Big Timbers is a wooded riparian area in Colorado along both banks of the Arkansas River that is famous as a campsite for Native American tribes and travelers on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail.
Big Timbers along the Arkansas River. An illustration from Richard Irving Dodge (1883). Our Wild Indians; Thirty-three Years' Personal Experience Among the Red Men of the Great West
The only surviving daguerreotype from Solomon Nunes Carvalho's journey West in 1853 depicts a view of the Cheyenne village at Big Timbers. A pair of figures stand to the left; drying hides hang on the right. Courtesy of Library of Congress.
Plaque erected by Prowers County Historical Society at Big Timbers Museum, Lamar, Colorado
Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site
Bent's Old Fort is a fort located in Otero County in southeastern Colorado, United States. A company owned by Charles Bent and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built the fort in 1833 to trade with Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Plains Indians and trappers for buffalo robes. For much of its 16-year history, the fort was the only major white American permanent settlement on the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and the Mexican settlements. It was destroyed in 1849.
Bent's Old Fort
Approach to Bent's Old Fort, Colorado. Wetlands protecting the north trail.
Bent's Old Fort, Lower Level Plan
Bent's Old Fort entrance sign in Otero County, Colorado
