Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site near La Junta, Colorado will
host its Traditional Holiday Celebration on Friday first weekend in December.
Over 50 living history volunteers from Colorado and surrounding states will
bring the fort to life with the sights, sounds, and smells of a working
19th Century trading post during the holiday season. Festivities will include
candlelight tours, toy making, holiday decorating and children's games.
The celebration begins on Friday, 6:30 p.m. with
guided candlelight tours of the fort. Living history interpreters will guide
groups through various rooms where people of the era will be preparing to
celebrate the holidays. Tours will be filled on a first come, first served
basis. After the tours, everyone will join together at the plaza bonfire
for caroling and Las Posadas. The evening will culminate in the fort's dining
room with mincemeat pie, shortbread, hot cider and other authentic treats
from the 1800s. The Fort will close at 9:00 p.m. To make reservations, phone
(719) 383-5026. For reservations for the evening tours, phone (719) 383-5026
after October 15, 2006.
Festivities on Saturday will begin at 9:30 a.m. and run all day.
Scheduled activities include toy making, children's games in the plaza,
frontier medicine, trading scenes, storytelling, holiday decorating and
other living history activities. Specific holiday events will also be featured
Saturday. Wagon rides, over to the river and through the woods, will be
provided from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Period music demonstrations, featuring Mark
Gardner and Rex Rideout, will be presented at 10:30 a.m. and 12, 1:30 and
3 p.m. Especially for children, there will be toy making workshops in the
carpenter’s shop at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The afternoon
will feature a taffy pull around 1 p.m., a piñata break at 2 p.m.,
and a yule log hunt at 2:30. The yule log will be christened in the fort
plaza at 3:30.For a break from the fort activities, visitors may visit Indian
and trapper camps just outside the fort. Events will culminate with a piñata
break and a Yule log hunt. The park will close to the public at 4:00 p.m.
and then reopen for another night of candlelight tours, Las Posadas and
holiday treats beginning at 6:30 p.m.
A living history fee is charged for the candlelight tours or to attend the daytime Holiday Celebration. The cost is $3.00 for visitors 13 and older and $2.00 for ages 6 to 12. Visitors are asked to park at the main parking lot and pay their fee at the bookstore. The Western National Parks Association bookstore and traderoom will be open through all of these events for your holiday shopping. Featured right now is a new book by Emil Gimeno of Denver, the contractor in charge of the fort’s reconstruction. Entitled “The Adobe Castle of the Santa Fe Trail: The History and Reconstruction of Bent’s Old Fort” the book contains many insights into the project and adobe construction in general. Besides books and videos, the traderoom has available for purchase hundreds of reproduction items similar to those that were once traded at the fort. Visitors are asked to dress warmly and bring a flashlight for the evening programs. Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site is located on Colorado Highway 194, 8 miles east of La Junta or 15 miles west of Las Animas. For more information on the Holiday Celebration, including a schedule of event activities, visit the park's website at http://www.nps.gov/beol/index.htm and click on "Special Events" or call the park at (719) 383-5010.
For overnight accomodations before your journey begins or at the end of your trek stay at Best Western Bent's Fort Inn, East US 50, Las Animas, CO US 81054. http://www.travel-hounds.com/hotelinfo/1175
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