Fort Lupton’s New Fort Lupton

Replica of 19th century trapper/trader fort on the Plains opened with weekend festival

The city of Fort Lupton is the namesake of a late fur trade era trading post built in 1837 by Lancaster Lupton and in its heyday known as Fort Lancaster. It dates back to the same era and same culture as Bent’s Fort near La Junta. Both Bent’s built along the Arkansas River and Lancaster/Lupton on the South Platte were adobe forts that fell into ruin and have been reconstructed — Bent’s by the National Park Service to become Bent’s Old Fort Historic Site and Lupton by local volunteers from the South Platte Valley Historical Society. It shares the local historical park with an old homestead and schoolhouse, neighbored by a double-wide trailer, huge rolling sprinklers and U.S. Highway 85. The environment in which the project was undertaken and accomplished makes it all the more remarkable.

Fort Lupton was painstakingly researched and rebuilt over a six-year period; click here for photos of the process that required $220,000 and 23,00 hours of volunteer labor using largely donated material. Call it community sweat equity. The walls were completed in 2008, and since then, the interior has been finished and furnished with with period-correct and place-appropriate furniture, tools, equipment, supplies, trade goods and furs. The replica opened as part of the town of Fort Lupton’s annual Trapper Days activities  on Friday, September 9 followed by a weekend of celebrations and re-enactments for the public and an encampment by history buffs who rewind the calendar nearly two centuries. Here’s what was going on when my husband and I visited on the 10th.

Two women in period costumes tending to the onion harvest outside of the fort's walls.

The kitchen with an open fireplace for cooking and heat.

The trappings of "civilization" at a frontier fort.

Not everyone lived in such comfort. Some men bunked down on crude mattresses placed directly on the dirt floor.

Mashing down boiled beans.

Mother/daughter deerskin dresses, 19th century Sioux style.

Looking down into the Fort Lupton courtyard from the tower.

White tents in the sunshine: History buffs set up historically appropriate tents to re-entact the first half of the 19th century as part of Trappers Days.

Trappers, traders and travelers lived at or visited frontier forts.

Chuck Everitt, a fourth-generation blacksmith, demonstrated his craft at Trapper Days. For him, this was not a re-enactment. He has been forging iron in Colorado for more than 60 years -- the fourth generation in his family to do so. His son is following in his footsteps, and his young grandson already helps around the shop.

The look of a dapper frontiersman.

Scrimshaw, a sailor's art, is practiced on the Plains. There certainly are enough horns in cattle country.

Children share their parents' re-enactment of the past. Dress-up is always fun, but here, it comes with an insight into history.

A collection of commemorative pins in front of an encampment tent shows many other events in which the owner has participated.

Buffalo Soldiers re-entactors demonstrated skills of horsemanship practiced by these black troops. The good stuff was too fast for my little camera to capture.

The rebuilt stucco trading post  is about a mile north of downtown Fort Lupton, just off US Highway 85,  just yards from where the original Fort Lupton stood 175 years ago. One of the Historical Society volunteers told me that entry is free “for now.” Current opening hours seem to be 12 noon to 4 p.m., but they might be curtailed over even suspended in winter. The fort is on Weld Country Road 14 1/2, 1/2 mile west of US 85 and south of Colorado 52. For information, call the site’s visitor center, 303-857-1710.