Bent's Fort Chapter Santa Fe Trail Association
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Bent’s Fort Chapter Santa Fe Trail Association September 2011 Newsletter Bents Fort Chapter Members Gather No Moss DON’T Despite record breaking heat and Veta was platted and founded FORGET drought, Bent‘s Fort Chapter mem- around the fort. These bers have enjoyed tours and events Future Despite the best efforts of La Veta every month this summer. On June and local friends, the fort came very Events 18th, over 40 members and guests near to being lost to the ravages of toured sites in the Walsenburg and time in the mid-1990s. However, the Aguilar area. BFC member Tom Pe- Huerfano County Historical Society likan was part of this tour and wrote and the Friends of Fort Francisco, Sept 21: Michael Mar- the following article. with state funding, saved it and vol- tin Murphey concert, Dodge City A Great Series of Tours: South unteers play tour guide to folks like Sept 22-25: SFTA of the Border us and tourists from all over. Symposium, Dodge ―On June 18, SFTA members from After Fort Francisco, we had a picnic City, KS Colorado and New Mexico and ar- lunch within sight of a tourist railway Oct 15: tour of sites in chaeology students led by Bents Fort and were lucky enough to see a Trinidad area and Chapter member Richard Carrillo steam train pass through. The timing dedication of Richard came together to La Veta to see the was ideal because our next stop was Louden plaque Fort Francisco Museum. south of Walsenburg to see an Nov 19: BFC Annual 1870s railroad depot that has been Education Meeting the focus of an extensive archaeo- logical study and has recently been nominated for listing on the National Annual membership in Register of Historic Places. The de- both the Santa Fe Trail As- pot is mostly intact, though the rail- sociation and the Bent‘s road was relocated decades ago. Fort Chapter expire Decem- The foundation of an old saloon is ber 31. Membership forms Fort Francisco, La Veta are on page 5. next to it and the entire site is pri- vately owned. The Santa Fe Trail Asso- Legend has it that when Colonel ciation and the Quivera, John Francisco arrived in the valley D&RG Depot Wagon Bed Springs, where La Veta is, he declared it was Bent’s Fort, and Missouri ―paradise enough for me.‖ Francisco River Outfitters chapters built a trading post and, to protect it, now have pages on Face- built a four-sided adobe fortress book. All have lots of pho- around it. The valley‘s first post of- tos and news about chapter events. fice, school and other facilities were on the site and, when the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad laid tracks (Continued on Page 5) through the valley, the town of La 2 ―In the prospector he has sought to express something of the phi- losophy of the miner who alone, in the soli- tude of the desert, is sustained by constant hope, and a prophetic vision which recog- nizes great possibili- ties in the smallest indications.‖ ―In the The Pioneer Monument hunter he West End of the Smoky Hill Trail has tried by Lee Whiteley to suggest something of the rov- The Pioneer Monument, at the corner of Broadway Street ing life of and Colfax Avenue in downtown Denver, was designed and the pio- built by sculptor Frederick MacMonnies. The $70,000 me- neer living morial was dedicated on June 24, 1911. The fountain is among topped by a bronze equestrian figure of Kit Carson. Bronze primitive sculpture groups depicting the prospector, the hunter, and conditions, the pioneer mother and child, ring the base of the monu- ment. daily menaced by death, either from starvation or from treacherous enemies, and who is only saved from destruc- A plaque was added to the Pioneer Monument in 1936: tion by constant vigilance and superior woodcraft.‖ ―Here was the end of the famous SMOKY HILL TRAIL emigrant and stage road extending from the Missouri River ―In the group of to Denver. the mother and Traveled by pioneers 1858. child, he has Surveyed by W. G. Russell 1860. endeavored to Route of Butterfield‘s Overland Dispatch and Wells Fargo reflect the high Express. qualities of cour- The trail took its human toll. age and re- Death by thirst and Indian raids. sourcefulness of Placed by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the the pioneer Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation and by the City and County of woman always Denver. 1936.‖ ready to meet danger in the A description of MacMonnies monument appeared in Cen- defense of her tury, October 1910: child and her home.‖ ―In the equestrian statue of Kit Car- son, the sculpture's aim was to The intersection of Colfax and Broadway is literally the cen- sum up the sentiment of the whole ter of Denver, for this was ―Milepost 0.0‖ for all auto roads Western movement, ‗The Call of radiating from the city. Here was the western end of the the West—Westward Ho.‘‖ Golden Belt Road and the Union Pacific Highway, both which followed sections of the Smoky Hill Trail. (Lee Whiteley is one of the Directors of the Smoky Hill Trail Association and is a recognized authority on this Trail This article originally appeared in the Summer 2011 edition of the Overland Despatch and is reprinted with permission.) 3 The Civil War and the Arkansas Valley, By Jeff Campbell In our June fected by the Civil War, were the along either bank, constituting the newsletter, Jeff soldiers; like James Ewell Brown grove called ―Big Timbers,‖ which Campbell be- ―Jeb‖ Stuart, John Sedgwick, Robert extends to Bent‘s [New] Fort.‖ July gan a series of Ransom, Edward Canby, Edward 9th, ―... camped 3 miles below Bent‘s articles about W. Wynkoop & Louise, Silas S. [New] Fort. Large Cottonwoods in the Civil War Soule, Joseph A. Cramer, Scott J. the bend of the River.‖ He also and the Arkan- Anthony, Byron and Mollie Sanford, documented scouts and patrols sas River Val- Jesse Spurgeon Haire, Rhomine across the plains, to Bent‘s Old Fort ley. That series Ostrander, David Henry Louder- and up the Purgatoire. In the follow- continues be- back, and the civilians like Albert ing months the command would low. Mr. Camp- Greenwood, Samuel G. and Dexter work toward establishing the new bell is a re- D. Colley, Judge John W. Wright, fort. searcher, historian, and published Julia and R. L. Lambert. Also in this writer. He is also a member of BFC second group were those people In the meantime, President Bu- and a recent recipient of a SFTA who came into the region to prosper chanan‘s Secty. of the Interior in- research grant to continue his his- from its resources and were involun- structed A. B. Greenwood, Commis- torical research in our area. tarily forced to remove from their sioner of Indian Affairs, to go to the short-lived adopted homeland, the Arapahoes and Cheyennes and hold Cheyennes and Arapahoes. a treaty council with them. He left Part II: A Trail Runs through it. Washington on August 15. With the election of a new president Throughout the history of the Upper looming in 1860, and the whole of On August 29, 1860: Fort Wise, Arkansas Valley the first impression the country engrossed in the possi- Kansas Territory was established remains that two kinds of people bility of a secession of Southern near Bent's New Fort on the north inhabited it. Perhaps, like any other states from the Northern states Ma- bank of the Arkansas R. about 7 mi. history of any other region. There jor John Sedgwick, 1st Lt. ―Jeb‖ Stu- west of modern Lamar. Bent's New were the people who came, estab- art, 1st Lt. Robert Ransom and Capt. Fort was leased and used as a mili- lished themselves, fought and Frederick Steele of the 1st U. S. tary depot. The post was first called worked hard to maintain a livelihood Cavalry marched up the Arkansas in Ft. Fauntleroy for COL Thomas T. and those who passed through or early July, 1860 following orders Fauntleroy, 1st U. S. Dragoons, then only stayed long enough to experi- from Department of the West at St. Ft. Wise for Gov. Henry A. Wise of ence the quaintness of the area or Louis, Mo., ―A military post will be VA. In early September construction visit the hardy types that resided established at, or in the vicinity of began. On Sept. 5th, a post office there. the Big Timbers, Upper Arkansas, to established at the fort and on Sept. be known as Fort Wise, and garri- 8 Greenwood arrived at Bent's New Of the first group, William Wells soned by four companies of Fort followed by 13 wagons of trin- Bent, his brothers Charles and mounted troops, and two companies kets and goods for treating with the George, John Prowers, Albert and of Infantry...‖ Indians. Van Daniel Boone, Henry M. Fos- dick, Charles Autobee and his half Part lll: March to the Big Timbers In the next few months Major Sedg- brother Tom Tobin, as well as many wick and Capt. Steele would go east of their friends, partners and 1st Lt. ―Jeb‖ Stuart, kept a journal for and become generals in the U. S. neighbors like Joseph Doyle, Fred Sedgwick‘s column of 1st U. S. Cav- Army and 1st Lt. Stuart would go on Pomeroy, Luke Cahill and Jesus alry. On July 7th, 1860 - ―Marched up to become a legendary cavalry gen- Vialpando came here, lived here the Arkansas along the route to eral as the ―eyes and ears‖ of and died here.