National Historic Sites - Colorado

Amache National Historic Site

Not visited.

Bents Old Fort National Historic Site

9/25/2004 Headed south then east through La Junta to Bent’s Old Fort NHS [NHL; this site is also on the Santa Fe NHT in CO]. Quick look in the visitor center, then walked a short way to the reconstructed fort. This is an adobe combination fort and trading post. The fort was the point of contact between Americans, Mexican and many Indian tribes. The reconstruction is excellent – many of the rooms fully outfitted (carpenter, living quarters, dining room, kitchen), horses and other animals, etc. Good guides dressed up in period costume.

The park sign

A long view of the fort ...

... and the interior

Shade area

Lots of cool details

Nice reconstruction of a post store

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site

10/4/2012 Long drive east and a little south (the last 8 miles on dirt) to Sand Creek Massacre NHS. Chatted with a nice ranger outside the trailer VC and learned about the site. This site commemorates the 1864 attack by Colorado volunteer soldiers attacked on an encampment of over 500 people where many Indians, especially women and children, were killed and wounded by artillery fire. I put on a sweatshirt and jacket and hiked 3/4 mile up to a nice viewpoint of the massacre site, which is both sacred and an archeological area. After reading the interpretive signs, back down and on the road east ...

The park sign

A panorama of the massacre site

A formal memorial ...

... and one less formal

Me at the site