Part 2

September 23, 1866. We’ve had big doings round here. Lieutenant General W. T. Sherman, Governor (A.) Cumming, a whole patch of Ute chiefs and Kit Carson met to try to work out a treaty. This was to be a preliminary council afore the big one to be held on the banks of the Rio Grande, some thirty miles from here. On one side of the council room squatted the chiefs and on the other side sat Sherman, smoking a long cigar, with Kit on one side of him and the Governor on the other. Carson talked to the chiefs, he being the only one who could speak any language they could all understand. Kit urged the Utes to take to a reservation, as Sherman wanted them to do, but they didn’t like the idea. Chief Uray told Kit he knew he spoke for the Indian’s good, but that they couldn’t live so confined. Sherman gave up, finally, remarking that they’d have to freeze and starve a little bit more afore they’d listen to reason. The next council meeting gained only a little more. Governor Cumming did get the Tabequaches to agree to a treaty which permitted roads to be built through their lands. Chief Uray had signed another treaty in 1864. Uray even took a trip to Washington by stage and train and talked with President Lincoln. They say he came back and told his people that the Indians could never keep the white men out of their lands; that there were too many of them. Mighty smart Indian.

October 10, 1866. Some of the Ute tribes have been on the warpath again. Chief Cuneatch[5] is angry with Uray for dealing with the Whites and has stirred up some of the other chiefs. A few settlers and some Indians have been killed. The post stands as a strong point in the Valley these days, but our commander, Colonel Carson, and his friend Chief Uray are our real strength. Carson has told all the Indians to camp near the fort and not go north for their presents this year. He has promised them food and presents if they stay and remain peaceful. Some of the young bucks will go to war, but Carson and Uray will keep the remainder of the Utes hobbled and staked.

October 28, 1866. Captain (A. J.) Alexander of the 3rd Cavalry and some of his men took care of Cuneatch’s band of trouble-makers. They rounded up most of them and brought them into the fort; had to kill a few of them, however, before they could get old Cuneatch to come. Colonel Carson wants to get some kind of agreement or treaty signed with this bunch of Utes before real trouble sets in.

April 25, 1868. Kit Carson is dead. He died on the 23rd, after his return from Washington. He and several Ute chiefs, including Chief Uray, went to Washington to confer on a treaty for the Ute or Utah Indians. The treaty was drawn-up, but hasn’t been ratified by Congress. But old Kit is dead! His last official act was to try to keep the peace.

July 17, 1868. My outfit is leaving Garland and this time I’ll be going along. I wonder when or if I’ll see the fort again? Meyer and Posthoff entertained the whole detachment last night with a farewell blow. Molly and our two little ones will have to follow me to the new post at a later date.

(The Valley was fairly peaceful during the years of Sgt. O’Connor’s absence. Life at the fort changed but little, as new companies of Infantry and Cavalry came and went.)

September 10, 1879. Back home again. Returned to Fort Garland last week after more’n ten years here, there and everywhere, with first one outfit and then another. A soldier’s life is a weary one. But it’s good to be back here where I really began soldiering. Let’s see now, been 19 years since I first came to Garland. The place has changed since the early days. Even got a railroad running by the fort—came in ’78. Two years earlier Colorado Territory was made the 38th State. New buildings have been added; all made of the same old adobe, of course. The parade is a little greener and the cottonwood trees have grown tall enough to make good shade. The barrack rooms are now heated with stoves as well as fireplaces and they’ve built a kitchen and mess to the southwest of the Infantry barrack. The soldiers’ quarters have a little more furniture and the officers’ quarters are a little more spick and span. More females about the place, too, now that the Valley is more civilized. The soldiers here are a lot younger than they used to be; lot of pink-faced boys who’ve never heard an Indian whoop.

October 10, 1879. We just got news of the Indian uprising in Western Colorado. An Indian agent by the name of N. C. Meeker at the White River Agency was killed and some of his people killed or carried off. Major T. T. Thornburgh and his troops from Fort Steele, Wyoming, had been sent for before the affair began, but they didn’t arrive in time to save Meeker. Battle began on September 29th and took place somewhere between Beaver Creek and Milk River between Thornburgh’s men and a whole parcel of Utes under a chief named Jack. It’s said that Thornburgh had less than 150 men, mostly Cavalry, while the Utes numbered 300-400. A detachment of colored troops from Garland in on the affair, we’re told. Thornburgh made a defense and held off the Utes for several days, but the situation was pretty bad. By the 1st of October they got word to Rawlings, Wyoming and a General Merritt set out with about 350 men. On the morning of the 5th, after a 170 mile forced march, Merritt’s men arrived at the burned-over circle of wagons which marked the defender’s position. I know how Thornburgh’s men yelled when they saw that relief column that morning. I’ve set-up considerable howl myself on similar occasions. In cases like that you don’t care if the men coming to rescue you are Infantry or Cavalry, you’re that glad.

June 4, 1880. More troops coming into the fort every day. The fracas out at the White River Agency last year has caused considerable excitement, although the Indians around here have been fairly quiet. Chief Uray has done a lot to keep things peaceful in the valley. If he’d had his way about it, the Thornburgh affair wouldn’t have happened. The post and the town are bustling—they even got a hotel here now. It may not be much for comfort, but it’s something for these parts. If they don’t stop sending in new units and new men, some of us may be sleeping in worse places than the hotel.

September 1, 1880. Bad news came this week. Chief Uray or Ouray, as some call him, died on August 24. He’d been made big chief of the Utes and had held them pretty well in tow; hard to say what will happen now. More men coming into Garland. Most of the new-comers are living in tents.

June 1, 1881. Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) R. S. Mackenzie, in command of the troops stationed here at the fort, has set out for the Uncompahgre valley to prepare to move the Utes into Utah. Old Ouray is dead and the thing he never wanted to see is going to happen—his people will be moved to a reservation. Maybe it’s best for them.

October 1, 1881. The Utes had to be threatened by Mackenzie before they’d start the long hike into Utah, but when they found they had no choice they went quietly and mighty pronto. The Whites thereabout were, of course, happy to see them leave. Everyone realizes that this puts an end to any Indian menace in the State.

March 16, 1882. With the Indians gone, the old fort is back to normal and maybe short of normal. Last year we had as many as 1500 men here—now we’re down to a couple of companies. My boys are growing up, but by the time they’re soldier age it appears there won’t be any place for them to soldier.

July 4, 1882. Had a big Independence Day celebration here today. Not much else to celebrate. Inspection team came to the fort again this week and it looks as if they’re going to close up all the old forts and kick-out all the old soldiers. The company commander, a young buck, had the brass to tell me I was getting too old to soldier. This fort’s getting old too. They haven’t been keeping the adobe walls plastered with mud like they used to and the rains have been making little rivers down the sides of the buildings.

February 5, 1883. At the end of this enlistment—which comes up in December this year—they say I’ve got to retire. I’m not an old man, but several old wounds have been bothering me and the doctor turned in a bad report on me. Why! I won’t know what to do away from the Army and this old fort. They might as well shoot me like they do a horse that’s broken his leg.

October 10, 1883. Major General John Pope, commanding the Department of the Missouri, has recommended to the War Department that they close several Indian forts and Garland is one of them. Well, the old fort and the old soldier can go together.

November 29, 1883. Tomorrow the fort closes—likely forever. Company A, 22nd United States Infantry, under the command of Captain Javan Irvine, will leave here for Fort Lewis, Colorado, and no new company will come to replace it—as has happened for these past twenty-odd years. Somehow it won’t seem so bad to leave the Army now, knowing that Garland and I close our gates together. Family and I are going to stay on in the valley and try doing a little ranching. Got a whole flock of kids to help.

Fort Garland Becomes A State Museum

By Rosamund Slack

In 1883 Fort Garland was abandoned and the equipment belonging to the fort was sent to the new Fort Lewis, while the fort lands reverted to the Trinchera Estate. For many years stock wandered across the parade to nibble of the grass once trod by drilling soldiers—rats and other small animals inhabited the barracks and officer’s quarters. Decay and erosion set to work in earnest in an effort to destroy the old fort. It appeared that the once proud adobe walls would become a part of the soil again and that Fort Garland would be only a memory in the minds of a few old soldiers who had made the garrison their home.

In 1915 W. H. Meyer, a State senator, bought the property and used the commandant’s house for his home. One of the barracks became a barn. The Meyer home was altered soon afterwards, a gable roof and additional windows being added. Fortunately, Meyer was interested in history and in the fort. He tried to keep the remaining buildings in some kind of repair and never deliberately changed the appearance of any building to any extent other than the commandant’s quarters.

Senator Meyer died in 1925 and a group of interested citizens of the San Luis Valley formed the Fort Garland Historical Fair Association and purchased the fort, with the idea of preserving what remained and someday establishing a museum. Over 600 persons in the surrounding area supported this project. A small museum was begun in the commandant’s house and once again the fort heard the sound of many voices, and felt the tread of many feet.

After several years of vain effort to maintain the fort buildings, the Fort Garland Historical Fair Association decided the job was one that should be done by a larger institution. In 1945 the fort and its land were deeded to the State Historical Society of Colorado, for restoration and development as a State historical monument. For two years Curator Edgar C. McMechen and his staff at the Denver museum worked and planned for the restoration of the five remaining buildings at the fort. In 1947 the actual restoration was begun.

Mr. McMechen, a meticulous scholar, sought to reconstruct the fort as nearly as possible to its original appearance. He wished to use every original stone, every brick, every timber that was sound in the reconstructed buildings. The first step in the restoration was the removal of the old roofs which had, for the most part, collapsed or become unsound. The five buildings under construction were the west barracks, sometimes referred to as the Infantry barracks, the east, or Cavalry barracks, and three of the original five officer’s quarters along the north of the parade. The east barracks had suffered the most from lack of repair and deterioration. One wall had crumbled and fallen away and nothing remained of the roof but the cross beams. The buildings to the south had long since disappeared and while the Society planned to rebuild these two long structures, it found it impossible to undertake the task at that time. The two officers’ quarters located immediately to the right and left of the commandant’s building had also vanished and were not to be rebuilt.

The reconstruction work on the fort buildings required careful supervision. The adobe bricks were made as they were made in 1858—the mud being molded in forms and placed in the sun to bake. After the adobes were set in place, the walls were plastered inside and out with a coat of the same adobe material. Mexican women were employed to work the mud into the crevices and give the walls a smooth surface. This they did with their hands, alone, just as it has been done in the Southwest United States for centuries.

Plans for the fort museum called for the following: the commanding officers’ quarters, where Colonel Kit Carson commanded in 1866-67, to be restored as nearly as possible as it was when the famous scout resided there, with deer and antelope heads on the walls and the skins of animals covering the floor; one of the officer’s quarters to be used for a resident curator and not to be open to the public; the Cavalry barracks to be utilized as a period museum, to represent the history of the San Luis Valley from the days of the Spanish Conquest to pioneer settlement; the Infantry barracks to contain a typical squad room and the old soldier’s theatre. The painted backdrop on the wall of the theatre was still visible prior to restoration and the simple mural was to be restored. At some later date the two buildings to the south of the parade, on either side of the port sally, were to be rebuilt and would include the commandant’s and adjutant’s offices, the guard room, prisoners’ cells, post blacksmith shop, the post bakery and the post chapel. These rooms would all be furnished and equipped in the manner of the fort’s original service buildings.

The Fort Garland Museum is an attempt to preserve in all its many aspects, military life at a frontier post in the 1860’s-70’s. The museum is also a store-house for the history of the southern portion of the State of Colorado. Many methods have been utilized to depict and present the colorful and exciting history of this area. In the west barrack, several dioramas illustrate in miniature scenes of: the Spanish Conquest, a Ute Indian camp, fur trading, a Mexican village, an Army escort wagon, a mule pack train and ambulance, and a stage coach robbery. Glass cases house a large collection of both military and pioneer materials. Period rooms, using life size manikins dressed in authentic costumes, will be placed in appropriate room settings, i.e., Kit Carson in conference with his aides and Chief Ouray.

In September of 1950 the reconstructed Fort Garland was dedicated with an impressive ceremony. Dr. James Grafton Rogers, president of the Society, gave the dedicatory address. Hundreds of persons from the surrounding area were on hand to see a long time dream of the region come to fruition.

The State of Colorado is indebted to a great number of people in the San Luis Valley, in particular, for their aid in bringing Fort Garland into being as a State monument, but the list would be too long to enter here. The State Historical Society is especially appreciative of the aid given and interest show by members of the Fort Garland Historical Fair Association, the Territorial Daughters and the Regional Committee on Fort Garland.

Mrs. Rosamund Slack assumed curatorship of Fort Garland in 1950, after the death of her husband, James Slack, who had been the curator.

PRINTED BY PEERLESS PRINTING CO.

The exhibits for the Fort Garland buildings were prepared by members of the State Historical Society’s staff, which included: Roy Hunt, H. R. Antle, Paul Rossi, Juan Menchaca, Mervin King, the late Curator Edgar C. McMechen and James T. Forrest, who became Deputy Curator in charge of the Colorado State Museums in 1953.

Footnotes

[1]Chief Ouray’s name was often spelled Uray or Ulay.

[2]Willians, Ellen, _History of the Second Colorados_, 1885.

[3]Tobin, Thomas T., “The Capture of the Espinosas,” _Colorado Magazine_, Vol. IX, pp. 59-66.

[4]Chief Ouray of the Tabequache tribe of the Utes.

[5]This is Chief Kaneache of the Muache tribe of the Utes.

Transcriber’s Notes

--Generated an original cover image, released for free and unrestricted use with this Distributed-Proofreaders-Canada eBook.

--Silently corrected a few palpable typos.

--Retained copyright notice from the printed edition (which is now public-domain in the country of publication.)

--In the text versions only, delimited italicized text in _underscores_.