New Mexico Tourism | Western

Historical Figures: Archbishop Lamy, Charles Bent, Billy the Kid, Kit Carson, Willa Cather, Flying Priest, Pat Garrett, Greer Garson, Geronimo, Conrad Hilton, Mable Dodge Lujan, Fred Lambert, John Gaw Meems, Robert Ollinger, Millicent Rogers, Will Schuster, Carrie Tingley, Lew Wallace
Museums: American International Rattlesnake Museum, City of Las Cruces Log Cabin Museum, Cleveland Roller Mill Museum, E.L. Blumenschein Home & Museum, Kit Carson Home & Museum, Farmington Museum, El Malpais National Monument, Fort Selden State Monument, Fort Union National Monument, Harvey House Museum, Historical Center For Southeast New Mexico, Lincoln State Monument, Las Vegas City Museum & Rough Rider Memorial, Miles Mineral Museum, New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, Old Mill Museum, Palace of the Governors, Pecos National Historical Park, Raton Museum, Roosevelt County Museum, Silver City Museum, Tucumcari Historical Museum

Charles Bent

Charles Bent (1799-1847) was appointed as the first Governor of the newly acquired New Mexico Territory by Governor Stephen Watts Kearny in September, 1846. He was assassinated on January 19, 1847 during the Taos Revolt.

Bent was born in 1799 in Charleston, West Virginia, and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. After leaving the army, he and his younger brother William in 1828 took a wagon train of goods from St. Louis to Santa Fe. There they established mercantile contacts and began a series of trading trips back and forth over the Santa Fe Trail which resulted, in 1832, in a partnership with Ceran St. Vrain, a local fur trader, called Bent & St. Vrain Company.