Saturday, August 6, 2016

Old Bent's Fort

In 1983, or maybe 84, I attended a four day "live-in" history program at Old Bent's Fort. Returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak, I relived my one time of eating liver, drinking a 1848 Madeira wine, and freezing my butt walking guard duty from 2-4 am in March on the Colorado plains. The park attempted to have us relive conditions "as was" in the late 1840s.


The liver came from a young cow buffalo (bison in modern language) that Sam Arnold, owner of The Fort restaurant (Morrison, CO), prepared in a way that I all but enjoyed it. The fact that we started work at 6 am and the first meal was at 10 am might have had something to do with it. Not that food is of much interest to me.


I was part of the craftsman group, blacksmithing and woodworking. One morning I got to play with a team of Belgian workhorses (that where they said they were from). If you see that as romantic go find a set of workhorse harnesses and carry them around for awhile being careful to not let the brutes step on your toes.




If you work hard you play hard, stands to reason. Under the cover is a pool table which was an oddity for the frontier. The other items in the room should require no explanation. One of the trappers was forced to take THE PLEDGE.


The fur press in the center of the courtyard.


The upper area. The room with the pool table is in the center. Other areas are quarters for officers (military and civilian) and guests.


There were three costumed interpreters on duty during our visit. They were very good but I remembered five of us in the shops, half a dozen trappers lounging in the sun, and three underappreciated people working in the kitchen. That was the participants. Many of the fort staff joined in including the site superintendent. It did not approach what was daily life in 1848 but it brought life to the place. On Sunday, they slaughtered chickens in the courtyard for our dinner.  Now that is history!

There were a couple of chickens there but they seemed to avoid me. These other characters did not seem as shy.




I kid you not it was COLD that night,




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