{{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Fort Vasquez | nrhp_type = | designated_other1 = Colorado | designated_other1_date = | designated_other1_number = 5WL.568<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycolorado.org/archaeologists/weld-county#platte |title=Weld County: Platteville |work=National and State Register Listed Properties |publisher=History Colorado |access-date=July 5, 2013 |archive-date=July 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130713041513/http://www.historycolorado.org/archaeologists/weld-county#platte |url-status=dead }}</ref> | designated_other1_num_position = bottom | image = Insidefrvasquez2.jpg | caption = | location = [[Platteville, Colorado]] | coordinates = {{coord|40|11|40|N|104|49|13|W|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Colorado#USA | built = 1835 | architect = Works Progress Administration (reconstruction) | architecture = adobe fort | added = September 30, 1970 | area = {{convert|1|acre|ha}} | refnum = 70000169<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref> }}
'''Fort Vasquez''' is a former [[fur trade|fur trading]] post {{convert|35|mi|km}} northeast of [[Denver]], [[Colorado]], United States, founded by [[Louis Vasquez]] and [[Andrew Sublette]] in 1835.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycolorado.org/museums/history-fort |title=History of the Fort |work=Museums: Fort Vasquez Museum |publisher=History Colorado |access-date=July 5, 2013 |archive-date=August 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827031217/http://www.historycolorado.org/museums/history-fort |url-status=dead }}</ref> Restored by the [[Works Progress Administration]] in the 1930s, it now lies in a rather incongruous position as [[U.S. Route 85]] splits to run either side of the building. [[History Colorado]] (then the Colorado Historical Society) took possession of the property in 1958 and runs it as a museum to display exhibits of the fur-trade era.
==History== <!--- Redirect from Fort Convenience to this section----> [[File:Ftvasquezroom.jpg|thumb|left]]
After building a temporary trading post called Fort Convenience on the [[South Platte River]] and [[Clear Creek (Colorado)|Clear Creek]] in 1834,<ref name="Gallagher PT8">{{cite book|author=Jolie Anderson Gallagher|title=Colorado Forts: Historic Outposts on the Wild Frontier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uqJ2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT8|date=April 2, 2013|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Incorporated|isbn=978-1-61423-903-1|page=PT8}}</ref> Vasquez established Fort Vacquez with Sublette. The present day Fort Vasquez located on Highway 85, next to [[Platteville, Colorado]] is a reconstruction of the adobe trading post established by the trappers Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette. They built the fort in 1835 after obtaining a trading license in St. Louis, Missouri, from [[William Clark (explorer)|William Clark]], the Superintendent of Indian Affairs.<ref name=Malachite>{{cite web |url=http://www.mman.us/vasquezlouis.htm |title=Louis Vasquez |work=Mountain Men and Life in the Rocky Mountain West |publisher=Malachite's Big Hole, Michael Schaubs |location=Littleton, CO |access-date=July 5, 2013}}</ref>
[[File:Ftvasquezwindow.jpg|thumb]]
They traded with other furriers, trappers, mountain men, and Native American tribes (including the [[Arapaho]] and [[Cheyenne]]), amidst competition with other trading posts. Unable to turn a profit, they sold Fort Vasquez to Lock and Randolph in 1840 who subsequently went bankrupt and abandoned the structures in 1842. Due to the bankruptcy, Vasquez and Sublette could not collect the sum owed to them for the sale.<ref name=Malachite/> The Census of 1880 lists several residents of Vasquez Fork, and it appears to be a mining community. One resident was Othello Reed Ostrander, born 1843 in New York. The census taker lists him as being in Vasquez Fork AND living in Georgetown with his wife and two young sons. He was listed twice. His wife was Isabelle Irene and sons were Arthur and Albert.
The fort was almost demolished during the construction of [[U.S. Route 85|US Route 85]]. It was saved, in part, due to the efforts of local resident Fern Miller, who would later become Superintendent of the Denver Mint.
==See also== {{portal|Geography|History|United States|Colorado}} *[[Bibliography of Colorado]] *[[Geography of Colorado]] *[[History of Colorado]] *[[Index of Colorado-related articles]] *[[List of Colorado-related lists]] **[[List of forts in Colorado]] *[[Outline of Colorado]] {{clear}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Other sources== * {{Cite book |last=Lecompte |first=Janet |title=Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn: Society on the High Plains, 1832–1856 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman, Oklahoma |year=1978 |isbn=0-8061-1723-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/pueblohardscrabb00jane }} * {{Cite book |last=Noel |first=Thomas J. |last2=Faulkner |first2=Debra B. |title=Colorado: An Illustrated History of the Highest State |publisher=American Historical Press |location=Sun Valley, California |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-892724-52-6 }} * {{Cite book |last=Brotemarkle |first=Diane |title=Old Fort St. Vrain |year=2001 |publisher=Johnson Printing |location=Boulder, Colorado |isbn=0-9712372-0-4 }} {{clear}}
==External links== {{sister project links|Colorado|auto=yes}} *[https://www.historycolorado.org/fort-vasquez Fort Vasquez Museum] History Colorado
{{Weld County, Colorado|status=open}} {{Forts in Colorado}} {{Protected areas of Colorado}} {{Colorado}} {{National Register of Historic Places}} {{authority control}}
[[Category:1835 establishments in unorganized territory of the United States]] [[Category:Former populated places in Colorado]] [[Category:Former populated places in Weld County, Colorado]] [[Category:Forts in Colorado|Vasquez]] [[Category:Forts on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado|Vasquez]] [[Category:Fur trade]] [[Category:History Colorado]] [[Category:History museums in Colorado]] [[Category:Geography of Weld County, Colorado]] [[Category:Mexican–American War forts]] [[Category:Museums in Weld County, Colorado]] [[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Weld County, Colorado]] [[Category:Trading posts in Colorado]]