Bent's Fort, an important early trading post in the American Southwest, attracted Native Americans, Hispanics, French trappers and traders, and Yankees, making this area the commercial hub of southern Colorado during the 1830s and 1840s. Otero County, carved from the western portion of Bent County in 1889, was named for Miguel Otero, a founder of the county seat of La Junta. In this prairie county hugging the Arkansas River, the agrarian economy includes ranching, farming, and packaging frozen foods. Major crops are flower and vegetable seeds, hay, lettuce, dry beans, and Rocky Ford melons and cantaloupes.
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