Fort Lupton: Early trading post on the South Platte

This article first appeared in the Broomfield Enterprise.

Along the quiet banks of the South Platte in 1837 Colorado, a pelt trader named Lancaster Lupton and his Mexican crew built an adobe fort and began operating a trading post. Lancaster Lupton was an unlikely character for this scene. From a prominent New York family, he was not the sort of fellow you’d expect to put on a fringe coat and haggle over buffalo robes.

Fort St. Vrain thrived briefly but closed mysteriously

This article first appeared in the Broomfield Enterprise.

Decades before the gold rush brought thousands to Colorado, the only permanent man-made structures in this wild region were several small forts stationed along the South Platte River between present-day Denver and Greeley.