Bent County is one of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 5,861 at U.S. Census 2016. The county seat is the City of Las Animas.
History
The county is named in honor of frontier trader William Bent. Bent County was created by the Colorado legislature on February 6, 1874, when Greenwood County, created only four years earlier, was dissolved and divided between Bent and Elbert counties. At the time of its creation, it included a large portion of southeastern Colorado. In 1889, Bent County acquired its current borders when it lost much of its territory to the newly created Cheyenne, Lincoln, Kiowa, Otero, and Prowers counties.
