Students to Give Bent’s Old Fort Virtual Treatment

Listen Now
1min 10sec
Bent's Old Fort
Credit Martha Perez-Sanz / KRCC (file photo)
Bent's Old Fort

Students in La Junta plan to visit Bent’s Old Fort Wednesday in order to virtually recreate its environment. KRCC’s Dana Cronin reports. 

Students from Otero Junior College and La Junta High School are expected to take measurements of the site in order to recreate it on the popular computer game Minecraft.

Meagan Hotchkiss-Trejo is the Coordinator of Educational Technology at Otero Junior College and says the endeavor gives the students an opportunity to learn about technology and history.  "They’re learning and they don’t even realize they’re learning," says Hotchkiss-Trejo.

At Bent’s Old Fort, Chief of Interpretation Rick Wallner will be on hand to answer questions. Wallner says it’s a great opportunity to increase reach for the National Historic Site.

"There are a lot of people who can’t get here or won’t get here," says Wallner. "But if we have this virtual Fort out there on the Web, people from anywhere would be able to walk through the rooms of the fort."

Bent’s Old Fort is a reconstructed Santa Fe Trail trading post located about eight miles east of La Junta. Students plan to visit the site again when it’s warmer.