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A long day of driving, but punctuated with a couple short stops at Forts along the old Sante Fe trail in Kansas and Colorado.
First stop was Fort Larned National Historic Site, near Larned, KS. This fort had original buildings from the fort built in the 1860's. No stockade or outer wall was ever built due to wood shortages on the prairie, so it seemed a bit odd to call it a fort.
In contrast, we stopped at Old Fort Bent National Historic Site near La Junta, CO. Bent is a complete reconstruction, the only original portion is the kitchen mantle, and it was built as an adobe walled fort. It was reconstructed on the original site 1/4 mile from the Arkansas River, which in 1846 was the border with Mexico. This fort, although privately owned by traders, was a key outpost during the Mexican-American War. See the attached picture to this blog.
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