Near Platteville in Weld County, Colorado — The American Mountains (Southwest)

Fort Vasquez
⎯⎯⎯
Fort Vasquez Country

Fort Vasquez Marker (front) image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Hilton, June 30, 2018

1. Fort Vasquez Marker (front)

Inscription.
Fort Vasquez
As trappers and explorers, Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette helped build the lucrative fur trade. But by 1835, when they raised Fort Vasquez midway between Fort Laramie and Bent's Old Fort along Trapper's Trail and went into business for themselves, the fur industry was nearly played out. Three nearby forts competed for the dwindling trade, and the two veteran mountain men, unable to turn a profit, sold the post in 1841 for just $800. Failing to collect even that sum, the new owners went bankrupt and abandoned the place in 1842. In later years a series of tenants-cavalry units, stagecoach operators, and mail riders-occupied the structure for short periods, but after the 1860s the only visitors to Fort Vasquez were curious homesteaders and tourists.

In the 1930s the New Deal's Works Progress Administration rebuilt the crumbling outer walls of Fort Vasquez. Three decades later, the Colorado Historical Society launched an archaeological study to reconstruct daily life inside the complex. Painstaking excavations revealed roughly a dozen rooms around a large interior plaza.

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Visiting traders kept their pack animals in wooden stalls along the east wall, cooked and dined in a communal kitchen, warmed themselves beside brick fireplaces, and conducted business in large trading rooms. Storage chambers, a smithy, and the two proprietors living quarters completed the fort. The rubble of the old fort yielded a wealth of buttons and beads, the currency of the fur trade-long-lost funds from forgotten transactions.

A little after five we reached the fort of Messrs. Sublette & Vasquez. A great many free trappers are here at present. The Fort is quite a nice place. It is built of daubies [adobes], or Spanish bricks. The buildings are quite durable. This is the first time I have slept under cover for 37 days.
-E. Willard Smith, September 13, 1839

We soon came to the ruins of an old Fort, where we halted for a few moments. This is made of mud or "Dobey," the enclosure is about 100 feet square. The walls about 12 feet high. Upon two corners stand the round guard house running about five feet higher. Around the walls are "port Holes" and so made as to shoot from them in any direction. The old walls are now crumbling away.
-W D. Anthony, June 1860

Fort Vasquez Country
{Area map of historical & geographical highlights}

Erected 1997

Fort Vasquez Country Map image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Hilton, June 30, 2018

2. Fort Vasquez Country Map

by the Colorado Historical Society, Colorado Department of Transportation.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Exploration • Forts and Castles • Industry & Commerce. In addition, it is included in the History Colorado series list. A significant historical month for this entry is June 1860.

Location. 40° 11.643′ N, 104° 49.262′ W. Marker is near Platteville, Colorado, in Weld County. It is on CanAm Highway (U.S. 85) 0.6 miles south of County Road 30, in the median. Located at the Fort Vasquez Museum. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: CanAm Highway, Platteville CO 80651, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Colorado’s Front Range.

It is also in the American Mountain West

and on the Great Plains.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Louisiana Purchase.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 17 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Fort Vasquez (within shouting distance of this

Fort Vasquez image. Click for more information.

via Colorado Encyclopedia, unknown

3. Fort Vasquez

Colorado history website entry
Click for more information.

marker); a different marker also named Fort Vasquez (within shouting distance of this marker); Fort Vasquez Trading Post (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); Fort Lupton (approx. 6.6 miles away); Fort Junction (approx. 8.6 miles away); Evans / Dearfield / Colonies and Crusaders / Evans Country (approx. 14 miles away); Evans (approx. 14 miles away); Columbine Mine / Coal Field Country (approx. 16.8 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Platteville.

Also see . . . Fort Vasquez. Wikipedia entry (Submitted on August 18, 2026, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York.)

The view west towards Highway 85 southbound. image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Hilton, June 30, 2018

4. The view west towards Highway 85 southbound.

Fort Vasquez Country Marker with the Fort Vasquez Museum in background. image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Hilton, June 30, 2018

5. Fort Vasquez Country Marker with the Fort Vasquez Museum in background.

Credits. This page was last revised on August 18, 2026. It was originally submitted on July 16, 2018, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. This page has been viewed 795 times since then and 64 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on July 16, 2018, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. 3. submitted on August 18, 2026, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York. 4, 5. submitted on July 16, 2018, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.

Fort Vasquez⎯⎯⎯Fort Vasquez Country

Fort Vasquez
⎯⎯⎯
Fort Vasquez Country