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Fort Adobe (Adobe Walls) in Hutchinson County, Texas by Wes Phillips


Bent’s Old Fort was completed in 1832… The St. Vrains usually had charge of Fort St. Vrain while [William Bent] was in command of Bent’s Fort and Adobe. In the ‘40’s the Bent and St. Vrain Company was doing a larger business than any other American company with the exception of Astor’s…

     The time of construction of the Adobe Fort on the Canadian, in Hutchinson County, Texas, is uncertain. Grinnell dated it prior to 1840.; Philip St. George Cooke, from information given him in conversation by Charles Bent, put it in the fall of 1842; but Lieutenant James W. Abert speaks in his entry of December 24, 1846, at Santa Fe, of having seen Mr. St. Vrain. “I asked if he had any trading house on the Canadian. He told me that the Kioways had sent and warned him not to come down this year, as the Comanches had determined to revenge themselves on the whites for the death of their children. This nation have suffered much from the measles… As I have not more than 18 men I determine to give up my project of going in by the Canadian, but should take the route by Bent’s Fort.”

     [about 1847] With the southern tribes raising hell all along the Canadian, it would be folly for the company to go ahead with its plans of reopening Fort Adobe.

     Less is known of short-lived Fort Adobe than of any other company post in the West. Paul Wellman, who tells the story of Ceran’s white flag in “Famous Kansas Scouts” (Kansas Historical Quarterly, August 1932) dates its building as 1828 or 1829, much too early. Grinnell (Bent’s Old Fort,” 15) dates it as prior to 1840. But Cooke (Journal 239), after talking to Charles in June 1843, says the firm built a “house” on the Canadian the previous fall. Kiowa Tradition (Mooney) ascribes a log house to the winter of 1843-44, the adobe to 1844-45. This is a year too early. Abert mentions no fort; if it had been in existence when he passed the site in September 1845, he certainly would have described it. By March 1846, Charles (to Alverez) was making the earliest references to a fort on the Canadian that I can discover. Implications in Charles’s letters indicate that Ceran supervised the post’s trading that winter, and so I ascribe the building to him. My assumption that William was with Ceran during the construction is based on the fact that throughout the firm’s existence William Bent was the partner in direct charge of Indian relations and field operations. Also George Bent (in Hyde 1905) says that his father was the builder of Fort Adobe.

     [about 1848] In spite of his doubts about the efficacy of peace talks, William now decided to test the results of the Big Timbers powwow and try reopening Fort Adobe on the Canadian River. Kit (Carson) led the party.

     William decided to give Fort Adobe one last try himself. In the spring (1849?) he went down with some ox-drawn wagons—and promptly Indians killed part of the stock. Enough was enough. But he would not leave the fort intact for Indians or Mexican Comancheros to appropriate. With gunpowder he blew up the interior and returned to the Arkansas.

     The sequence of events preceding the destruction of Fort Adobe is surmise. Carson biographies do not mention Kit’s trip, but George Bent had the story of it from both Carson and John Smith. (Grinnell papers, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles.) Enough is known of Kit’s whereabouts to ascribe the fall of 1848 s about the only time the adventure could have occurred. Wootton dates his own venture as the winter of 1849-50, but this is manifestly impossible and so I move it ahead to 1848-49.



Other notes:

     In 1826, the Bent Brothers established a trading post on the upper Arkansas River in southeastern Colorado.

     The building of Bent's fort on the Arkansas had caused the Cheyenne and Arapaho to move southward from the Black Hills.

     In 1835 the Comanches made a treaty on the Canadian River in Oklahoma at Camp Holmes. At this time they were catching horses by means of a corral. Attacks continued on Anglo settlements in Texas. Total Comanche Population was 15,000. The Wichita and Kichai were still hostile. Bent was already active in Comanche trade at this time near the Canadian River.

     …Bent in order to secure their trade, sent representatives to the Canadian River and probably located temporary posts there during the thirties. (Richardson p. 89)

     Bent's Fort on the Arkansas in southeastern Colorado was the site of another treaty among several tribes including the Comanches and Cheyenne. Bent went to Tascosa at this time where he traded with the Comanches for buffalo robes. He also visited the future site of Fort Adobe (Adobe Walls) which he stated had been a trading post in years past for Hudson Bay traders.

     Charles Bent built Fort Adobe on the Canadian River in present Hutchinson County, Texas at the request of the Kiowas and Comanches. The spot was across from the mouth of White Deer Creek and the year was 1843 or 1844. A second post was built near present Canadian, Texas in 1845. (Richardson pp. 89-90)

     In 1845 the Bents built another trading post on the South Canadian River above Bosque Grande Creek.

Mooney, James: Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. 1979. P. 283.
Winter 1845-46
     In this winter K’odal-aka-i, “Wrinkled Neck,” built a trading post on the South Canadian. This post was in the panhandle of Texas, on the north bank of the South Canadian (Gu’adal P’a, “Red river”), just above Bosque Grande Creek and about 2 miles above the entrance of Red-deer creek (Ko’ga-i P’a, “Elk Creek). It was in a swampy and well-timbered location, just west of one of the main trails from Arkansas river southward. It was owned by William Bent, called by the Kiowa Mantahak-ia (Hook-nose-man, Roman Nose) who in the spring of 1844 had built a trading post, as already noted, at Gu’dal Doha, higher up on the same river. Both were in charge of a clerk known to the Kiowa as K’odal-aka-a (Wrinkled Neck). A drawing on the calendar for this year shows a two-story building with two chimneys evidently shown from the back. The roof in front evidently slopes down so that the front of the building is only one story (that is to say that the roof comes down further over the building in front than in back. There are two doors and then two windows upstairs.

     In the 1850s a new line of forts was established extending from North Texas through Oklahoma and into Kansas. These included Fort Chadbourne, Fort Phantom Hill, Fort Belknap, Fort Arbuckle, Fort Mann, and Fort Atkinson on the Arkansas River in the north.

Map of Adobe Walls

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