum¬ 
mer buffalo hunt, the train started for St. Louis. 
It was under the personal conduct of Colonel 
Bent, but in charge of a wagon master who was 
responsible for everything. It was loaded with 
robes. With the train went most of the team¬ 
sters and herders, together with some of the 
laborers. The journey was to last neaily six 
months, for each heavy wagon was drawn by 
six yoke of oxen, driven by a teamster, who 
might be a white man or a Delaware or a Shaw¬ 
nee. With the train went great herds of horses 
to be sold when the settlements were reached. 
Agent Fitzpatrick says that the Cheyennes moved 
with the train as far as Pawnee hork and then 
scattered on their hunt. 
Travel was slow, for the teams made but ten 
or twelve miles a day. On each trip they camped 
at about the same places, and to the men who 
accompanied the train the route was as well 
known as is the main street to the people of 
a small town. When camp was reached at night 
the wagons were corraled, the bulls freed from 
their yokes, and, in charge of the night herders 
who during the day had been sleeping in the 
wagons, were driven off to the best grass and 
there fed and rested until morning, when they 
were driven back to the corral to be turned over 
to the teamsters. The horse herd was taken off 
in another direction and held during the night 
by the horse night herders. Within the great 
corral of wagons the fires were kindled and the 
mess cooks prepared the simple meal of bread, 
already cooked, and coffee. 
At daylight in the morning the oxen were 
brought in and yoked, the blankets tied up and 
thrown into the wagons, and long before the 
sut- appeared the train was in motion. Travel 
wa«, kept up until io or n o’clock, depending 
on the weather. If it was hot they stopped 
earlier; if cool, they traveled longer. Then camp 
was made, the wagons were again corraled, the 
herds turned out and the principal meal of the 
day, which might be called breakfast or dinner, 
was prepared. Perhaps during the morning the 
hunters had killed buffalo or antelope, and this, 
with bread, satisfied the keen appetites of the 
men. If fresh meat had not been killed there 
was always an abundance of dried meat which 
everyone liked. At 2 or 3 o’clock the herds were 
again brought in and the train was set in motion, 
the journey continuing until dark or after. So 
the quiet routine of the march was kept up until 
the settlements were reached. 
The whole train was in charge of the wagon 
master who was its absolute governing head. 
He fixed the length of the march, the time for 
starting and halting. If a difficult stream was 
to be crossed, he rode ahead of the train and 
directed the crossing of the first team and then 
of all the others, not leaving the place until the 
difficulty had been wholly overcome. Besides 
looking after a multitude of details, such as the 
shoeing of the oxen, the greasing of the wagons, 
which took place every two' or three days, and 
the condition of the animals in the yokes, he 
also issued rations to the men and was, in fact, 
the fountain of all authority. With the caval- 
yard* were always driven a number of loose work 
oxen, and if an animal in the yoke was injured 
or became lame or foot sore, it was turned into 
the herd and replaced by a fresh ox. 
When the axles of the wagons were to be 
greased the wheels were lifted from the ground 
by a very long lever, on the end of which sev¬ 
eral men threw themselves to raise the wagon 
so that the wheel could be taken off. If one of 
the teamsters became sick or disabled, it was 
customary for the wagon master to drive the 
leading team. 
The train often consisted of from twenty to 
thirty wagons, most of them—in later years 
laden with bales of buffalo robes on the way to 
the settlements and returned full of goods. The 
front end of the wagon inclined somewhat for¬ 
ward and about half way down the front was a 
box secured by a lock in which the teamster 
kept the spare keys for his ox bows, various 
other tools and some of his own small personal 
belongings. 
Two hunters, one a white man and the other 
a Mexican, or Indian, accompanied the train, and 
each morning, as soon as it was ready to start, 
they set out to kill game, and usually when the 
train came to the appointed camping place they 
were found there resting in the shade with a 
load of meat. Sometimes, if they killed an ani¬ 
mal close to the road they loaded it on a horse 
*Sp. caballada, literally a herd of horses; more broadly 
a herd of horses and work cattle. Also pronounced 
cavaya and spelled in a variety of ways. 
