Fort Vasquez

The two objects here disagree on when the fort went up: the 1932 bronze says 1837, the carved board beside it 1835, and the historians side with the board. What stands is not the 1835 fort either. By 1932 only a few feet of wall footings were left; the Platteville Community Club led a rebuild, Works Progress Administration crews raised new adobe walls on the site, and some 2,000 people came to the dedication in August 1937. Archaeologists digging here from the late 1960s found the crews had destroyed parts of the original in preparing the ground.

What the plaque says

This memorial is the property of the State of Colorado Fort Vasquez Established in 1837 by Louis Vasquez and Andrew W. Sublette Maintained until 1842 as a post for trade in buffalo robes and beaver skins with Arapahoes and Cheyennes. Rendezvous of early trappers. Emigrant station on Platte River trail after gold rush of 1859. Erected by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation and by State Civil Service Employees of Colorado 1932 Fort Vasquez In this area along the South Platte River, competing fur companies in the late 1830's established a string of four adobe trading posts--Fort Vasquez, Fort St. Vrain, Fort Jackson, and Fort Lupton traversed by the old trappers' trail which connected Fort Bent on the Arkansas with Fort Laramie on the North Platte, this country of wide horizons was the commercial center of a vast region. Here trappers, traders and Indians bartered calico, knives and beads for buffalo robes and beaver skins. Built in 1835 by Louis Vasques (later partner of Jim Bridger) and Andrew Sublette, this fort once was flanked by the South Platte River. In the spring of 1840 a Mackinaw boat was launched here loaded with 700 buffalo robes and 400 buffalo tongues. It reached St. Louis in 69 days. Abandoned in 1842, the fort was ransacked by Indians. Later partly restored, it sheltered gold rush emigrants and troops during Indian troubles. Fort Vasquez was reconstructed on its original site from adobe bricks made from remains of its crumbling walls. Weld County's so-called first court house stands near the gate.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Chautauqua — 28 mi
  A summer school for Texas teachers that Boulder built in under eight weeks in 1898, still running at the foot of the Flatirons.

More markers nearby

• Fort Lupton — 6.6 mi
• Fort Junction — 8.6 mi
• Evans — 14 mi
• Namaqua — 21 mi