After storage business in Pueblo we headed east on US-50. West of the Rockies this two-lane shunpike still evokes its reputation as America's Loneliest Highway. East of Colorado's front range, however, small towns adorn the road like charms on a bracelet. Baxter, Devine, Avondale, Fowler, Manzanola, Rocky Ford, Swink, La Junta.
I've driven past the sign a number of times in recent years. This trip I made a point of stopping to check something out. Bent's Old Fort is a National Historic Site operated by NPS.
Charles and William Bent were brothers from Missouri during Frontier America. In 1833 they opened a trading post along the Santa Fe Trail near the international border. Back then the Arkansas River delineated the boundary between the US and Mexico.
Good, bad or ugly, our frontier past is marked by beginnings of ends of sorts. Fur trading was big business. Great herds of bison were like Walmart Supercenters of the prairie. One stop shopping for food and clothes.
Alas, it's a sadly typical story of short gain, long loss. Unbridled profiteering, competition and exploitation changed the game. Forever.
The fort remains, reconstructed, and appropriately, lonely.
It's still photogenic.
In a ghostly sort of way.
Almost as if folks just walked away.
How much did they think about their legacy?
I wonder.
