The Fort

To some, The Fort is a revered culinary venue known for hosting presidents and serving classic western cuisine. Others dismiss it as gimmicky and inhumane because of its practice of selling Rocky Mountain Oysters, which are a humorous moniker for bull testicles for the uninitiated. The Fort, which is located in Morrison, was built in 1961 and was inspired by Bent's Old Fort, an adobe trading station that was built in 1833 in southeastern Colorado and still survives today. The structure was created and hand-carved by artists from Taos in a classic style, and all of the furniture was designed and hand-carved by William Lumpkins, a well-known architect from Santa Fe.

The Fort was planned to be a family home for the Arnolds, but as it became evident that the project would significantly exceed its original budget, their bank advised turning it into a business. The Arnolds consented, and The Fort opened its doors as a restaurant in 1963, with the family's residential quarters on the second floor. The fact that the restaurant's current proprietor Holly Arnold Kinney acquired a bear cub when she was 9 years old and remained with it until it died 19 years later is a piece of Fort lore that appears to be fictitious but is very real. She went so far as to write a children's book about it.

Since its inception, bison, elk, and quail have been mainstays at The Fort. The meal, like the structure, was inspired by the cultural fusion that occurred at Bent's Old Fort when traders arrived from modern-day Mexico and carried their culinary traditions with them. The Fort now serves over 80,000 buffalo meals per year and is known around the world for re-creating a piece of Colorado history.

Address: PO Box 569Morrison, CO 80465

Phone:(303) 697-4771

Website: https://thefort.com/