Bent's Old Fort began in 1833 as an adobe trading post on the Santa Fe Trail in southeastern Colorado, built by Charles Bent, William Bent, and Ceran St. Vrain's company. Operating in Mexican territory until 1848, it linked United States commerce with Mexican New Mexico while trading mainly buffalo robes with the Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, and trappers and supplying travelers. Its large, heavily fortified design made it one of the strongest western posts of its day. The fort was associated with figures such as Kit Carson, John C. Frémont, and Stephen Watts Kearny before its abandonment in 1849 after a cholera epidemic. The present structure is a 1976 reconstruction.