This region was once buffalo hunting grounds for the Cheyenne, Apache, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche, who followed the buffalo across the plains and controlled the land, while everything south of the Arkansas River was Mexico and trappers and traders lived peacefully among the tribes. Here the buffalo made their last stand. In 1830, brothers William and Charles Bent partnered with Ceran St. Vrain to establish Bent's Old Fort just west of here, and it became one of the greatest trade posts in the West. Indian trade was welcome there, and William Bent built strong relationships with white emigrants and the five tribes of the region. Boggsville, established in 1862, was the first nonmilitary settlement in Southeast Colorado. Its families included Thomas and Rumalda Boggs, John and Amache Prowers, the John Hough family, and Kit and Josepha Carson. Boggs ran sheep and Prowers ran cattle, and the settlement established the first school, operated a trading post and stagecoach stop, and used irrigated farming with great success. Territorial Bent County was created in 1870 at about 9,000 square miles, and Boggsville became the first county seat that same year. Thomas Boggs served as Bent County sheriff, and John Prowers was one of the county commissioners who appointed Sheriff Boggs. When the railroad came, tracks were customarily laid to avoid established communities so railroad barons could control nearby land and profit by selling parcels near new stations. Las Animas was platted in 1873, became the center of business, and replaced Boggsville as county seat in 1875. Bent County was later partitioned into several smaller counties, including Cheyenne, Lincoln, Kiowa, Otero, and Prowers. The Bent County Courthouse, the oldest functioning courthouse in Colorado, has been in continuous use since 1889 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Its cupola blew off in its early years and was rebuilt in 2009. The old Bent County courthouse burned in 1888 while the new courthouse was already under construction. The new building was built and furnished for $58,429, took from 1886 to 1889 to complete, and was designed and built by contractors M. F. Reilly and B. Bradley, the Holmberg Brothers, and furniture maker A. H. Andrews and Co. The cornerstone was laid by King Solomon Lodge No. 30 of the Masonic order on July 4, 1887. Antique oak furniture for the upstairs courtroom, a jury room, and six downstairs offices is mostly still in use. The two-story brick Bent County Jail beside the courthouse was built in 1912 and closed in 2000. Ken Gates, later known as Ken Curtis, lived with his family in the lower half of the jail while his father served as Bent County sheriff. In 1934, Ken Gates started the Las Animas Santa Fe Trail Parade, known as the longest continuously running high school event in the United States, and he later co-starred as Festus in the long-running television series "Gunsmoke."