03/31/2025
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site News Release
News Release Date: March 28, 2025
Contact: Jake Koch, 719-383-5010
Entertainment in the Borderlands
La Junta, CO – Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site announces a special program hosted at Boggsville Historic Site from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, on Saturday, April 5th, 2025. This program will focus on historic forms of entertainment enjoyed and influenced by the different cultures of the Southwestern Borderlands. Gambling and competitions were often among the first interactions between different peoples, and participation was often a path to learn about each other’s cultures. They often learned each other’s games before they were able to learn their languages.
Entertainment in the Borderlands will include interactive talks and presentations. There will also be Historic Weapons, Livestock, and Spanish Monte demonstrations presented by park staff and volunteers. Join us for the day and learn how people passed the time before television, and competition depended on who’s horse was fastest, who shot the straightest, and who had more luck with the cards.
9:00-4:00 Volunteers and staff will be at locations in the Boggs and Prowers Houses and on the grounds discussing Trade, Historic Weapons, and Horse Racing. Visitors will also get the chance to try their luck and learn how to play Spanish Monte!
10 a. m. Don’t Lose Your Shirt: Spanish Monte as played in the Borderlands in the Early to Mid-Nineteenth Century. (Prowers House) This interactive living history presentation is part of our “Stories from the Borderlands” program series and will allow attendees to participate and learn the card game, while also discussing the role of gambling as entertainment in the Borderlands.
11:00 a. m. Shooting for the Beef: Shooting competitions were popular pastimes across the continent, resulting from pride in shooting skills, and the opportunity to bring home community bragging rights and food for the table. Visitors will learn about the weapons that would have been traded at Bent’s Fort, as well as others that would have been common in the Borderlands during the mid-19th Century. The program will include a firing demonstration.
12:30 p. m. Shooting for the Beef: Shooting competitions were popular pastimes across the continent, resulting from pride in shooting skills, and the opportunity to bring home community bragging rights and food for the table. Visitors will learn about the weapons that would have been traded at Bent’s Fort, as well as others that would have been common in the Borderlands during the mid-19th Century. The program will include a firing demonstration.
2 p. m. Don’t Lose Your Shirt: Spanish Monte as played in the Borderlands in the Early to Mid-Nineteenth Century. (Prowers House) This interactive living history presentation is part of our “Stories from the Borderlands” program series and will allow attendees to participate and learn the card game, while also discussing the role of gambling as entertainment in the Borderlands. *Please note that this program will be presented at Woodruff Memorial Library in La Junta.
2:30 p.m. Rivers in Time: (Prowers House) This program will describe the many connections between the original residents of Boggsville and the National Historic Sites in the Arkansas Valley Watershed including Amache, Bent’s Old Fort, and Sand Creek Massacre.
Western National Parks Association, the cooperating association for Bent’s Old Fort NHS, will have their store set-up on-site.
As always, visitors should be prepared for the weather. Water, dressing in layers, and comfortable walking shoes are recommended. There are walking trails from the parking lot to the Boggs and Prowers Houses and around the grounds. Boggsville Historic Site is located on Colorado Highway 101, 2 miles south of Las Animas, Colorado.
This program is a cooperative effort between Bent’s Old Fort NHS and Boggsville Historic Site. For more information about upcoming Bent’s Old Fort programs, please visit the park’s web page at www.nps.gov/beol or follow us on Facebook for additional information about the park. Check our page on the Status of the Reconstructed Fort for current information on the structure at Status of the Reconstructed Fort - Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service).
-www.nps.gov-
About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 433 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
(Shooting for the Beef. George Caleb Bingham. 1850)
