WayfarrowOld Fort Bent
Ghost town · Otero County, Colorado
Old Fort Bent is a ghost town in Otero County, Colorado. It is one of 2 former communities in Otero County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 27th among the 48 Colorado counties with a vanished settlement on record.
The U.S. Geological Survey lists Old Fort Bent as a historical populated place on the Hadley topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 38.0406° N, 103.4294° W.
Key facts
| USGS quadrangle | Hadley |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 4,006 ft |
| Nearest living town | North La Junta, CO |
| Distance to it | 5.8 miles |
| GNIS feature ID | 195507 |
| Coordinates | 38.04056, -103.42938 |
Then and now
Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.
Left: Hadley quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1953, 1:24,000), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.
What's there now
Old Fort Bent is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is North La Junta, CO (population 512), about 5.8 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 4,006 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.
Nearby places
- Ableghost town · Bent County · 30.5 mi
- Bloomghost town · Otero County · 37.8 mi
- Brookfieldghost town · Baca County · 44.5 mi
Questions
Where is Old Fort Bent?
Old Fort Bent is in Otero County, Colorado, at 38.0406, -103.4294.
How many ghost towns are in Otero County?
Otero County, Colorado has 2 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.
- USGS Geographic Names Information System (Domestic Names) — GNIS Domestic Names, feature record (public-domain)
- U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line and ACS — Census Gazetteer + ACS 5-year population (public-domain)
Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-06.