La Junta is one of the principal cities of the Arkansas valley and is in the heart of the beet sugar country. It is a division point on the Santa Fe Railway; the main line following closely the Old Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico and the Southwest; the diverging line running to Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Denver. A short distance west is the site of Bent's Fort, which was established in the "forties" and is famous in Western story, the recognized head of which afterwards became the first American governor of New Mexico. |