Last updated: June 13, 2024
Place
Watchtower
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Amenities
2 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit
This feature does not show up in sketches done prior to 1845.
The construction of northeast rooms made the addition of a watchtower possible and also extended the upper banquette along the entire north wall. These additions were a defensive response to the Annexation of Texas and the impending Mexican War.
Lewis Garrard wrote that the belfry contained "...two eagles" [that] "...looked out from their prison." The historian Grinnell commented further by stating "Two tame, whiteheaded eagles kept at the fort were sometimes confined in this belfry...."
The practice of eagle catching was widespread among the Plains Indians. The Cheyennes were regarded as expert and frequently made eagle pits of earth and stone during the Spring or Fall. The birds at Bent's Old Fort may have come from Ridge Bear's family or old Red Wolf, the last great Cheyenne eagle catchers. It is believed that the bell hanging herein was rung to announce meals. The sketches of James Abert show at least one window, and his measurements give the width of the watchtower as 11.6 ft.
According the George Bent, the watchtower was "...built over the big gate..."[and] "...had a fine telescope" inside. The back two-thirds of a brass telescope was found amid burned wooden beams near the northeast corner of the fort. When unearthed, the brass was brittle and fragmented. The forward third of this telescope was donated to Bent's Old Fort by an elderly woman who had uncovered it at the site when she was a child.
The construction of northeast rooms made the addition of a watchtower possible and also extended the upper banquette along the entire north wall. These additions were a defensive response to the Annexation of Texas and the impending Mexican War.
Lewis Garrard wrote that the belfry contained "...two eagles" [that] "...looked out from their prison." The historian Grinnell commented further by stating "Two tame, whiteheaded eagles kept at the fort were sometimes confined in this belfry...."
The practice of eagle catching was widespread among the Plains Indians. The Cheyennes were regarded as expert and frequently made eagle pits of earth and stone during the Spring or Fall. The birds at Bent's Old Fort may have come from Ridge Bear's family or old Red Wolf, the last great Cheyenne eagle catchers. It is believed that the bell hanging herein was rung to announce meals. The sketches of James Abert show at least one window, and his measurements give the width of the watchtower as 11.6 ft.
According the George Bent, the watchtower was "...built over the big gate..."[and] "...had a fine telescope" inside. The back two-thirds of a brass telescope was found amid burned wooden beams near the northeast corner of the fort. When unearthed, the brass was brittle and fragmented. The forward third of this telescope was donated to Bent's Old Fort by an elderly woman who had uncovered it at the site when she was a child.