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Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Old Fort Bent. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Old Fort Bent to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Old Fort Bent, please Contact Us.

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Old Fort Bent (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Old Fort Bent. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Name Variations for Old Fort Bent ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Old Fort Bent: Old Ft. Bent (or less commonly used: Old Frt. Bent)

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Although our information shows that the community of Old Fort Bent is historic, it would have been located within present day Otero County.

To see how the shape of Colorado's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Otero County: Bent, Crowley, Kiowa, Las Animas & Pueblo.

Below are the counties that are near Old Fort Bent. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Old Fort Bent:

  • Otero County     (The home county of Old Fort Bent)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Old Fort Bent, with the one closest to Old Fort Bent listed first.
    • La Junta Village
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Junta Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Junta Village
      • La Junta Village is located in Otero County
    • Cheraw
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • La Junta
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Swink
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swink have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swink
      • Swink is located in Otero County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 595 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Swink <3>
    • Hawley
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hawley
      • Hawley is located in Otero County
    • Rocky Ford
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rocky Ford have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Ford
      • Rocky Ford is located in Otero County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,806 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rocky Ford <3>
    • Higbee
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Higbee have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Higbee
      • Higbee is located in Otero County
    • Manzanola
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Manzanola have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manzanola
      • Manzanola is located in Otero County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 410 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Manzanola <3>
  • Bent County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Old Fort Bent, with the one closest to Old Fort Bent listed first.
    • Las Animas
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Fort Lyon
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fort Lyon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Lyon
      • Fort Lyon is located in Bent County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fort Lyon <3>
    • Caddoa ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Caddoa have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caddoa
      • Caddoa is located in Bent County
    • Hasty
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Ninaview
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ninaview have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ninaview
      • Ninaview is located in Bent County
  • Crowley County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Old Fort Bent, with the one closest to Old Fort Bent listed first.
    • Sugar City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sugar City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sugar City
      • Sugar City is located in Crowley County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 244 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sugar City <3>
    • Ordway
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ordway have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ordway
      • Ordway is located in Crowley County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,013 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ordway <3>
    • Crowley
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Olney Springs
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Olney Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olney Springs
      • Olney Springs is located in Crowley County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 325 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Olney Springs <3>
  • Kiowa County
    • Arlington
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Arlington have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arlington
      • Arlington is located in Kiowa County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Arlington <3>

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Old Fort Bent, see our County-by-County Page for Old Fort Bent.

Newspapers Published in Old Fort Bent ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 26 newspapers that have been published in the area around Old Fort Bent.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Old Fort Bent, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Old Fort Bent.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Old Fort Bent:

Cemeteries Near Old Fort Bent ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Old Fort Bent.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Old Fort Bent covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Old Fort Bent, with the one closest to Old Fort Bent listed first.

  • St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery
  • Holbrook Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Holbrook Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Holbrook Cemetery
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fairview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairview Cemetery
  • Otero County Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Otero County Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Otero County Cemetery
  • Las Animas Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Las Animas Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Las Animas Cemetery
  • Hillcrest Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hillcrest Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hillcrest Cemetery
  • Valley View Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Valley View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Valley View Cemetery
  • Ft. Lyon National Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ft. Lyon National Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ft. Lyon National Cemetery
  • Lakeview Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lakeview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lakeview Cemetery
  • Higbee Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Higbee Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Higbee Cemetery
  • Arlington Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Arlington Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Arlington Cemetery
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • Martinez Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Martinez Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Martinez Cemetery
    • San Jose Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the San Jose Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the San Jose Cemetery
    • Valley View Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Valley View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Valley View Cemetery

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.

While we didn't find Old Fort Bent in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Old Fort Bent.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Old Fort Bent, with the one closest to Old Fort Bent listed first.

  • La Junta
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Las Animas
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Benton
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Benton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benton
    • Benton is located in Otero County
  • Rocky Ford
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rocky Ford have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Ford
    • Rocky Ford is located in Otero County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,806 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rocky Ford <3>
  • Higbee
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Higbee have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Higbee
    • Higbee is located in Otero County
  • Hilton
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hilton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hilton
    • Hilton is located in Bent County
  • Arlington
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Arlington have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arlington
    • Arlington is located in Kiowa County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Arlington <3>
  • Timpas
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Timpas have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timpas
    • Timpas is located in Otero County
  • Caddoa ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Caddoa have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caddoa
    • Caddoa is located in Bent County

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Old Fort Bent. See our List of 1890's Communities around Old Fort Bent.

The official website for State of Colorado: https://www.colorado.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Old Fort Bent, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Old Fort Bent) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Old Fort Bent. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.0406, Longitude: -103.4294       In this case, the coordinates for Old Fort Bent have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024