Purpose, Significance Statements, Fundamental Resources and Values, and Interpretive Themes

A traditional ledger art style drawing of Bent’s Old Fort illustrates Cheyenne people interacting with traders and others at the fort.

NPS/George Curtis Levi (southern Cheyenne and Arapaho/Oglala Lakota), descendant of Mestaa'ėhehe/Owl Woman and William Bent, 2025.

Purpose

Strategically situated along the Santa Fe Trail, Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site preserves a pivotal trade and military location within the Arkansas River watershed and interprets the site's impact on Native American Tribes, the United States, and Mexico.

Park Significance

Significance statements express why Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site resources and values are important enough to merit national park unit designation. Statements of significance describe why an area is important within a global, national, regional, and systemwide context. These statements are linked to the purpose of the park unit, and are supported by data, research, and consensus. Significance statements describe the distinctive nature of the park and inform management decisions, focusing efforts on preserving and protecting the most important resources and values of the park unit.

The following significance statements have been identified for Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. (Please note that the statements are in no particular order):

1. One of the first permanent trading posts along the Santa Fe Trail, the site of Bent’s Fort was selected by the Bent, St. Vrain, and Company to accommodate the Cheyenne as major trading partners. Its strategic location along the US-Mexican border and the Arkansas River facilitated Native American interactions that integrated the American Southwest into a global economy connecting the United States and Mexico.

2. The use and overuse of the mixed shortgrass prairie ecosystem and adjoining Arkansas River influenced the establishment and eventual relocation of Bent’s Fort. Human activity impacted the environment, leading to conflicts between cultures in this region.

3. Commerce at Bent’s Fort leveraged existing cultural hierarchies and Native American trade networks, influencing the growth of the nation. Relocation, trade, assimilation, and negotiations marked early diplomatic efforts between the US Government and Native Americans.

4. The Arkansas River watershed was a crossroads for territorial expansion among Spaniards, Native Americans, Texans, Nuevomexicanos, and the United States, defined by trade, commerce, and military action. Initially governed by sovereign Native American nations, this place has a history marked by conflict over land and resources, the near extinction of bison herds, and the displacement of Native peoples.

Fundamental Resources and Values

Fundamental resources and values (FRVs) are those features, systems, processes, experiences, stories, scenes, sounds, smells, or other attributes determined to merit primary consideration during planning and management processes because they are essential to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining its significance.

One of the most important responsibilities of National Park Service (NPS) managers is to ensure the conservation of those qualities that are essential (fundamental) to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining its significance. These qualities are called fundamental resources and values. Fundamental resources and values are closely related to legislative purpose, and are more specific than significance statements. FRVs help focus planning and management processes on what is truly significant about the park. If FRVs are allowed to deteriorate, the park purpose and/or significance could be jeopardized.

The identification of fundamental and other important resources and values should not be interpreted as meaning that some park resources are not important. This evaluation is made to separate those resources or values that are covered by NPS mandates and policies from those that have important considerations to be addressed in other planning processes.

The following fundamental resources and values have been identified for Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site:

• The Santa Fe Trail at Bent’s Fort. The site of Bent’s Fort played a crucial role in establishing broader trade networks along the Santa Fe Trail. The convergence of diverse cultures at this strategic site has a legacy lasting far beyond the era of Bent, St. Vrain, & Company.
• Historic Setting and Landscape. The topographical viewshed has largely remained unchanged for centuries. The abundant natural resources, diverse wildlife, and the mixed shortgrass prairie and riparian ecosystem initially attracted Native Americans to the Arkansas River Basin. Freshwater sources and resources from the nearby Big Timbers supported long-term habitation and drew multiple cultures to the area, ultimately fostering trade and commercial ventures.
• Bent’s Fort Cultural Resources. The cultural resources of Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site include a vast array of precontact/historic artifacts and archaeological remnants that provide evidence of international trade, Native American tribes, and various other groups who lived and interacted at the fort. The NPS constructed a replica fort in 1976, which reflects changing concepts and values related to memorialization and resource stewardship. Through important partnerships and research, Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site continues to interpret and promote stewardship of the site’s numerous cultural resources.

Other Important Resources and Values

Commemorative features

The Daughters of the American Revolution played a pivotal role in commissioning several commemorative features at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, including the Santa Fe Trail marker (1908), the Bent’s Old Fort marker (1910), and the Entry Arch (1930). Further, the reconstructed fort (1976) represents the 50 years of collaborative efforts from local, state, and national historic preservation and tourism groups.

Habitat for Threatened and Endangered Species

The Arch Wetland provides habitat for the Eastern Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis jamaicensis), offering essential vegetative cover for this species. This freshwater marsh also supports other species, such as the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Like the Eastern Black Rail, the Arch Wetland offers the shallow water and saturated soil necessary for the Monarch Butterfly to thrive.

Interpretive Themes

Interpretive themes are often described as the key stories or concepts that visitors should understand after visiting a park—they define the most important ideas or concepts communicated to visitors about a park unit. Themes are derived from, and should reflect, park purpose, significance, resources, and values. The set of interpretive themes is complete when it provides the structure necessary for park staff to develop opportunities for visitors to explore and relate to all park significance statements and fundamental and other important resources and values.

Interpretive themes are an organizational tool that reveal and clarify meaning, concepts, contexts, and values represented by park resources. Sound themes are accurate and reflect current scholarship and science. They encourage exploration of the context in which events or natural processes occurred and the effects of those events and processes. Interpretive themes go beyond a mere description of the event or process to foster multiple opportunities to experience and consider the park and its resources. These themes help explain why a park story is relevant to people who may otherwise be unaware of connections they have to an event, time, or place associated with the park.

The following interpretive themes have been identified for Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site:

1. The planning, construction, and operation of Bent’s Old Fort was powerfully influenced by the geopolitical importance of its location along the Santa Fe Trail and Arkansas River within the mixed shortgrass prairie ecosystem, illustrating the connections between natural setting and consequences of human endeavor.
2. The stories of the multicultural traders and travelers using and passing through Bent’s Old Fort reveal a fascinating tapestry of community, individualism, and unique cultural practices that underscores the complex relationships and societal hierarchies that existed in the Southern High Plains region.
3. Bent's Old Fort marks a place of cross-cultural negotiation and exchange where people from Native American ancestral lands, Mexico, and the United States attempted to navigate significant economic, political, geographical, and cultural differences despite conflicting values, allegiances, and shifting circumstances.
4. Through interpretation, research, collections, and archaeology, Bent’s Old Fort Historic Site reveals stories that help us explore our evolving understanding of multicultural conflict, war and peace, displacement, migration, resilience, and the power of historic commemoration.