Note II-39 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: FROM THE PAWNEE VILLAGE THROUGH KANSAS AND COLORADO TO PIKE'S PEAK, OCT. 1ST-NOV. 30TH, 1806.

The mileage hardly requires any adjustment, from the position I have assigned for the 16th, to set camp of the 17th in the close vicinity of Rocky Ford, a village and station on the railroad, where Pike remains on the 18th and 19th. Rocky Ford is 5 m. above Timpas cr. (which he charts as the first stream from the left above his "1st Fork"). Timpas or Timpa is a large creek which heads in Las Animas Co. and runs N. N. E. into the Arkansaw at the upper point of that very large island above La Junta.

The most notable point passed to-day is the historic site of Bent's old fort, on the N. bank of the Arkansaw, 7 or 8 m. E. of the Timpas. It was a position of great consequence in the days of staging from Fort Leavenworth and other points on the Missouri to Taos, Santa Fé, and other New Mexican places. Most of the early itineraries, both commercial and military, speak of Bent's fort, and the advantages of this location for a post were more than once urged upon the attention of the War Department. It was on an emigrant road, in the heart of an Indian country overrun with various tribes; was a sort of focus for several widely divergent termini; was in the vicinity of good building material, and had plenty of fuel, grass, and water. Mr. Bent himself destroyed it in 1849, when he abandoned it for sufficient reasons; but some of the chimneys and adobe walls long stood to mark the spot. Thus it was Bent's "old" fort when I passed by, about 30 years ago. Gregg's, Wislizenus', and in fact most maps of the period mark the fort, some of them giving also a certain Fort William alongside it. The structure is described as "quite complete" by Lieut. J. W. Abert, who was here in August, 1846, at which time he met such noted plainsmen as Capt. Walker of California renown, Marcellus St. Vrain, and "Bill" Garey. Col. Price's regiment was here about the same time. The several columns of Gen. S. W. Kearny's Army of the West, which invaded and subjugated New Mexico and California, coming from Fort Leavenworth by the Arkansaw route, concentrated in camp a few miles below the fort, Aug. 1st, 1846. Kit Carson knew the place well, and Frémont found him not far away from here in July, 1843. A view of Bent's fort as it appeared in 1846 is given by John T. Hughes, in his admirable Doniphan's Expedition, 8vo, Cincinnati, 1847, p. 35. The old route into Santa Fé left the Arkansaw close by Bent's fort, went S. W. between Purgatory r. and Timpas cr., struck the latter at a place then as now called Iron Springs, and so on through the Raton mts., not very different from the way the A., T., and S. F. R. R. now takes. A glimpse at the kind of a road this used to be is had from the following extract from my diary: "Tuesday, June 7th, 1864. Bent's old fort. Cold ride in the rain from 3 a. m. to 5 p. m., when we brought up at the fort. Here was our crossing of the Arkansaw. Recent hard rains made the river unfordable; so we had to ferry ourselves over the surging tide in a frail skiff—ticklish business. However, we got safe across, with all our worldly goods—the latter nothing to speak of, and stood shivering while the ramshackled hack that met us on the other side was loaded and hitched up. This storm and the ferriage began a series of mishaps that reached to Fort Stanton in New Mexico, and made the driver swear that 'the grace of God had petered out on the other side of the Arkansaw.' Kept on to Iron Springs; road miry, pace snaily."

The name of Bent's Fort is preserved as that of a place nearly opposite (a little above) the present station Robinson, which latter is exactly on the boundary between Bent and Otero cos. Above this is La Junta, on the S., seat of the county. Several creeks fall in on the S. along here, the largest one of them named Crooked cr.