Fort Garland

Wednesday Dustin was in Denver all day so David and I took a little fieldtrip. We drove out to Fort Garland to visit the Museum. It was really fun to check out an old military fort and learn more about it. When I paid for my admission I was given a sheet with information about the fort. Enjoy the pictures and the information is at the bottom, if you want to read it. After visiting the fort we ran over the to Veterans Memorial because there was a cool plane there.

Fort Garland

1858-1883

As a result of the U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848) and the resulting Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, Mexico ceded much of the Southwest to the United States. Having considerably increased its size, the U.S. build forts throughout the West to protect existing settlements and to encourage future expansion. Fort Garland was but one of these new forts.

Several bands of Utes inhabited western Colorado, northern New Mexico, and much of Utah. Having been here for thousands of years prior to the arrival of the U.S., they resisted Spanish and Anglo settlement. Other American Indian nations also vied for this land, both with the Utes and incoming settlers.

The first fort in the area was Fort Massachusetts, built in 1852 six miles northeast of Fort Garland. It was located away from American Indian trails and situated between two mountains, making it potentially vulnerable to enemies. For this reason, Fort Massachusetts was closed and its men and equipment moved to Fort Garland on June 24, 1858.

Fort Garland was built on land leased from the Sangre de Cristo Mexican Land Grant. Like Fort Union, headquarters of the New Mexico Department on the Santa Fe Trail, it was built with adobe. The primary mission of the fort was to protect settlers from potential Ute and Plains Indian attachs. It was named for Brevet Bridadier General John Garland, then in command of the Department of New Mexico. Once it was completed, the fort had twenty-two buildings. Today the two barracks which housed infantry and cavalry companies still stand in their restored form. Three other restored buildings comprise the Officers' Quarters and one building - the Company Quarters - is a reconstructed building erected in 1960.

During the Civil War, Texas Confederate General Henry Sibley had designs on Colorado gold fields which could provide needed resources for the South. To read Colorado, he needed to overtakes forts in New Mexico. Hearing word of this, the newly designated Colorado Territory (1861) prepared to defend its land and gold from the Confederates. In 1861, Colorado Volunteers marches through hazardous winter weather to join forces with New Mexico Volunteers, fending off Texas Confederates in the Battle of Glorieta Pass. Union soldiers destroyed Confederate supplies and rebuffed troop movements, thus thwarting Sibley's effort to bring the Civil War to the West.

Christopher "Kit" Carson commanded New Mexico Volunteers here from 1866 to 1867. Through his knowledge of native languages and culture, he was able to negotiate treaties with Chief Ouray and the Utes. As a result of the treaties, the Utes moved to reservations in southwestern Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. Following the Civil War, Buffalo Soldiers (freed African American slaves), stationed in forts throughout the West, served here between 1876 and 1879. Having served the expanding West for twenty-five years, and having outlived its purpose, the fort was abandoned in 1883 by the U.S. military.