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Fort Garland

    The US Army operated Fort Garland in the San Luis Valley for twenty-five years, from 1858 to 1883. The fort was built to protect early settlers from Native American raids in the years before treaties, reservations, and removal made that mission obsolete. After decades of neglect, the fort was restored in the mid-twentieth century and now operates as one of History Colorado’s regional museums.

    Borderland

    Fort Garland stands in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, which was long perched on the border between different and antagonistic cultures. Essentially a high-elevation desert guarded on most sides by mountain ranges, the valley was inhabited primarily by Southern Ute tribes before the 1600s, with Apache living just over the mountains to the east. Starting in the seventeenth century and accelerating in the eighteenth century, two expanding cultures began to extend their reach toward the valley: the Spanish moved up the Rio Grande through what is now New Mexico, and the Comanche dominated the high plains east of the Rocky Mountains. The San Luis Valley sat on the edge of both growing cultures as a dangerous frontier.

    Yet another culture began to encroach on the valley in the early nineteenth century. After the United States completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Zebulon Montgomery Pike was dispatched to explore the upper Red and Arkansas Rivers, where the precise boundaries of the Purchase were disputed. In January 1807 his expedition crossed Medano Pass into the San Luis Valley. Pike’s men passed near the future site of Fort Garland, descended to the Conejos River, and built a crude log shelter, now known as Pike’s Stockade, to help them survive the bitterly cold high-desert winter. The Spanish eventually arrested Pike on suspicion of spying and shipped him back to the United States by way of Chihuahua.

    In 1821 the San Luis Valley passed to Mexico after that country won its independence from Spain. At about the same time, regular commerce began on the Santa Fé Trail linking Missouri and New Mexico. The trail followed the Arkansas River west into what is now Colorado, with one route going over Sangre de Cristo Pass into the San Luis Valley before heading south to Taos. Webs of commerce were beginning to bind the valley to the cultures just beyond its borders.

    The San Luis Valley became part of the United States as a result of the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the Mexican-American War of 1846–48. Charles Beaubien acquired the land grant that encompassed much of the valley. In the early 1850s Beaubien encouraged Hispano families from the Taos Valley in New Mexico to move north and establish colonies in the valley along Rio Culebra. Founded in 1851, the town of San Luis de Culebra is the oldest continuous settlement in Colorado. The San Luis Valley was starting to be incorporated into the American political and social order.

    Fort Massachusetts and Fort Garland

    In the spring and summer of 1852, about a year after the founding of San Luis de Culebra, the US Army built its first fort in the San Luis Valley to protect settlers and establish its authority. The fort, called Fort Massachusetts, lay in the foothills about a day’s ride north of town. It had several problems. Its location made it vulnerable to attack from higher ground, and the building failed to provide adequate protection from the valley’s brutal winters. This became clear during the winter of 1855–56, when scurvy and subzero temperatures made the troops sick and miserable.

    On July 17, 1856, the army secured a lease on a new plot of land on the floor of the San Luis Valley. Under the terms of the deal, the army agreed to pay Charles Beaubien rent of one dollar per year for twenty-five years. The army quickly picked a valley location right on the trails coming over Sangre de Cristo Pass and La Veta Pass, with clear views in all directions, and built a new fort, called Fort Garland. The fort consisted of a rectangle of single-story buildings with adobe walls three feet thick to help protect soldiers from the cold San Luis Valley winters. The troops at Fort Massachusetts lowered their flag on June 24, 1858, and marched a few miles south to take up residence at Fort Garland.

    During the Civil War, Fort Garland served as an important enlistment site and rendezvous point for companies of Colorado Volunteers heading south to stop Confederate attempts to take New Mexico in 1861–62. These volunteers helped win the Battle of Glorieta Pass, New Mexico, in late March 1862. This battle, which has been called the Gettysburg of the West, effectively ended the Civil War in the western territories.

    Conflict With Indigenous People

    After the Civil War, Fort Garland’s primary business for the next twenty years was to secure and enforce treaties with local Native Americans, primarily Southern Utes, for the purpose of making the San Luis Valley safe for settlement. The 1863 Treaty of Conejos attempted to impose limits on Ute territory, but few Utes abided by the terms of the agreement, which was signed by only one band of Utes.

    Fort Garland’s most famous and perhaps most successful commander during these years was the legendary mountain man and army officer Kit Carson (1809–68). Carson arrived in May 1866 with four companies of New Mexico Volunteers. He helped arrange an agreement by which Ute chiefs would give up their claims in much of central Colorado, including the San Luis Valley, and move to the southwest quadrant of the state in exchange for a payment of $60,000 per year for thirty years.

    Carson left Fort Garland in October 1867, but the peace he forged lasted until 1879, at least in the San Luis Valley. In southwestern Colorado, however, prospectors in the La Plata and San Juan Mountains soon came into conflict with the Utes who had moved there. In the 1870s soldiers from Fort Garland were sent to help secure peace between the Utes and the encroaching miners.

    In one of history’s many ironies, the soldiers stationed at Fort Garland and tasked with securing Colorado for primarily white Anglo settlement in these years were a diverse lot. The army tended to send its foreign-born recruits, many of whom could not speak English, to remote posts like Fort Garland. Companies of largely Hispano New Mexico Volunteers were stationed at the fort in 1862–63 and again with Kit Carson in 1866–67. From 1876 to 1879 the fort was home to the black Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth Cavalry. Even during periods of relative peace, they still had to fight the biting cold of winter in the high desert, which claimed the lives of many men.

    Any semblance of peace between whites and Utes in Colorado ended on September 29, 1879, when Utes clashed with the army at Milk Creek and killed Indian Agent Nathan Meeker and ten others at the White River Agency. Fort Garland had become a somewhat sleepy post, assumed to have no real strategic value, but after the Meeker Incident it suddenly bustled with activity. Fifteen companies were temporarily stationed at the fort, most of them forced by lack of space to live in tents throughout the bone-chilling winter. In 1880 the troops at Fort Garland helped escort the Utes out of the Rocky Mountains to new reservations in Utah and in far southwestern Colorado near the New Mexico border.

    Railroad Arrival and Fort Decommission

    Fort Garland was originally meant to secure the San Luis Valley for settlers. When the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad crossed Sangre de Cristo Pass into the valley in 1877, that purpose came to an end. The railroad served as a symbol that the valley was being fully incorporated into American society and would not remain a frontier of empire much longer.

    When the army signed its original lease for the land around Fort Garland, it had agreed to pay $1 per month for twenty-five years. That lease ran out at the end of June 1882. By that time a group of investors, including William Gilpin, who served as the first governor of Colorado Territory in the early 1860s, had acquired title to the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. Gilpin began to charge the army $100 per month for its lease. Within months, General William Tecumseh Sherman advised the secretary of war that Fort Garland was “obsolete and ought to be abandoned.” At the end of November 1883, the fort was decommissioned and its remaining troops moved to Fort Lewis, near Durango. The army paid for the bodies of all soldiers buried at Fort Garland (except those with strong family ties to the area) to be exhumed and reburied at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

    After the army left, the fort and its land reverted to the Trinchera Estate, which had acquired the title from Gilpin. The fort’s property fell into disuse and passed through many hands over the next four decades. The Trinchera Timber Company rented the fort’s buildings in 1912–15, before William H. Meyer bought the fort and began to live in the old commander’s quarters. The fort passed through several more hands in the 1920s, until at last one owner planned to raze the remaining buildings and sell them for parts.

    Preservation and Restoration

    The prospect of demolition and sale spurred locals in Costilla and Conejos Counties to form the Fort Garland Historical Fair Association in May 1928. The purpose of the association was to preserve what remained of the fort, with the idea that the site might serve as a county fairground in the future. The association tried to get support from the Colorado Historical Society (now History Colorado) and the National Park Service to purchase the site but failed to generate sufficient interest. Undeterred, the association went around the San Luis Valley selling $5 shares to ranchers, farmers, and businesspeople. This fundraising effort enabled the association to buy Fort Garland in 1929. Just then, however, the Great Depression hit, and the association struggled simply to pay taxes on the property throughout the 1930s and early 1940s.

    In 1945 the Colorado Historical Society acquired the site. By that time all but five of the original twenty-two buildings had been demolished or had deteriorated beyond repair. The five remaining buildings were restored, with new roofs, adobe bricks, and interior fittings, and the restored Fort Garland opened as a museum in 1950. In 1966 the Colorado Historical Society completely rebuilt a sixth building, the company quarters, on its original foundation, though the reconstruction was performed prior to any archaeological work at the site and used concrete blocks and stucco rather than adobe bricks.

    Fort Garland continues to operate as a regional museum devoted to the history of the San Luis Valley. Starting in the 1990s and continuing into the twenty-first century, the Colorado Historical Society has conducted a thorough archaeological investigation at the site. Under the direction of Anne Bond, the investigation has explored the foundations of the fort’s original buildings and excavated old trash deposits to try to find out more about life at the fort in the nineteenth century.

    The US Army operated Fort Garland in the San Luis Valley for twenty-five years, from 1858 to 1883. The fort was built to protect early settlers from Native American raids. This was in the years before treaties, reservations, and removal made that mission obsolete. After decades of neglect, the fort was restored in the mid-twentieth century. It now serves as one of History Colorado’s regional museums.

    Borderland

    Fort Garland stands in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, an area that has long stood on the border between different and often antagonistic cultures. Essentially a high-elevation desert guarded on most sides by mountain ranges, the valley was inhabited primarily by Southern Ute people before the 1600s. The Apache tribe lived just over the mountains to the east. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Spanish moved up the Rio Grande through what is now New Mexico, and the Comanche dominated the high plains east of the Rocky Mountains.

    After the United States completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Zebulon Montgomery Pike was dispatched to explore the upper Red and Arkansas Rivers. This is where the precise boundaries of the Purchase were disputed. In January 1807, his expedition crossed Medano Pass into the San Luis Valley. Pike’s men passed near the future site of Fort Garland, descended to the Conejos River, and built a crude log shelter known as Pike’s Stockade.

    In 1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain and laid claim to the San Luis Valley. At about the same time, regular commerce began on the Santa Fé Trail that linked Missouri and New Mexico. The trail followed the Arkansas River west into what is now Colorado, going over Sangre de Cristo Pass into the San Luis Valley before turning south to Taos. Webs of commerce began to bind the valley to the cultures just beyond its borders.

    The San Luis Valley became part of the United States after the Mexican-American War of 1846–48. Charles Beaubien acquired the land grant that encompassed much of the valley. In the early 1850s, Beaubien encouraged Hispano families from the Taos Valley in New Mexico to move north and establish colonies in the San Luis Valley along Rio Culebra. Founded in 1851, the town of San Luis de Culebra is the oldest continuous settlement in Colorado. The San Luis Valley began to be incorporated into the American political and social order.

    Fort Massachusetts and Fort Garland

    In the spring and summer of 1852, about a year after the founding of San Luis de Culebra, the US Army built Fort Massachusetts, its first fort in the San Luis Valley, to protect settlers and establish US authority. The fort lay in the foothills about a day’s ride north of town. It had several problems. Its location made it vulnerable to attack from higher ground, and the building failed to provide adequate protection from the valley’s brutal winters. This became clear during the winter of 1855–56, when scurvy and subzero temperatures made the troops sick and miserable.

    On July 17, 1856, the army secured a lease on a new plot of land on the floor of the San Luis Valley. Under the terms of the deal, the army agreed to pay Charles Beaubien rent of one dollar per year for twenty-five years. The army quickly picked a valley location right on the trails coming over Sangre de Cristo Pass and La Veta Pass, with clear views in all directions. The new fort was called Fort Garland. It consisted of a rectangle of single-story buildings with adobe walls three feet thick to help protect soldiers from the cold valley winters. The troops at Fort Massachusetts lowered their flag on June 24, 1858 and marched a few miles south to take up residence at Fort Garland.

    During the Civil War, Fort Garland served as an important enlistment site and rendezvous point for companies of Colorado Volunteers heading south to stop Confederate attempts to take New Mexico in 1861–62. These volunteers helped win the Battle of Glorieta Pass, New Mexico, in late March 1862. This battle effectively ended the Civil War in the western territories.

    Indian Wars

    After the Civil War, troops at Fort Garland spent the next twenty years securing and enforcing treaties with Native Americans, primarily Southern Utes, to make the San Luis Valley safe for settlement. The 1863 Treaty of Conejos attempted to impose limits on Ute territory, but it had been signed by only one band of Utes and few of the Indians abided by the terms of the agreement.

    Fort Garland’s most famous and perhaps most successful commander during these years was the legendary mountain man and army officer Kit Carson (1809–68). Carson arrived in May 1866 with four companies of New Mexico Volunteers. He helped arrange an agreement by which Ute chiefs would give up their claims in much of central Colorado, including the San Luis Valley. They were to move to the western third of the state in exchange for a payment of $60,000 each year for thirty years.

    Carson left Fort Garland in October 1867, but the peace he forged lasted in the valley until 1879. In southwestern Colorado, prospectors in the La Plata and San Juan Mountains soon came into conflict with Utes who had moved there. In the 1870s, soldiers from Fort Garland were sent to help secure peace between the Utes and the encroaching miners.

    In one of history’s many ironies, the Fort Garland soldiers tasked with securing Colorado for primarily white Anglo settlement in these years were a diverse lot. The army tended to send its foreign-born recruits, many of whom could not speak English, to remote posts like Fort Garland. Companies of largely Hispano New Mexico Volunteers were stationed at the fort in 1862–63 and again with Kit Carson in 1866–67. From 1876 to 1879 the fort was home to the black Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth Cavalry. Even during periods of relative peace, they still had to fight the biting cold of winter in the high desert, which claimed the lives of many men.

    Any semblance of peace between whites and Utes in Colorado ended on September 29, 1879. Utes clashed with the army at Milk Creek in present-day Rio Blanco County and killed Indian agent Nathan Meeker and ten others at the White River Agency. By then Fort Garland had become a somewhat sleepy post, assumed to have no real strategic value, but after the Meeker Massacre it suddenly bustled with activity. Fifteen companies were temporarily stationed at the fort, most of them forced by lack of space to live in tents throughout the bone-chilling winter. In 1880 the troops at Fort Garland helped escort the Utes out of the Rocky Mountains to new reservations in Utah and in far southwestern Colorado near the New Mexico border.

    Railroad Arrival and Fort Decommission

    Fort Garland was originally meant to secure the San Luis Valley for settlers. When the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad crossed Sangre de Cristo Pass into the valley in 1877, that purpose came to an end. The railroad served as a symbol that the valley was being fully incorporated into American society and would not remain a frontier much longer.

    The army’s lease on Fort Garland ran out at the end of June 1882. By that time a group of investors, including William Gilpin, the first territorial governor of Colorado, had acquired title to the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. Gilpin began to charge the army $100 per month for its lease. Within months, General William Tecumseh Sherman advised the secretary of war that Fort Garland was “obsolete and ought to be abandoned.” At the end of November 1883, the fort was decommissioned and its remaining troops moved to Fort Lewis, near Durango. The army paid for the bodies of all soldiers buried at Fort Garland (except those with strong family ties to the area) to be exhumed and reburied at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

    After the army left, the fort and its land reverted to the Trinchera Estate, which had acquired the title from Gilpin. The fort’s property fell into disuse and passed through many hands over the next four decades. The Trinchera Timber Company rented the fort’s buildings in 1912–15, before William H. Meyer bought the fort and began to live in the old commander’s quarters. The fort passed through several more hands in the 1920s until one owner planned to raze the remaining buildings and sell them for parts.

    Preservation and Restoration

    The prospect of demolition and sale spurred locals in Costilla and Conejos Counties to form the Fort Garland Historical Fair Association in May 1928. The purpose of the association was to preserve what remained of the fort. The idea was that the site might serve as a county fairground in the future. The association tried to get support from the Colorado Historical Society (now History Colorado) and the National Park Service to purchase the site, but failed to generate sufficient interest. Undeterred, the association went around the San Luis Valley selling $5 shares to ranchers, farmers, and businesspeople. This fundraising effort enabled the association to buy Fort Garland in 1929. Just then, however, the Great Depression hit, and the association struggled simply to pay taxes on the property throughout the 1930s and early 1940s.

    In 1945 the Colorado Historical Society acquired the site. By that time all but five of the original twenty-two buildings had been demolished or had deteriorated beyond repair. The five remaining buildings were restored, with new roofs, adobe bricks, and interior fittings, and the restored Fort Garland opened as a museum in 1950. In 1966 the Colorado Historical Society completely rebuilt a sixth building, the company quarters, on its original foundation. The reconstruction was performed prior to any archaeological work at the site and used concrete blocks and stucco rather than adobe bricks.

    Fort Garland continues to operate as a regional museum devoted to the history of the San Luis Valley. Starting in the 1990s and continuing into the twenty-first century, the Colorado Historical Society has conducted a thorough archaeological investigation at the site. Under the direction of Anne Bond, the investigation has explored the foundations of the fort’s original buildings. They excavated old trash deposits to try to find out more about life at the fort in the nineteenth century.

    The US Army operated Fort Garland in the San Luis Valley for twenty-five years, from 1858 to 1883. The fort was built to protect early settlers from Native American raids before treaties, reservations, and Indian removal made that mission obsolete. After decades of neglect, the fort was restored in the mid-twentieth century. It now operates as one of History Colorado’s regional museums.

    Borderland

    Fort Garland stands in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. It was long perched on the border between different and antagonistic cultures. A high-elevation desert guarded on most sides by mountain ranges, the valley was inhabited primarily by Southern Ute people before the 1600s. The Apache lived just over the mountains to the east. Starting in the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth century, the Spanish moved up the Rio Grande through what is now New Mexico, and the Comanche dominated the high plains east of the Rocky Mountains. Situated between many different and often antagonistic cultures, the San Luis Valley became a dangerous frontier.

    After the United States completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Zebulon Montgomery Pike was dispatched to explore the upper Red and Arkansas Rivers. In January 1807, Pike’s expedition reached the San Luis Valley. Pike’s men passed near the future site of Fort Garland on their way to the Conejos River, where they built a crude log shelter known as Pike’s Stockade.

    In 1821 Mexico won independence from Spain and claimed the valley. At about the same time, regular commerce began on the Santa Fé Trail that linked Missouri and New Mexico. The trail followed the Arkansas River west into what is now Colorado. One route went over Sangre de Cristo Pass into the San Luis Valley before heading south to Taos. Webs of commerce were beginning to bind the valley to the cultures just beyond its borders.

    The San Luis Valley became part of the United States after the Mexican-American War of 1846–48. Charles Beaubien acquired the former Mexican land grant that encompassed much of the valley. In the early 1850s, Beaubien encouraged Hispano families from the Taos Valley in New Mexico to move north and establish colonies in the San Luis Valley along Rio Culebra. Founded in 1851, the town of San Luis de Culebra is the oldest continuous settlement in Colorado. Soon, the San Luis Valley began to be incorporated into the American political and social order.

    Fort Massachusetts and Fort Garland

    In the spring and summer of 1852, about a year after the founding of San Luis, the US Army built its first fort in the San Luis Valley to protect settlers and establish US authority. The fort, called Fort Massachusetts, lay in the foothills about a day’s ride north of town. It had several problems. Its location made it vulnerable to attack from higher ground. Also, the building failed to provide adequate protection from the valley’s brutal winters. This became clear during the winter of 1855–56, when scurvy and subzero temperatures made the troops sick and miserable.

    On July 17, 1856, the army secured a lease on a new plot of land on the floor of the San Luis Valley. Under the terms of the deal, the army agreed to pay Charles Beaubien rent of one dollar per year for twenty-five years. The army quickly picked a location right on the trails coming over Sangre de Cristo Pass and La Veta Pass. This location had clear views in all directions. The new fort, called Fort Garland, consisted of a rectangle of single-story buildings with adobe walls three feet thick to help protect soldiers from the cold winters. The troops at Fort Massachusetts lowered their flag on June 24, 1858. They marched a few miles south to take up residence at Fort Garland.

    During the Civil War, Fort Garland served as an important enlistment site and rendezvous point for companies of Colorado Volunteers heading south to stop Confederate attempts to take New Mexico in 1861–62. These volunteers helped win the Battle of Glorieta Pass, New Mexico, in late March 1862. The battle effectively ended the Civil War in the western territories.

    Indian Wars

    For twenty years after the Civil War, Fort Garland’s primary business was to secure and enforce treaties with local Native Americans, primarily Southern Utes, to make the valley safe for settlement. The 1863 Treaty of Conejos attempted to impose limits on Ute territory, but it was only signed by one band of Utes. Therefore, few Utes abided by the terms of the agreement.

    Fort Garland’s most famous and perhaps most successful commander during these years was the legendary mountain man and army officer Kit Carson (1809–68). Carson arrived in May 1866 with four companies of New Mexico Volunteers. In 1868 he helped arrange an agreement by which Ute chiefs would give up their claims in much of central Colorado, including the San Luis Valley. The Utes were to move to the western third of the state in exchange for a payment of $60,000 per year for thirty years.

    The peace Carson helped forge lasted until 1879, at least in the San Luis Valley. In southwestern Colorado, however, prospectors in the La Plata and San Juan Mountains soon came into conflict with the Utes who had moved there. In the 1870s, soldiers from Fort Garland were sent to help secure peace between the Utes and the encroaching miners. Even during periods of relative peace, the soldiers at Fort Garland still had to fight the biting cold of winter, which claimed the lives of many men.

    In one of history’s many ironies, the soldiers at Fort Garland who were tasked with securing Colorado for primarily white Anglo settlement were a diverse lot. The army tended to send its foreign-born recruits, many of whom could not speak English, to remote posts like Fort Garland. Companies of largely Hispano New Mexico Volunteers were stationed at the fort in 1862–63 and again with Kit Carson in 1866–67. From 1876 to 1879 the fort was home to the black Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth Cavalry.

    Any semblance of peace between whites and Utes in Colorado ended on September 29, 1879. Utes clashed with the army at Milk Creek in northwest Colorado. In what became known as the Meeker Massacre, Utes killed Indian agent Nathan Meeker and ten others at the White River Agency. By then Fort Garland had become a somewhat sleepy post and was assumed to have no real strategic value. After the massacre, however, it suddenly bustled with activity. Fifteen companies were temporarily stationed at the fort. Lack of space forced most of them to live in tents throughout the bone-chilling winter. In 1880 the troops at Fort Garland helped push the Utes out of the Rocky Mountains to new reservations in Utah and in far southwestern Colorado.

    Railroad Arrival and Fort Decommission

    Fort Garland was originally meant to secure the San Luis Valley for settlers. But that was no longer necessary after the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad crossed Sangre de Cristo Pass into the valley in 1877. The railroad’s arrival signaled that the valley was being fully incorporated into American society.

    The army’s lease on Fort Garland ran out at the end of June 1882. By that time a group of investors, including William Gilpin, the first territorial governor of Colorado, had acquired title to the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. Gilpin began to charge the army $100 per month for its lease. Within months, General William Tecumseh Sherman advised the secretary of war that Fort Garland was “obsolete and ought to be abandoned.” At the end of November 1883, the fort was decommissioned. Its remaining troops moved to Fort Lewis, near Durango. The army paid for the bodies of all soldiers buried at Fort Garland (except those with strong family ties to the area) to be exhumed. They were reburied at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

    After the army left, the fort and its land reverted to the Trinchera Estate, which had acquired the title from Gilpin. The fort’s property fell into disuse and passed through many hands over the next four decades. The Trinchera Timber Company rented the fort’s buildings in 1912–15, before William H. Meyer bought the fort and began to live in the old commander’s quarters. The fort passed through several more hands in the 1920s. At last, one owner planned to raze the remaining buildings and sell their parts.

    Preservation and Restoration

    The prospect of demolition and sale spurred locals in Costilla and Conejos Counties to form the Fort Garland Historical Fair Association in May 1928. The purpose of the association was to preserve what remained of the fort. The idea was that the site might serve as a county fairground in the future. The association tried to get support from the Colorado Historical Society (now History Colorado) and the National Park Service to purchase the site. They failed to generate sufficient interest. Undeterred, the association went around the San Luis Valley selling $5 shares to ranchers, farmers, and businesspeople. This fundraising effort enabled the association to buy Fort Garland in 1929. Just then, however, the Great Depression hit. The association struggled to pay taxes on the property throughout the 1930s and early 1940s.

    In 1945 the Colorado Historical Society acquired the site. By that time all but five of the original twenty-two buildings had been demolished or had deteriorated beyond repair. The five remaining buildings were restored, with new roofs, adobe bricks, and interior fittings.  The restored Fort Garland opened as a museum in 1950. In 1966 the Colorado Historical Society completely rebuilt a sixth building, the company quarters, on its original foundation. The reconstruction was performed prior to any archaeological work at the site. Workers used concrete blocks and stucco rather than adobe bricks.

    Fort Garland continues to operate as a regional museum devoted to the history of the San Luis Valley. Starting in the 1990s and continuing into the twenty-first century, the Colorado Historical Society has conducted a thorough archaeological investigation at the site. Under the direction of Anne Bond, the investigation has explored the foundations of the fort’s original buildings to find out more about life at the fort in the nineteenth century.

    The US Army operated Fort Garland in the San Luis Valley for twenty-five years, from 1858 to 1883. The fort was built to protect early settlers from Native American raids. This was in the years before treaties, reservations, and Indian removal made protection unnecessary. The fort was restored in the mid-twentieth century. It had been neglected for many years.  It now operates as one of History Colorado’s regional museums.

    Borderland

    Fort Garland stands in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. There were different cultures surrounding it. The San Luis Valley is a high-elevation desert guarded on most sides by mountain ranges. The valley was inhabited primarily by Southern Utes before the 1600s. The Apache tribe lived just over the mountains to the east. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, two more cultures extended into the valley. The Spanish moved up the Rio Grande through what is now New Mexico. At the same time, the Comanche dominated the high plains east of the Rocky Mountains. The San Luis Valley sat on the edge of both growing cultures.

    Yet another culture began to move into the valley in the early nineteenth century. The United States completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. After this, Zebulon Montgomery Pike was sent to explore the upper Red and Arkansas Rivers. This is where the boundaries of the Purchase were disputed. In January 1807, his expedition crossed Medano Pass into the San Luis Valley. Pike’s men passed near the future site of Fort Garland.

    Mexico claimed the San Luis Valley. This was after Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821. At about the same time, regular business began on the Santa Fé Trail that linked Missouri and New Mexico. The trail followed the Arkansas River west into what is now Colorado. One route went over Sangre de Cristo Pass into the San Luis Valley before heading south to Taos. Trade and business were beginning to connect the valley to the cultures just beyond its borders.

    The San Luis Valley became part of the United States after the Mexican-American War of 1846–48. Charles Beaubien bought the land grant that included much of the valley. In the early 1850s, Beaubien encouraged Hispano families from the Taos Valley in New Mexico to move north. He wanted them to build colonies in the valley along Rio Culebra. Founded in 1851, the town of San Luis de Culebra is the oldest continuous settlement in Colorado. More Hispanos (people who lived in the southwest before it became part of the United States) began moving to the San Luis Valley.

    Fort Massachusetts and Fort Garland

    In the spring and summer of 1852, the US Army built its first fort, called Fort Massachusetts, in the San Luis Valley. The fort was built to protect settlers and establish US authority. The fort lay in the foothills about a day’s ride north of town. It had several problems. Its location made it open to attack from higher ground. Also, the building failed to give soldiers enough protection from the valley’s hard winters. This became clear during the winter of 1855–56. Scurvy and subzero temperatures made the troops sick and miserable.

    On July 17, 1856, the army got a lease on a new plot of land on the floor of the San Luis Valley. Under the terms of the deal, the army agreed to pay Charles Beaubien rent of one dollar per year for twenty-five years. The army quickly picked a valley location right on the trails coming over Sangre de Cristo Pass and La Veta Pass. This spot had clear views in all directions. There they built a new fort, called Fort Garland. The fort consisted of a rectangle of single-story buildings. The buildings had adobe walls that were three feet thick. These walls were to help protect soldiers from the cold San Luis Valley winters. The troops at Fort Massachusetts lowered their flag on June 24, 1858. They marched a few miles south to Fort Garland.

    During the Civil War, Fort Garland served as an important enlistment site and meeting place for companies of Colorado Volunteers. They were heading south to stop Confederate attempts to take New Mexico in 1861–62. These volunteers helped win the Battle of Glorieta Pass, New Mexico, in late March 1862. This battle brought an end to the Civil War in the western territories.

    Indian Wars

    After the Civil War ended, Fort Garland’s job for the next twenty years was to make the San Luis Valley safe for settlement. They made treaties with local Native Americans, mainly Southern Utes, and enforced the treaties. The 1863 Treaty of Conejos attempted to impose limits on Ute territory. It had been signed by only one band of Utes, so few Utes abided by the terms of the agreement.

    Fort Garland’s most successful commander during these years was an army officer named Kit Carson (1809–68). He was a famous mountain man. Carson arrived in May 1866 with four companies of New Mexico Volunteers. He helped arrange an agreement with the Ute chiefs. In the agreement, the Utes would give up their claims to much of central Colorado. This included the San Luis Valley. The Utes were to move to the southwest quadrant of the state. This was in exchange for a payment of $60,000 per year for thirty years.

    Carson left Fort Garland in October 1867. The peace he had worked on lasted until 1879, at least in the San Luis Valley. In southwestern Colorado, however, prospectors in the La Plata and San Juan Mountains soon came into conflict with the Utes who had moved there. In the 1870s, soldiers from Fort Garland were sent to help keep the peace between the Utes and the miners.

    The soldiers stationed at Fort Garland were a diverse bunch. They were tasked with making sure the mainly white settlements were safe. The army tended to send its foreign-born recruits, many of whom could not speak English, to remote posts like Fort Garland. Companies of mainly Hispano New Mexico Volunteers were stationed at the fort in 1862–63, and with Kit Carson in 1866–67. From 1876 to 1879 the fort was home to the black Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth Cavalry. Even during periods that were mainly peaceful, soldiers still had to fight the biting cold of winter in the high desert. The cold took the lives of many men.

    Any show of peace between whites and Utes in Colorado ended on September 29, 1879. Utes clashed with the army at Milk Creek in northwestern Colorado. They killed Indian agent Nathan Meeker and ten others at the White River Agency. By then, Fort Garland had become a somewhat sleepy post. It was not thought to be important. After the Meeker Massacre, however, it was suddenly busy with activity. Fifteen companies were stationed at the fort for a short time. Most of them had to live in tents throughout the bone-chilling winter because there wasn’t enough space in the fort. In 1880 the troops at Fort Garland helped move the Utes out of the Rocky Mountains. They went to new reservations. Some went to Utah. Others went to southwestern Colorado near the New Mexico border.

    Railroad Arrival and Fort Decommission

    Fort Garland was originally built to make the San Luis Valley safe for settlers. That was no longer necessary after the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad reached the valley in 1877. The railroad served as a symbol that the valley was being brought into American society. It would not remain a frontier much longer.

    When the army signed its original lease for the land around Fort Garland, it had agreed to pay one dollar per month for twenty-five years. That lease ran out at the end of June 1882. By that time a group of investors had been given the title to the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. One of the investors was William Gilpin. He served as the first territorial governor of Colorado in the early 1860s. Gilpin began to charge the army $100 per month for its lease. Within months, General William Tecumseh Sherman told the secretary of war that Fort Garland “ought to be abandoned.” At the end of November 1883, the fort was decommissioned. Its remaining troops moved to Fort Lewis, near Durango. The army paid for the bodies of all soldiers buried at Fort Garland (except those with strong family ties to the area) to be exhumed. They were reburied at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

    After the army left, the fort’s property fell into disuse and passed through many hands over the next four decades. The Trinchera Timber Company rented the fort’s buildings in 1912–15. Later, William H. Meyer bought the fort and began to live in the old commander’s quarters. The fort passed through several more owners in the 1920s. At last, one owner planned to tear down the remaining buildings and sell them for parts.

    Preservation and Restoration

    There was a plan for the fort to be torn down. People in Costilla and Conejos Counties decided to form the Fort Garland Historical Fair Association in May 1928. The purpose of the association was to save what remained of the fort. The idea was that the site might serve as a county fairground in the future. The association tried to get help from the Colorado Historical Society (now History Colorado) and the National Park Service to buy the site. They were not able to gain enough interest. So, the association went around the San Luis Valley selling $5 shares to ranchers, farmers, and businesspeople. This fundraising effort allowed the association to buy Fort Garland in 1929. Just then, however, the Great Depression hit. The association had trouble paying taxes on the property throughout the 1930s and early 1940s.

    In 1945 the Colorado Historical Society bought the site. By that time all but five of the original twenty-two buildings had been torn down or were beyond repair. The five remaining buildings were restored, with new roofs, adobe bricks, and interior fittings. The restored Fort Garland opened as a museum in 1950.

    Fort Garland continues to operate as a regional museum devoted to the history of the San Luis Valley. The Colorado Historical Society has done a complete archaeological investigation at the site. Under the direction of Anne Bond, the investigation has looked at the foundations of the fort’s original buildings. They dug up old trash deposits to try to find out more about life at the fort in the nineteenth century.