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Some controversy has arisen over the selection of William Bent as one of Colorado's two people to be honored with a sculpture in the Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol.
Our other Washington statue is of Dr. Florence Rena Sabin. She was born in Central City on Nov. 9, 1871, and went on to a medical career at Johns Hopkins, where she was the first woman to hold a full professorship, and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, where again she was the first woman. After her retirement, she returned to Colorado; at 77, she was still active as Denver's manager of health and hospitals, and served until her death in 1953.
Back to William Bent. The critics say that although the builder of Bent's Fort was an important man of his time -- the 1830's and 40's, long before there was a Colorado -- he had little effect on the course of history.
But consider what might have happened if there had been no Bent, St. Vrain & Co., with its forts and trading empire that extended from Platteville to Santa Fe.
Near present-day La Junta, Bent's Fort offered all the facilities that trail-weary wagonmasters, bullwhackers and muleskinners might need. That made it convenient for Missouri-based Americans to expand their business along the Santa Fe Trail. The region might have been in Mexico on maps, but commercially, it was becoming part of the United States.
When the Southwest did formally join the United States, as part of the spoils of the Mexican War in 1846, Bent's Fort played a big role. The 1700 soldiers in the Army of the West recuperated there after marching west from Missouri. Without that replenishment, they would have been easy pickings for the Mexican defenders of Santa Fe.
Their Bent's Fort bivouac also provided time for James Magoffin to sneak into Santa Fe and negotiate its peaceful surrender, probably by bribing Manuel Armijo, the Mexican provincial governor. Thus Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny could lead his army on west to take California.
Without William Bent and his fort, it is entirely possible that about 525,000 square miles -- the gold and silver of California, Colorado and Nevada, the oil of Texas, the scorpions of Arizona -- would today still be part of Mexico. If that's not historically significant, then what is?
However, an examination of William Bent's career shows that he had no influence on later Colorado.
He established something of an industry on the banks of the Arkansas River, but unlike all later industries along the Arkansas, his did not dump toxic substances into the river. Nor did he dam or divert its flow; he didn't even speculate in water rights.
He did not dispossess the natives or throw them out of work; all available records indicate that Bent, St. Vrain & Co. was scrupulously fair as its traders swapped cloth, beads and similar foofooraw for the hides and pelts that the Cheyenne and Arapaho had gathered. Any other Colorado baron would have ignored the natives and brought in his own people from Connecticut or New Jersey.
Bent owned the only establishment for hundreds of miles where travelers could find a roof, a blacksmith or a wainwright. But he did not engage a marketing specialist to promote it as a world-class four-season destination resort. Repairs and supplies were priced reasonably, instead of at whatever a desperate market would bear. He didn't charge visitors $200 a night; in fact, you could stay at Bent's Fort for as long as you liked, at no charge.
In short, William Bent was conscientious, fair-minded and hospitable. That may be the stuff of greatness, but the critics are right. The statue should be of someone more representative of those who made Colorado what it is. Alferd Packer, John M. Chivington, Brick Pomeroy and Soapy Smith come immediately to mind, but the possibilities are endless.
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