Fort Massachusetts was a military installation built in the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado. It was located near the western bank of Ute Creek on the base of Mount Blanca and sat at an elevation of 8,000 feet, [1] approximately 6 miles north of present-day Fort Garland.
Built in 1852, and abandoned in 1858, Fort Massachusetts was the first regularly-garrisoned government installation established on the soil that would soon be the territory of Colorado. [2] However, at the time of its construction and occupation, the land was technically part of the New Mexico Territory, and the San Luis Valley remained vastly unsettled. [3] The fort was built to maintain control of the valley and to protect white settlers and Ute Indians from one another. Its other purpose was to serve as a headquarters for Indian Agents and to make clear to Mexico that the area was now a U.S. territory as mandated by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was signed five years before the construction of Fort Massachusetts.[1]
The fortification was commissioned by the United States War Department in June 1852 and commanded by Major George A.H. Blake of the United States First Dragoons. [3] The fort was constructed mostly out of wood in a quadrangular shape from the surrounding forest and was fortified by a wooden palisade wall. [1] Two companies (Company F, 1st Dragoon, and Company H, 3rd United States Infantry) were garrisoned at the fort. In total, 93 men lived inside the fort's walls. [3]
Along with soldiers, there were women and children who lived in the fort as well. They were the families of the soldiers, and officers. The wives tended to work as post laundresses, tending to the laundry of the soldiers who were garrisoned at the Fort. [1]
Indian bands continued to attack and raid settlements despite the military's presence. The fort itself was never attacked, however, the fort played an instrumental part in the suppression of a band of Mohuache Ute and Jicarilla Apache Indians who attacked Fort Pueblo, located near modern-day Pueblo, Colorado, on Christmas Day in 1854. [3] After the news of the attack reached Colonel John Garland, the commander of the military district of New Mexico, he requested Governor David Meriwether to provide five companies of mounted volunteers to serve for a period of six months. [4] Governor Meriwether granted the request and 500 volunteers were mustered into service on January 31, 1855. [2] These volunteers joined up with the soldiers at Fort Massachusetts, one of whom was famed frontiersman and Indian Agent Kit Carson. [1]
On March 18, 1855, scouts discovered an Indian war party that was led by Chief Tierra Blanca, the perpetrator of the massacre at Fort Pueblo. [5] After scouts reported back, Colonel Thomas T. Fauntleroy, appointed commander of the forces sent by Garland, ordered his men to pursue Chief Blanca and his forces. The Indians found themselves overwhelmed and a retreat was called. Col. Fauntleroy's forces pursued the Indians across the San Luis Valley for several days until the majority of the force were killed, or escaped. [3]
After chasing the Indian forces out of the San Luis Valley, Col. Fauntleroy ordered his forces back to Fort Massachusetts for a period of three weeks to rest. [3] At the conclusion of three weeks, the Colonel split his forces up and sent half of them over the Sangre De Cristo range to campaign against Indian forces on the eastern plains, while the other half went north over Poncha Pass. The forces that went east were led by Lieutenant Colonel St. Vrain, and guided by Kit Carson. [3]
Forces led by Colonel Fauntleroy discovered a band of Ute Indians camped out near the modern-day town of Salida, Colorado on the night of April 28, 1855. [3] Upon daybreak, Col. Fauntleroy engaged the camp, and in a twenty-five minute battle, forty Utes were killed, and a large number of them were wounded. Only two of Fauntleroy's men were wounded in the engagement. [3]
After defeats in both the San Luis Valley and eastern plains, the Utes and Apaches were ready for peace. The Ute peace delegation met with Governor Meriwether near Abiquiu, New Mexico on September 10, 1855. [4] Governor Meriwether and the Ute delegation made a treaty under which the Utes would forfeit all territory in the San Luis Valley, excluding a 1,000-square mile reservation west of the Rio Grande River, and north of La Jara Creek. [3] In addition, the Utes requested the United States pay an amount of $66,000, which was granted. [3] The Apache delegation met with Governor Meriwether two days later on September 12, 1855, and made a similar treaty. The Apaches would forfeit all of their land excluding a 60,000-acre reservation, and requested a $36,000 payment. [3] This ended the Indian campaign of 1855, which was the only large scale engagement that Fort Massachusetts played a role in.
Even before the fort saw action in the campaign with the Utes and Apaches, there was talk about moving the fort due to its weak strategical location. This is highlighted by Colonel Joseph K.F. Mansfield, the Inspector General of the United States Army, after an inspection tour of the fort in 1853. An excerpt from his report follows:
"It is seated at the foot of the White Mountain which is perpetually snowtopped; and on Utah Creek at the mouth of a ravine out of which the creek flows a cool limpid stream. There is an abundance of wood and in the summer the grazing is good, but the warm season is short, and it is doubtful if corn will ripen here. The nearest settlement is 30 miles to the southward on the Coulubre (Culebra) River where there are about 25 families engaged in the planting of corn and wheat. The design of this post was to keep the Utah Indians in check and it is calculated for Dragoons and Infantry. The buildings are good and suitable as well as abundant. They are, however, placed too near the spur of the mountain for good defense against an enterprising enemy. All supplies for this post come from the settlements at the south as far as Taos Valley, and Fort Union, which may be called 165 miles distant. In winter the snow falls here to the depth of four feet….My impression are that this post would have been better located on the Culebra River, the most norther settlement in New Mexico, where access could be had to the Troops by the population of the Valley, without the hazard of being cut off by the Indians. The home of the Utah Indians is here, and particularly in the west of the Rio Grande del Norte. A post is therefore necessary in this quarter, and this Valley may before long be a good route of communication with the States in the summer season, and it probably is the best route of communicating between New Mexico and the Great Salt Lake and Northern California." [3]
The fort was in a bad location not only for military strategy but for the protection of the settlers of the valley. It would often be snowed in during the winter and was located too close to Ute Creek, so it would often become a swamp during the warmer seasons. [6] The fort had originally been placed because military scouts reported that the area was an Indian hunting ground, and at the time of the initial survey, the site was along the route settlers often took into the valley. However, by the time the fort was constructed, settlers had found easier trails that led into the valley.
In 1856 construction began on a new fort located six miles south of Fort Massachusetts. The new fort would consist of twenty-two one-story buildings built out of adobe. Completed in 1858, the new fort was named Fort Garland in honor of Colonel John Garland. [7] Fort Massachusetts no longer stands, and it is located on private land not open to the public. [8] The Fort Garland Museum located in Fort Garland, Colorado has a full model of Fort Massachusetts on display.
The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately 122 miles (196 km) long and 74 miles (119 km) wide, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It contains 6 counties and portions of 3 others. It is an extensive high-elevation depositional basin of approximately 8,000 square miles (21,000 km2) with an average elevation of 7,664 feet (2,336 m) above sea level. The valley is a section of the Rio Grande Rift and is drained to the south by the Rio Grande, which rises in the San Juan Mountains to the west of the valley and flows south into New Mexico. The San Luis Valley has a cold desert climate but has substantial water resources from the Rio Grande and groundwater.
Costilla County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,499. The county seat is San Luis, the oldest continuously occupied town in Colorado.
Fort Garland is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Costilla County, Colorado, United States. The Fort Garland post office has the ZIP Code 81133. At the United States Census 2010, the population of the Fort Garland CDP was 433, while the population of the 81133 ZIP Code Tabulation Area was 840 including adjacent areas.
San Luis is a statutory town that is the county seat and the most populous town of Costilla County, Colorado, United States. Formerly known as San Luis de la Culebra, it is the oldest continuously occupied town in Colorado. The population was 629 at the 2010 census.
The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settlers, against various American Indian and First Nation tribes. These conflicts occurred in North America from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the early 20th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for Indian tribes' lands. The European powers and their colonies also enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.
Jicarilla Apache, one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athabaskan language. The term jicarilla comes from Mexican Spanish meaning "little basket", referring to the small sealed baskets they used as drinking vessels. To neighboring Apache bands, such as the Mescalero and Lipan, they were known as Kinya-Inde.
The term Navajo Wars covers at least three distinct periods of conflict in the American West: the Navajo against the Spanish ; the Navajo against the Mexican government ; and the Navajo against the United States. These conflicts ranged from small-scale raiding to large expeditions mounted by governments into territory controlled by the Navajo. The Navajo Wars also encompass the widespread raiding that took place throughout the period; the Navajo raided other tribes and nearby settlements, who in return raided into Navajo territory, creating a cycle of raiding that perpetuated the conflict.
Samuel Forster Tappan was an American journalist, military officer, abolitionist and a Native American rights activist. Appointed as a member of the Indian Peace Commission in 1867 to reach peace with the Plains Indians, he advocated self-determination for native tribes. He proposed the federal government replace military jurisdiction over tribal matters with a form of civil law on reservations, applied by the tribes themselves.
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Meeker Massacre, or Meeker Incident, White River War, Ute War, or the Ute Campaign), took place on September 29, 1879 in Colorado. Members of a band of Ute Indians attacked the Indian agency on their reservation, killing the Indian agent Nathan Meeker and his 10 male employees and taking five women and children as hostages. Meeker had been attempting to convert the Utes to Christianity, to make them farmers, and to prevent them from following their nomadic culture. On the same day as the massacre, United States Army forces were en route to the Agency from Fort Steele in Wyoming due to threats against Meeker. The Utes attacked U.S. troops led by Major Thomas T. Thornburgh at Milk Creek, 18 mi (29 km) north of present day Meeker, Colorado. They killed the major and 13 troops. Relief troops were called in and the Utes dispersed.
The Southern Ute Indian Reservation is a Native American reservation in southwestern Colorado near the northern New Mexico state line. Its territory consists of land from three counties; in descending order of surface area they are La Plata, Archuleta, and Montezuma Counties. The reservation has a land area of 1,058.785 sq mi (2,742.24 km²). Its largest communities are Ignacio and Arboles. The only other community that is recognized as a separate place by the Census Bureau is the CDP of Southern Ute, which lies just southeast of Ignacio.
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| Trading posts and civilian forts |
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| U.S. and Spanish military forts |
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