Last updated: November 5, 2024
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Livestock at Bent's Old Fort
Historically, Bent, St. Vrain & Company was dependent upon domestic stock for its very existence. Draft animals were used to maintain a constant exchange with major trade centers and widely scattered outposts. Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry provided a steady supply of food for the fort employees, as well as for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail.
At certain times of the year vast herds of animals could be seen near the fort walls. One observer reported on the spectacle of several hundred grazing horses, mules, and oxen being brought in to the relative security of the corral for the night. Other travelers noted the sounds and smells of the livestock.
Within the societies of Plains Tribes, wealth was often measured in terms of horses owned. Tremendous prestige was bestowed upon individuals who were successful in capturing, trading for, or stealing horses and mules.
The breeding and use of oxen, horses, mules, and donkeys as draft or pack animals in Nuevo México and the United States was critical to freighting goods and thus, to commercial success.
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Horses
As a center of trade, it is likely the fort would have seen a variety of animal types. Plains Indians were constantly on the watch for prime horse flesh, and probably introduced a large number of stolen stock into the fort's herds. Typically, horses and mules from the south displayed both a fierro, or large brand, and a venta, a sale-brand. Especially fond of their livestock, the New Mexican cultures were always critical of extranjeros mounted upon or trading for branded animals.
As horsemen, the surrounding tribes had been involved in the theft, trade and capture of horses for many years. On one occasion, Yellow Wolf a Cheyenne Chief presented a fine Comanche horse to William Bent.
The typical "Indian pony" was apparently an agglomeration of European, Asiatic, and Hispano-American breeds. Various terms, among them, cayuse, mustang, and pinto have been used to describe these rugged, hang-dog appearing horses. While travelling near the South Platte River in 1820, Edwin James of the Stephen Long Expedition, recorded seeing "...about thirty wild horses..." Describing them as descendants of domesticated Spanish stock”, James found them to be "...of various colors, and all sizes, there being many colts, and some mules, among them."
Lewis Garrard, the teen chronicler of Bent's Fort, paid $50.00 for a horse he described as "...fanciful color, brown and white spots, and white eyes, ... designated, by the descriptive though not euphonious name of Paint." Alexander Barclay, the English born clerk of stores at Bent's Fort left several written accounts of horses. While operating west of the fort, up the Arkansas Valley, Mr. Barclay mentions going into the "...hills and killed goat at sundown on paint horse." Barclay also owned a pacing horse, which he once acknowledged as riding "like a rocking chair."
To many, the New Mexican vaqueros were considered a race of centaurs, a natural group of horsemen equally adept in the handling of caballo, mulo, or burro. Josiah Gregg referred to native Mexican horses as mustangs, categorizing the general stock as "...very small, they are quick, active and spirited ... as hardy and long-lived as any other race in existence." The Hispanos of northern México enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as exceptional horsemen and muleteers. Isaac Cooper commented that even the “Comanches themselves cannot excel them” in their “daring and seldom unsuccessful equestrianism.”
Isaac Cooper, alias Francois des Montaignes, while at Bent's Fort in 1845, mentioned the horses he saw as "...mostly Indian and Spanish, very few American, whilst the mules are entirely Spanish." Cooper described New Mexico as a country producing "...thousands of healthy strong mules ... extensively purchased and used for many purposes..." In addition, Mr. Cooper thought the Mexican herds to be inferior when "...compared with the American horse in size,-beauty-or vitality. However those which I saw, were clean limbed and very well proportioned: yet they are light ..."
Horses bred in the United States, "American horses", were severely effected by harsh prairie conditions. Mosquitoes, reduced winter forage, a cottonwood bark diet, and the extremes of the western climate would often leave these animals in a destitute condition. However, many also felt that horses bred upon the prairies, mostly descendants of stock traded or stolen after the Pueblo Revolt in 1680, "...lacked the size, bone, and general conformation of an American saddler..." Winter hardships and years of indiscriminate breeding had made this horse "...small, tough, deer-legged, big-barreled, with mulish hocks, (and) slanting quarters..."
The "American horses" to which Mr. Cooper refers were most probably riding stock brought onto the prairies by citizens of the United States. Generally regarded as saddle horses, these animals were descended from a mixed bag of Thoroughbred, Arabian, Morgan, and Standard bred sires.
Throughout colonial times, the dominant breeding center for American horses was Virginia. Slowly, the influence of the "Old Dominion" spread into Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. Historically, the United States was also home to a number of Heavy Harness, Draft, and Military horses. It should be noted that such popular breeds as the Belgiums and the Clydesdales were not imported into the U.S. prior to 1866-1870.
Mules
Before 1830, a tremendous mule industry had begun to develop at both ends of the Santa Fe Trail. In Missouri, the introduction of Mexican jacks helped produce a unique and strong working mule. In New Mexico, the "atajo" or mule train was easily recognized. With the familiar Mulera/Madrina or bell mare leading the way, these smallish but tough strings of animals were especially useful while crossing the sandy jornadas and the rugged peaks of the Southwest. It may be said that "...this animal (the Mule) is in fact to the Mexican, what the camel has always been to the Arab-invaluable..."
Randolph Marcy, in his classic handbook The Prairie Traveler flatly states that "In our trips across the Rocky Mountains we had both American and Mexican mules, ... for many days they were reduced to a meager allowance of dry grass, ... while their work in the deep snow was exceedingly severe ... This soon told upon the American mules, and all of them, with the exception of two, died, while the Mexican mules went through. The result was perfectly conclusive."
Mules were tough, often taking the place of horses. Many preferred to ride a mule in rough country. Accounts tell of William Bent astride his favorite black mule riding “hell-bent-for-election” after some raiding Comanches. He could have afforded the best horse available but chose a mule.
Thousands of mules were sent back to Missouri by the Bents each year. Most came from Nuevo México, purchased from the Indians who stole them from the Mexicans. Others were purchased from haciendas, or captured from the wild herds. Mules were predominantly black and of medium size. Some were used as pack animals and for pulling freight wagons, but most of Bent’s mules were sent east to market and sold to the Army for riding or pulling wagons.
The army traded their worn animals at the fort after the long haul from “the States.” In 1846, Lt. James Abert wrote, “Captain Walker has some 60 head of mules and he will doubtless dispose of them with great advantage to these Volunteers, many of whose horses are completely broken down, and their owners, now fatiqued with marching on foot, will not stand upon trifles at the price of a fresh animal.”
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Cattle and Oxen
Cattle were a major source of income for the Bent’s. In 1846 William Bent had an order for five hundred “beeves” from the Army. He purchased Spanish cattle, black, brown and red, from Nuevo México. These Mexican cattle were the broad heavy-horned type that could also be trained and used as oxen.
The Bent’s would trade one good ox for two worn out ones, which would be put out to pasture for fattening and then traded to later travelers. The same system was used for mules and horses. The Indians did not like oxen to eat so they were generally not stolen enroute.
Milk cows were important at the fort for milk, cheese and butter. In 1845 fort employee, Alexander Barclay, wrote that the fort had twelve milk cows and about thirty others that could be sold.
Oxen are emasculated bulls trained to work in pairs from the day they are born. Oxen can be any breed of cattle. The recollections of T.C. Hall, who had travelled the Santa Fe Trail, mentions oxen "of every character and description-some of them very small, but having horns of such immense size, that we boys used to say that the meat of the steer could be packed in his horns." There are several references to cows at Bent's Fort. Barclay mentions "...plenty of milk, as there were four cows..." at the post. Doctor Wislizenus, while at the fort said "... they (Bent. and St. Vrain) have cattle..." Alexander Barclay, after leaving the employ of Bent's Fort, was instrumental in establishing agriculture and livestock production in the Arkansas Valley. He was an inhabitant at both the El Pueblo and Hardscrabble communities.
Bison
Bison, commonly known as buffalo, were obviously a vital part of the fort’s business as both a food source and commodity for the robe trade), but they also were part of the post’s livestock. Matt Field wrote in 1839, “At Fort William we saw two buffalo calves grazing with the domestic cattle, and displaying no indication whatever at discontent at the situation. The poor cow, however, was obliged to be tied before the little buffaloes could get nutriment from her, for they had an ungentle fashion of handling the udder which she considered somewhat unusual.”Dick Wooten, a hunter for Bent’s Fort, "came across twin buffalo calves whose mother had been killed by the hunters. The gentle little creatures followed him back to the fort, where he put them to suck on a good-natured milk cow.”
“The east wall of the fort stuck out at an angle enclosing a pie-shaped yard for poultry, cows, sheep and goats, and for various tamed creatures of the plains – a white bear, two or three buffalo calves, and cages of wild birds” according to an interview with Nicholas “Cheyenne” Dawson as quoted in Janet LeCompte’s Pueblo, Hardscrabble, and Greenhorn.
Buffalo calves were found in most outposts in the West including Fort Leche, and others. At Bent’s Fort it was not unusual for the hunters to bring home the calf after shooting a buffalo cow. Once raised, some buffalo were even taken east with the cattle to sell as a curiosity. Others were slaughtered at the fort for the meat which was considered far tastier than beef.
Sheep
In the 1840s sheep were an increasing financial factor for the fort and the eastern markets. The Bents shipped hundreds back east to St. Louis every year. Mutton was also eaten at the fort. The sheep were raised mostly near Taos by Bent, St. Vrain & Company’s Mexican herders. They were taken to Bent’s Fort at the time the wagon trains were formed up to head east. Sheep could often be seen grazing on the south bank (Mexican side) of the Arkansas River.
Sheep were of little interest to Plains Tribes so were fairly safe to herd east. They were probably of Spanish origin. The Churro Sheep, introduced into New Mexico before 1550, became the standard breed of the southwest. Purebred Merino rams were not brought to the areas of Santa Fe and Taos until 1859.
On his journey across the plains in 1839, F. A. Wislizenus, M.D., noted that he saw “… sheep and goats …” at the fort. Alexander Barclay, fort clerk, wrote that sheep were plentiful “in the Spanish Country…” and he suspected that several would soon be purchased.
Large numbers of sheep bones excavated at Bent's Fort provides absolute proof that sheep, perhaps even several different breeds, were once at the fort.
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Poultry and Peacocks
George Grinnell, whose information on Bent's Fort came primarily from George Bent and the memories of other Southern Cheyennes, once wrote that several peacocks were at the fort, and that their "...plummage and harsh voices astonished and more or less alarmed the Indians, who called them thunder birds, nun-um'a-e-vi-kis."
Grinnell also noted that "The post was abundantly supplied with poultry, for pigeons, chickens and turkeys had been brought out there and bred and did well."
Alexander Barclay, writing from Bent's Fort before 1840, suggested that the arrival of "...about thirty chickens" would help to improve the fort's rather mundane daily cuisine. In addition, Wislizenus noted that the fort's ample courtyard had "...many barnyard fowl."
The history of the chicken industry within the United States suggests that prior to 1850 there was little interest in improving the methods of poultry production. However, mention of artificial hatching and incubation first appeared in the U.S. in 1843 and 1847.
Chicken breeds at Bent's Fort may have included a mix of Mediterranean leghorns and other "Spanish" fowl with distinctly American varieties of Dominiques, Rhode Island Reds, and Barred Rocks. It is also interesting to note that Barclay mentioned "four turkeys" at Bent's Fort. Taken within the context of Barclay's writings, it is very clear that he was referring to domestic rather than wild birds.
The turkeys of which Barclay writes were descendants of Mexican fowl, possibly crossed with English game birds. These domesticated turkeys had lost much of the agility and brilliancy of colors that are a trademark of their wild progenitors.