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    Bent's Old Fort

    National Historic Site Colorado

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  • Events and activities subject to change

    The public should be prepared for reduced hours and services provided by Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site employees due to the sequestration that became effective March 1, 2013. Please check back often for further details or changes.

Volunteer

Park Volunteers at Work
During fiscal year 2012, 140 volunteers from 10 states provided 5,200 hours of work in a variety of ways. One-hundred volunteers assisted with special events including the "Holiday Celebration", "Fur Trade Encampment", "Hispanic Heritage Celebration", "Kid's Quarters", "Wagons Ho!", and the "Fourth of July" events. Living historians portrayed Plains Indians, explorers, fur trade era traders, teamsters, craftsmen, laborers, domestic cooks, trappers, and the Army. Volunteers worked in fee collection and retail sales in Western National Park's bookstore and with natural resource projects such as survey of the bird population, weed control, and data logging.

This was the 11th year of Trails and Rails trips aboard Amtrak's Southwest Chief managed out of Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. Thirty-0ne volunteers presented 68 programs on the La Junta, Colorado to Albuquerque, New Mexico route. Programs began in May and lasted through part of September. Natural and cultural features including the Santa Fe Trail was interpreted along the route. The program was extremely well received by thousdands of travelers. It was a very successful season, carrying the NPS message to many who would otherwise be missed. Contact Greg Holt at (719)383-5023 for more information about volunteer opportunities.

Click here for a list of volunteers known to have volunteered at the park and the total number of their volunteer hours as September 30, 2012.

Click here for 2012 volunteer hours.

Did You Know?

Women cleaing chickens for cooking

The first white woman didn’t arrive at Bent’s Fort until 1846, 13 years after its establishment.  Unlike the Oregon Trail, the Santa Fe Trail was basically a freight road, men driving freight wagons. That started to change after the Mexican War when New Mexico became U.S. territory.