On Colorado’s southeast plains, a relic of the Old West could be significantly rehabilitated or rebuilt. Or some of the adobe building could be retained or all of it torn down, with only a marked “footprint” between trails, signs and exhibits telling of a bustling trading post that rose here in 1833. 

These are possibilities for the future of Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site near La Junta.

The National Park Service recently announced four “early concepts” and invited people to review them and comment on a project webpage. 

“Dedicated in July 1976, the replica fort was constructed using a hybrid of noncompatible materials,” the webpage explains. “This began 50 years of patchwork repairs and unsustainable maintenance.”

In the past 30 years, officials estimate more than $15 million has been spent toward upkeep. And in the past few years, concerns have led to a different experience at Bent’s Old Fort.

Where visitors once moved freely between the corral, plaza and rooms, several areas deemed at risk of collapse have been closed. 

“A major snowstorm” in 2024 “revealed much larger condition issues and deeper structural flaws,” Superintendent Eric Leonard said during an August presentation to the La Junta Tourism Board, which has tracked $1.1 million in annual local economic impact from Bent’s Old Fort in years prior to the closures that dropped traffic. 

“After a rainstorm or after a snowstorm, I kind of wince, because we don’t really know what the building will do,” Leonard added during the presentation. “It has proven deeply susceptible to moisture. And that started before the building was dedicated in 1976.” 

It was dedicated to honor “one of the state’s most significant historic landmarks,” as Colorado Preservation Inc. called Bent’s Old Fort earlier this year in placing it on the state’s Most Endangered Places list, while referring to “ad hoc” jobs Leonard mentioned: “The fort incorporates compressed dirt, wood, plaster, concrete and composites, all aging differently and making repairs increasingly complex.”

The History Colorado-linked agency’s “endangered” listing concludes: “Bent’s Fort is truly part of the fabric of our state and country, and it is essential to preserve.”

The original fort beside the Arkansas River where travelers, trappers and tribal people converged was abandoned after the Mexican-American War in 1849. What ruins remained were obliterated by the great flood of 1921, according to Leonard’s recent presentation.

In the 1960s, reconstruction plans hatched. “It was clear that reconstruction would still be highly conjectural,” Leonard said ー and highly controversial.

“Within the National Park Service, this debate is so extreme that the director of the National Park Service, George Hartzog, pauses development, pulls all the money in 1965 and says this thing needs more studying,” Leonard said. 

Reconstruction demands prevailed in 1976. 

Now, 50 years later, another debate is beginning. 

At the La Junta Tourism Board meeting, some echoed Judy Hensley, among longtime volunteers at Bent’s Old Fort in attendance. 

“I very strongly hope that we do get Bent’s Fort back,” she said, alluding to the closures and visitation drops in recent years. “I want it to be time travel; I want to be back in 1835, seeing the fort as close as we can the way it was.”

If extensively rehabilitated or reconstructed, Leonard indicated the building’s historic appearance would be “altered” or “compromised” by modern materials. This would be in an effort “to address long-standing code and life safety requirements,” he said.

Such a project has been estimated between $30 million and $40 million. That “would leave few resources for any meaningful investments in other improvements within the park,” Leonard said. 

The other three concepts have been estimated between $5 million and $20 million. 

One is being called “Beyond the Walls,” which would aim to “retain and rehabilitate selected portions of the replica (fort) while reducing its physical and operational footprint.” The concept would also “improve interpretation and access throughout the broader historic landscape,” similar to other concepts proposed.

Similarly, trails around the 800-acre preserve and “sensory and recreational activities” accompany the “Activated Frame” concept, which envisions “a contemporary interpretive structure within the historic fort footprint.” 

A fourth concept, “The Eras,” foresees removing the building, marking the footprint “through low walls, paving, wireframes or other landscape features and creating amenities that tell the fort’s story through time.”

At the tourism board meeting, some sounded interested in another concept: Could Bent’s Old Fort shift from the National Park Service to local ownership? 

“I think there’d be a lot of possibility in that,” said Larry Bourne, the president of the Bent’s Fort Chapter of the Santa Fe Trail Association, who said his group was “very concerned” about the future of the fort.

Another concerned local asked Leonard about collaboration with the state. 

“Those negotiations and those consultations are ongoing,” the park superintendent said, while pointing to a “hot potato era” of state control in the ’50s: “The state almost immediately realized they did not have the resources to manage the site in the way people were expecting.” 

Nor does the National Park Service, suggested Greg Holt, who said he worked for decades at Bent’s Old Fort. “It’s very disturbing to me that maintenance has not been upheld,” he said. 

But a man who identified himself as a distant grandson of the fort’s namesake struck a hopeful tone at the tourism board meeting. “I am optimistic by this presentation,” he said to Leonard. “I am optimistic, and I’m thankful for that.” 

Leonard emphasized proposals were “very early and not final architectural designs,” adding: “The National Park Service has not selected a preferred” concept. “Facility investments at this scale take time, and we want to be thoughtful and deliberate in weighing our options.”

Comments can be submitted through Oct. 23 and documents viewed at the project webpage: tinyurl.com/msxvnk4j.