Fort Morgan | |
---|---|
U.S. military post | |
Nickname(s): Camp Tyler, Camp Wardwell | |
Coordinates: 40°15′41″N103°48′00″W / 40.26139°N 103.80000°W Coordinates: 40°15′41″N103°48′00″W / 40.26139°N 103.80000°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Colorado |
County | Morgan |
City | Fort Morgan |
Fort Morgan, first called Camp Tyler and Camp Wardwell, was established in the present-day city of Fort Morgan in Morgan County, Colorado as a U.S. military post in 1864. It operated until 1868. There is a historical marker in a city park in remembrance of its history. [1]
The station and military post, first called Camp Tyler, was established in 1859. [2] It is estimated that the Pike's Peak Gold Rush drew about 100,000 people to Colorado. The South Platte Trail was the safest route. [3] In 1859, a branch of the trail away from the South Platte River was established in the wilderness near the present day city of Fort Morgan during the gold rush to reduce the length of the trip to Denver. Fort Morgan was established in the mid-1860s as a defensive measure against the threat of attack by Native Americans. [4]
The military post was also called Camp Wardwell. Made a permanent fort with adobe and sod buildings in July 1865, [5] the fort was manned that year by Confederate prisoners of war, nicknamed "galvanized rebels", who had enlisted in the Union Army rather than continue their fate as POWs. Stationed with the soldiers was Captain M. H. Slater of the 1st Colorado Cavalry Regiment. [6] The goal of the post was to protect travelers along the Overland Trail (South Platte Trail) as well as neighboring ranchers. [6]
It was renamed Fort Morgan in 1866 for Christopher Morgan, the commanding officer of the 1st Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. He died January 20, 1866. [7] [8] The Union Pacific Railway was built in the area and began offering rail service, which made the fort unnecessary by May 18, 1868 when it was abandoned. [8] A historical marker was established at the site of the fort at 229 Riverview Avenue by the Fort Morgan chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. [2]
Fort Morgan is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Morgan County, Colorado, United States. The population at the 2010 census was 11,315.
Fort Caspar was a military post of the United States Army in present-day Wyoming, named after 2nd Lieutenant Caspar Collins, a U.S. Army officer who was killed in the 1865 Battle of the Platte Bridge Station against the Lakota and Cheyenne. Founded in 1859 along the banks of the North Platte River as a trading post and toll bridge on the Oregon Trail, the post was later taken over by the Army and named Platte Bridge Station to protect emigrants and the telegraph line against raids from Lakota and Cheyenne in the ongoing wars between those nations and the United States. The site of the fort, near the intersection of 13th Street and Wyoming Boulevard in Casper, Wyoming, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is now owned and operated by the City of Casper as the Fort Caspar Museum and Historic Site.
Fort Laramie was a significant 19th-century trading post and diplomatic site located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte rivers. They joined in the upper Platte River Valley in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Wyoming. The fort was founded as a private trading post in the 1830s to service the overland fur trade. It was located east of the long climb leading to the best and lowest crossing point of the Rocky Mountains at South Pass and became a popular stopping point for migrants on the Oregon Trail. Along with Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River, the trading post and its supporting industries and businesses were the most significant economic hub of commerce in the region.
Fort Kearny was a historic outpost of the United States Army founded in 1848 in the western U.S. during the middle and late 19th century. The fort was named after Col. and later General Stephen Watts Kearny. The outpost was located along the Oregon Trail near Kearney, Nebraska. The town of Kearney took its name from the fort. The "e" was added to Kearny by postmen who consistently misspelled the town name. A portion of the original site is preserved as Fort Kearny State Historical Park by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, when Sioux warriors killed several American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War.
Camp Collins was a 19th-century outpost of the United States Army in the Colorado Territory. The fort was commissioned in the summer of 1862 to protect the Overland Trail from attacks by Native Americans in a conflict that later became known as the Colorado War. Located along the Cache la Poudre River in Larimer County, it was relocated from its initial location near Laporte after a devastating flood. Its second location downstream on the Poudre was used until 1866 and became the nucleus around which the City of Fort Collins was founded.
Fort McKavett State Historic Site is located in Menard County, Texas, United States. Fort McKavett was a frontier fort established as Camp on the San Saba in 1852 to protect settlers from Indian raids. The camp was renamed in honor of Captain Henry McKavett, who was killed in the Mexican–American War battle of Monterrey.
Old Colorado City, formerly Colorado City, was once a town, but it is now a neighborhood within the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Its commercial district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It was founded during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859 and was involved in the mining industry, both as a supply hub and as a gold ore processing center beginning in the 1890s. Residents of Colorado City worked at some of the 50 coal mines of the Colorado Springs area. It was briefly the capital of the Colorado Territory. For many years, Colorado Springs prohibited the use of alcohol within its border due to the lifestyle of Colorado City's opium dens, bordellos, and saloons. It is now a tourist area, with boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants.
Fort McPherson was originally called Cantonment McKean, and was popularly known as Fort Cottonwood and "Post Cottonwood". The Fort was an Indian Wars-era U.S. Army installation in Nebraska Territory located near the site of present-day North Platte, Nebraska.
The Trapper's Trail or Trappers' Trail is a north-south path along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains that links the Great Platte River Road at Fort Laramie and the Santa Fe Trail at Bent's Old Fort. Along this path there were a number of trading posts, also called trading forts.
The Overland Trail was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American West during the 19th century. While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as an alternative route to the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails through central Wyoming. The Overland Trail was famously used by the Overland Stage Company owned by Ben Holladay to run mail and passengers to Salt Lake City, Utah, via stagecoaches in the early 1860s. Starting from Atchison, Kansas, the trail descended into Colorado before looping back up to southern Wyoming and rejoining the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger. The stage line operated until 1869 when the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad eliminated the need for mail service via Thais' stagecoach.
The 11th Regiment Cavalry, Ohio Volunteers, known in vernacular as the 11th Ohio Cavalry, was a cavalry regiment raised in the name of the governor of Ohio from several counties in southwest Ohio, serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was stationed in the Dakota and Idaho territories on the American frontier to protect travelers and settlers from raids by American Indians.
South Platte Trail was a historic trail that followed the southern side of South Platte River from Fort Kearny in Nebraska to Denver, Colorado. Plains Indians, such as the Cheyenne and the Arapaho, hunted in the lands around the South Platte River. They also traded at trading posts along the route, as did white travelers. Travelers included trappers, traders, explorers, the military, and those following the gold rush. The trail was also used by the Pony Express.
Fort Reynolds was a United States Army post near Avondale, Colorado during the Indian Wars and the Civil War. The site is about 20 miles (32 km) east of Pueblo, Colorado.
Fort Lupton, located in the city of the same name, was a trading post from 1836 or 1837 to 1844. After operating as a stage coach station and used as a house, the building fell into disrepair and crumbled to all but a portion of one wall by the early 20th century. The trading post has been reconstructed yards away from its original site and is now part of the South Platte Historical Park in northwestern Fort Lupton, Colorado.
Fort Sedgwick, also known as Post at Julesburg, Camp Rankin, and Fort Rankin was a U.S. military post from 1864 to 1871 was located in Sedgwick in Sedgwick County, Colorado. There is a historical marker for the former post. The town was named for Fort Sedgwick, which was named after John Sedgwick, who was a Major General in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Fort Wicked was a ranch and stage station on the Overland Trail from 1864 to 1868 in present-day Merino, Colorado. A historical marker commemorating the ranch is located at US 6 and CR-2.5. The ranch itself was located near a ford of the South Platte River, near where US-6 now crosses over the river. It was one of the few places along the trail to Denver that withstood an attack by Native Americans in 1864. It was named Fort Wicked for the "bitter defence" made by Holon Godfrey.
Fort Namaqua, some of its other names are Mariano's Crossing and Namaqua Station, was a trading post from 1858 or 1859. It was located in the present-day city of Loveland, Colorado in Larimer County, Colorado. In 1862, it became a stage station for travelers along the foothills to Denver. A fort was built at the site after 60 horses were driven off the property. Modena also developed a small settlement with people from his hometown of Taos, New Mexico. The site was named Namaqua in 1868, with the establishment of a post office. Buildings were used until the 1920s and were later dismantled. A historical marker is located at Namaqua Park, near the site of the former fort and station.
Jimmy's Camp was a trading post established in 1833. The site is east of present-day Colorado Springs, Colorado on the southeast side of U.S. Route 24 and east of the junction with State Highway 94. Located along Trapper's Trail / Cherokee Trail, it was a rest stop for travelers and was known for its spring. Jimmy Camp was a ranch by 1870 and then a railway station on a spur of the Colorado and Southern Railway. After the ranch was owned by several individuals, it became part of the Banning Lewis Ranch. Now the land is an undeveloped park in Colorado Springs.