894 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June io, 1911. 
“Bent’s New Fort” as Seen To-day 
By J. H. KELLOGG, M.D. 
1 WAS greatly interested in the articles telling 
of Mr. Garrard’s book, and I send you some 
views just taken of the ruins of the historic 
landmark in Colorado to-day—“Bent’s New 
Fort,” or old Fort Lyon. 
After reading the series of articles on Bent’s 
Old Fort by George Bird Grinnell, I visited these 
ruins and was much impressed by them. They 
are nine miles from Lamar just across the Bent 
—Prowers county line, and twenty years ago 
were imposing. Since that time farmers have 
hauled away the stone to construct buildings, and 
I know of many large ones made of this ma¬ 
terial. What a pity these ruins should not have 
remained as they were. 
The remains of the walls are now about two 
feet in height and show the dimensions of the 
different rooms of the fort. There are also the 
remains of an earth wall inclosing the old corral 
where the wagons and cattle were kept for safety 
during the night. At one point the walls of the 
corral extend to a precipice of rock, at the foot 
of which runs the river. In this stone a path¬ 
way was hewn, down which the inmates might 
pass to get water—a convenient thing in case 
of siege. 
On the face of these cliffs many names of 
soldiers are carved in the rock, often giving the 
regiment and company number. I tried to photo¬ 
graph some of these, but the light was poor. 
Among the names decipherable were these: Corp. 
B. F. Witmer, D. Co., 2d U. S. I.; O. D. Holla- 
day, Abbott W. Saunderson, Co. F., 2d Col. Cav., 
Feb. 14, 1865; W. P. Monteath, Co. K., 48 Wis. 
There were many other engravings on the rock, 
but the action of the elements has partially ob¬ 
literated them, but some years ago names could 
be read with dates back in the ’50s. 
The ground inside the outer parapet all sloped 
to the center where the store and barracks were 
built. There could not well be a better loca¬ 
tion for a fort than this one. 
Standing on the site of the fort, a splendid 
view is to be had in all directions. To the south 
are the bluffs across the river, known as the 
Point of Rocks. It was here that the Indians 
used to gather when coming from the south to 
study the ground and observe whether any hos¬ 
tile tribe was camped near the fort. Many In¬ 
dian dead are buried in these bluffs. 
At the point in the river nearest the fort, the 
dam and head gate of an immense irrigation 
system show strikingly the change from the past 
to the present. Near this head gate are some 
caves in the face of the cliffs, which in their 
day may have sheltered Indians camping outside 
the fort. 
At a point one mile from the business section 
of Lamar is the old Sante Fe trail, deep worn 
and long since sodded over by the dense salt 
grass of the river bottom. On this trail, at a 
point where it crosses the highway at right 
angles, stands a monument erected by the 
Daughters of the American Revolution. At its 
dedication five years ago, there were present 
some of the old timers who had trod that path¬ 
way when this country was the wild West in 
very deed, and to hear some of their experi¬ 
ences was most interesting. One of them said: 
“A caravan of a dozen wagons, each drawn by 
six yoke of oxen, was camped at the river wait¬ 
ing for its flood waters to recede, when one of 
the drivers, thinking he could cross, yoked up 
his oxen and drove them into the stream. To 
follow the ford was difficult, and at length 
pushed by the current, the oxen swerved from 
it. No sooner had they left the firm bottom of 
the ford than they were caught in the quick¬ 
sands, and oxen, wagon and man disappeared 
from sight in the muddy waters of the treacher¬ 
ous Arkansas, and were never seen again.” 
In following the old trail down the river I 
could not but notice that it followed the banks 
of the river just out of range of the old rifles, 
never getting any nearer, even though the going 
might be good. 
All the old trail will soon be a thing of the 
past, and even now it can be seen only where 
the soil has remained unbroken. South of the 
river lies a virgin territory, soon to be converted 
into an immense irrigation district known as the 
Bent and Prowers. Its waters are to be taken 
from an immense reservoir constructed in the 
bed of the Purgatoire River, better known as 
the Picketwire. In the clefts of the rocks bor¬ 
dering the banks of that river the Indians used 
