Celebración en el Fuerte! – Hispanic Heritage Day at Bent’s Old Fort

Trader Camp at Bent’s Old Fort

The public is invited to join the denizens of Bent’s Old Fort on Saturday, September 15 to celebrate the Hispanic heritage of this reconstructed trading post on the Santa Fe Trail. The event will feature living history, presentations on Hispanic merchants and cowboys, and an 1840s-style fandango in the fort plaza.

Bent’s Holiday Celebration

Philip St. George Cooke, leader of the Mormon Battalion and visitor to the post in 1846, remarked that “Spanish is the prevailing language spoken at the fort” and Hispanos were integral to the operation of the post from maintaining the adobe to breaking livestock to serving as translators and traders. Many of the merchants traveling the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and Mexico were Hispanic.

Living history, including adobe work, cooking, retablo painting, blacksmithing, and a cibolero (buffalo hunter) will be ongoing from 9 am to 4 pm. Horno cooking demonstrations will take place from 10 am to 3 pm in the side corral of the fort.

Special presentations will take place in the fort’s Wagon Shed through the day:

9:30 am: Dr. Susan Calafate Boyle, Historian and Author: Comerciantes y Modistas: Hispanos, Trails & Commerce in the 19th Century

10:30 am: Angel Vigil, former Fine and Performing Arts Instructor, Colorado Academy and Colorado Heritage Artist storyteller:  El Vaquero, America’s First Cowboy

11:30 am: Ellen Jones, Park Ranger, Fort Larned National Historic Site: Hispanic Traders on the Santa Fe Trail

1:30 pm: Dr. Susan Calafate Boyle, Historian and Author: The Art of the Arrieros: Pack Transportation in Western North America

2:30 pm: Angel Vigil, former Fine and Performing Arts Instructor, Colorado Academy and Colorado Heritage Artist storyteller:  Whip Cracking and Rope Tricks Workshop (in the back corral, just outside the wagon shed)

3:30 pm: Ellen Jones, Park Ranger, Fort Larned National Historic Site: Hispanic Traders on the Santa Fe Trail

The day will culminate with a fandango in the fort plaza from 5 pm to 7 pm presented by Dr. Lorenzo Trujillo and the Southwest Musicians. This group specializes in music from 19th-century northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.  The fandango is meant to be very participatory and the musicians will lead those attending through the dances of the period.

Hispanic Heritage Day at Bent’s Old Fort is part of the National Park Service’s recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month which runs annually from September 15 to October 15. September 15 marks the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.  Mexico celebrates its independence on September 16.

The park will charge a special event fee for Hispanic Heritage Day. The fee for this full day of activities is only $5.00 for visitors 13 and older and $2.00 for ages 6 to 12.  Kids 5 and under are free.   National Park Passes are honored for this fee.  Fees will be collected at the fort entrance.

Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site is located on Colorado Highway 194, 8 miles east of La Junta or 15 miles west of Las Animas.   For more information, call the park at (719) 383-5010.