Big Timbers

Bent's Old Fort - Arkansas River Country (Text from original wooden sign.) Big Timbers. Beginning about 25 miles down the Arkansas River from the mouth of the Purgatoire, a belt of giant cottonwoods stretched eastward for another 25 miles along both banks of the river. The lush grass , abundant game, plentiful wood, and fresh water made it a favorite camping place for Indians.

Zebulon Pike passed through here in November, 1806. Surveyors and traders, following the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail, paused at Big Timbers to rest or to trade with the Indians. Although Bent's Old Fort was located a few miles up river, William Bent maintained trading stations in the Big Timbers and in 1853 built his new stone fort there.

After the removal of the Indians in the 1860's, the area was opened to settlement, and the Big Timbers furnished building material for settlers' cabins and wood for their cookstoves. Erected 1965.