Las Animas is the Statutory City that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Bent County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,410 at the 2010 United States Census. Las Animas is located upon the Arkansas River, just west of its confluence gone the Purgatoire River (or “Purgatory River”), in southeast Colorado east of Pueblo, near the historic Bent’s Fort.

According to legend, the town and the Purgatoire River were named after a organization of conquistadors, probably part of Coronado’s expedition, who died without the last rites sacrament of a priest. According to Catholic belief, their souls would add Purgatory as a result. The original Spanish make known for Las Ánimas (“The Souls,” in Spanish) was purported to be La Ciudad de Las Ánimas Perdidas en Purgatorio, “The city of loose souls in Purgatory.”

However, according to author Morris F. Taylor, this is not consistent next Spanish Catholic belief, but a French Catholic belief. The Spanish version, El Río de las Ánimas Perdidas en Purgatorio, was considered an titivation of the French version. No 19th-century map shows this full Spanish broadcast or any translation of it. Existing maps have substitute names for the river: Río de Las Ánimas, Purgatory River, and “Picatoire”, a defilement of Purgatoire (which today is anglicized as Picketwire). French fur traders of the 19th century referred to the river as the Purgatoire. Another anglicization was Pick of Ware.

Gantt’s Picket Post, also known as Fort Gantt, was built close the present-day Las Animas in 1832, operating as a trading say until 1834. The second Fort Lyon military publicize was built in Las Animas in 1867. It operated until 1897.