It was a pain to find because of my preconceived notions. I was expecting it to be there but it was over there. Then when I only read one part and ignore the other books that is what happens.
The Tuttle Post Office Is advertised by a local group and part of a variety pack of interesting places they advertise for their part of the plains.
Out in the pasture sit the remains of the Post Office and general store. There are some foundations from other buildings next to it. In the weeds they are are well buried. There is no public access, just a long distance view from the road.
The sign they made for it had a good case of sunburn and will soon be replaced by another.
Being made of stone with a tin roof, it should withstand the elements for a few more years. It appears it was a prosperous place at one time from its size. Yet the neighborhood around it is pretty vacant today. The nearest house are back that way a few miles and the same the other direction. Even the horizon is a rolling void of homes, just waving grasses.
As the crow flies, the Tuttle Ranch is about 5 miles south. By the modern country road of today it is about 9 miles around the bend and over the river. The Tuttle Ranch had the mail contract during the late 1800’s and was the Post Office until the contract was awarded to another. The Post Office moved to the General Store to the north but the name Tuttle was retained.
There were a variety of Tuttle’s in the area and they were involved in some type of range war. Information I have found has been very limited. Hopefully one of these days I’ll turn over the right rock and find what I want.
The two Tuttle ranches that show up on the map were with a couple of miles of each other and were on the freight road and Stage route following the Republican River.
During the 180’s this area was hotly contested by the white invaders and the Indians. There were more then a few Indian attacks on the ranch houses and the stage. Some the locals I talked with, talk about finding all kinds of arrowheads in the area and other reminders of the when the Indians lived in the area. Small caves in the area with smoke covered openings.
The Tuttle Ranch is no more, it was washed away by the flood of 1935. The Republican River was visited by Noah. Flood waters a mile wide and 20-40 feet deep. This massive flood changed lots of things and today the dry stream bed looks so innocent.
Back down this pasture trail a few hundred yards is where the Tuttle ranch had been. Today very serene and peaceful and one can see why it would make a nice setting for a ranch. Very contrasting where the stone Tuttle Post Office sits.
Turning around a looking the other way a short distance is where station 21 for the Leavenworth and Pikes Peak Stage Station would have been.
Like so many things in eastern Colorado, on private property and posted.
Yet it is fascinating to drive the country roads and ponder what it would have been like to be riding over the country and see Indians ride up over the horizon.
Instead now days I find some neat old abandoned homesteads. Yet this was the heart of the Plains Indian Wars during the 1860’s while the Civil War was going on.
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