Fort Cedar Point

Fort Cedar Point, sits just off of I-70 about 80 miles east of Denver.  Nothing there to mark the site where the Colorado Militia had a fort there to protect early day travelers on the Smoky Hill trail and Benkeleman Cutoff.  For about 5 years Company F was garrisoned at the little prairie fort. 

At the crest of the hill is an exit off the Interstate for Cedar Point.  It is not close to the military post.  To the south down the exit road is where the railroad established the depot of Cedar Pint.  Here there were some houses built along with a RR depot.  The railroad had put in a turning wye for the steam engines that helped pushed the trains up the hill.  Elevation of Cedar Point is just over 6000 feet and is a pretty good climb for the trains.  Even with the high power of toady it is still an obstacle to deal with. 

Today the railroad uses the siding at Cedar Point for a storage lot of surplus rolling stock.  Looking up from below it does not look like much of a climb.  The distance to the rails  is about 7 miles and an elevation gain of about 500 feet, a steep climb for trains. 

Devoid of trees, the land looks pretty empty.  Yet here the Indians roamed, hunting their buffalo and other game.  The hill is loaded with springs and there are pools of water in the area and small streams.  The Pikes Peak or Bust gold seekers traveled across this empty land on their way to the gold fields.  Here a trail from the north joined central plains trail. 

Cedar Point is the spine of the Palmer Divide, where the divide forks off to the Republican River Basin, separating from the Arkansas and Platte rivers.  The Arickaree River has its beginnings on the east face of Cedar Point from a series of springs.  It was this ribbon of water that early traveler followed as the Indians had been for years. 

Along the banks of a small creek that tumbles down the hill is where Fort Cedar Point was located.  Here is where the Benkleman trail junctioned with the Smoky Hill Road.  Traffic on the Interstate whizz past the trees that are in the vicinity where the fort was.  Some old concrete footers have been found in the area, along with old military metal buttons and spent shell casings.  Nearby were a couple of state stops, One at Resolis and the other at River Bend, the old stop. 

Nature has reclaimed most of these forgotten places, all within about 15 mile radius.  Old River Bend sits on the bend of the Big Sandy creek.  The railroad tracks curl around the hill and the old highway notch can be seen above the RR grade.  Here was  rough and tumble little town that did not survive.  Saloons, brothels and other establishments were a part of this little hell raining town.  Their boot hill cemetery is north of the River Bend exit.  There they were buried with boots on.  The old town is off the Kiowa exit and when crossing the tracks one can see the bend in the rails and where the town had been, now on private property. 

It is an area rich in old west lore, gunfights, Indian conflict and dreams lived out and lost.  Here were the buffalo hunters, going up into the hills camping on the Arickaree River.  Selling buffalo meat to the railroad, shipping the hides to the east.  Sheep roamed the hillsides, cattlemen wanted the grass land free of sheep.  The Indians lived in the woods of the Cedar Breaks, hiding from the reservation life. 

Today, trains still click on the iron rails and the cars fly by on the Interstate.  The high elevation creates nasty storms in the winter and spring.  Snow drifts of the land, burying the concrete slab in glazed white, closing the high speed roadway.  Baseball hail pummels the land in the spring and the uplift of the hills generates violence in the clouds, blasting the wind turbines with lightening.  It is a harsh land and for that reason few people live on it. 

Spring Valley, CO

 

Sitting on the banks of the West Cherry Creek River Branch, just north of the Palmer Divide is the little village of Spring Valley.  The school is still standing with a couple of out buildings and on north a ways is the cemetery and church. 

The Cherokee Trail passed through the area in the 1850’s and the Military had mapped out the area for travelers.  Trade from Mexico went through this area and the Mountain Man had been trapping in the area for decades.  With the numerous springs and the stream to follow it was a well traveled route. 

When the Cherokee Indians passed through they were on their way to the gold fields of California.  They were quite the gold miners in their home country of Georgia and they wanted to see what the west coast had to offer.  As they traveled they would pan in the streams looking for the shinny flakes.  Along the cherry Creek river the Indians found lots of teasers.  When got to where the river met they Platte River they found good flakes of gold.  Here they set up a camp at the confluence of the Cherry Creek and the Platte River, calling it Auraria, after their home in Georgia. 

The Indians searched the other streams nearby and where Ralston Creek meets Clear Creek they found their first good gold deposit in the river.  Returning to their camp, it was decided that small group would return to Oklahoma where they had been moved to and tell other members.  The rest would go onto California and the following year they would meet the other members from the tribe at Auraria Camp with their equipment. 

Soon the news of the gold finds in the rivers of Colorado was spreading and people were heading into the new frontier to seek out their fortune. 

The military built a fort in the Spring Valley to protect the travelers from attacks, Fort Iron.  A short distance to the north is where the Smoky Hill Trail joined Cherry Creek to go north.  Soon Cherry Creek was bustling trail of fortune seekers.  There were wagon trains of freight moving northward to supply the miners. 

More and more people began to move in and settle in the area.  The late 1800’s the community of Spring valley was established.  Stores were built, a schoolhouse, homes, a Post Office and other shops.  It was a rich ground for farming and raising cattle.  Potatoes, beans and hay were the major crops grown in the fertile area. 

As civilization expanded, highways were built and none went near the little farming/ranching community.  Soon the shops and stores were moving and the Post Office closed.  The window of history was closing on the once busy little town. 

Here is a link to the Douglas County Historical Society web page about little town.  It appears the Society had a lease on the property but lost it for some reason. 

http://www.douglas.co.us/about-us/historic-preservation/county-landmarks/spring-valley-school-district-no-3/

 

This area along the County line is some of the most spectacular ranching land in Colorado.  Sadly developers are acquiring some land and planting 2X6’s with roofs in the area, putting blotches on the rolling vistas. 

The school had been cared for but now appears to being neglected and at the whims of nature.  It is believed to of been built in the mid 1870’s.  For an old wooden building to have survived that long is a testimony to the care it had received.  The out building show signs of neglect yet they still stand after all those years.  On a hillside overlooking the valley resides the little country school. 

Frontier Post

Fort Lyon

            More lives than a cat, Ft Lyon has survived numerous changes and abandonments over the past decades.   Ft Lyon was abandoned as a military post by the Army in 1897.  The frontier post was shuttered for 9 years.  The US Navy acquired the post in 1909 and made it into a Tuberculosis Hospital for sailors.  Later it became a treatment center for veterans with mental health issues in 1922.  The Veterans Administration opened a Psychiatric Hospital on the former Army post.  2001 saw the VA close the hospital and the Federal Government later gave Ft Lyon to the state of Colorado.  Colorado made it into a prison but that did not last long.  The prison was closed and the fort is now a Rehab Center for homeless people.  The many lives of a frontier place that refused to die. 

            One can drive through the installation and look at the varied buildings that have been built on it over the years.  There are some of the old buildings from its early days where native rock was used in construction.  There are tall stately formal buildings around the parade ground and the grass is well manicured.  A gate sits on the corner and just a short ways in is a chapel that was built from some of the rock that had been part of the hospital when Kit Carson was hospitalized there and later died.  The NE area of the compound is the National Cemetery.  Here, there are veterans from the Indian wars, Spanish American, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. 

           

            Ft Lyon had its beginnings in 1833 when the Bent brothers and their partner St Vrain built a trading fort on the banks of the Arkansas River.  The men were merchants and had been trading with the Indians in the area for some time plus Mexico.  They had stores in Taos and Santa Fe and later would open more trading forts. 

            At the time when the fort was built, it was in Mexico and the trade route through here was busy with freight wagons.  Bent’s Fort as it became known was in the heart of Indian country.  Trade with the Indians for the buffalo robes was a booming business and the travel on the Santa Fe Trail gave the traders an expanding market for trade goods between the two countries of Mexico and the United States.  The Mountain Men trappers used Bent’s fort for trading and supplies as they headed into the mountains.  It was a busy hub of trade on the Arkansas River.

            Hostilities between Mexico and the United States was brewing and in the i840’s, The United States was at war with Mexico.  The US military used Bent’s Fort as a staging site for their battles with Mexico.  With the treaty of 1848, Bent’s Fort became a part of the United States.  The trading post was becoming a adjunct to the Military.  Trade was resumed between the US and Mexico but now the US Military had a larger presence in the area.  An Indian agent for the government set up office in Bent’s Fort.

            With so much government business going on at the trading fort, the government was approached about buying the place.  No deal was reached to buy.  The fort was closed and Charles Bent went east a number of miles and began building a new fort.  Here at this place the government agreed to buy the new fort.  Bent’s new fort was named by the government, Fort Wise after the governor of Virginia.  With the US Army taking over the post, Bent returned to his old fort and destroyed it.  There had been an outbreak of cholera earlier and it was speculated that is why Bent blew his fort up.  He also did not want anyone else to use it.  Taking gunpowder, the fort was blown up. 

            During this transition, the Indian attacks in the new US territory had escalated.  The Santa Fe Trail travel had almost ceased.  The arrival of troops at Ft Wise did not change the attacks on the plains across Kansas into Colorado.  1850’s-60’s was the throes of Indian wars.  A peace Treaty had been signed at Ft Laramie, with the Indian Reservation to be most of eastern Colorado and western Kansas.  With the discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains, more invaders crossed Colorado with gold fever.  There were more Indian attacks.  Ft Wise was a focal point of these skirmishes with the Indians.  Ft Learned in Kansas to Ft Wise the Army moved their troops and supplies. 

            When the Civil War broke out, Ft Wise became Ft Lyon.  The government did not want their Army post named after a southerner.  So it was named for General Nathaniel Lyon.  With the Civil War, the Indian battles became secondary.  The US government had tried another Peace Treaty with the Indians.  The Ft Wise treaty shrunk the reservation land and gave commodities to the Indians.  This treaty did not last long and when the Civil War began the Indians were staging attacks across the high plains.  Travelers arriving in Denver had varied reports of Indian attacks and mutilations by the Indians.  Outrage at the brutal Indian attacks inflamed many a citizen in Denver.  With a Confederate Military detachment marching towards the gold fields of Colorado, Col. Chivington was dispatched by the US Army to stop the Confederates.  Chivington and his militia met the Confederates at Glorieta Pass.  The battle was short and a decisive victory for the troops under Col. Chivington.  The Confederates were thoroughly routed and sent back south. 

            Retuning to Denver, triumphant, Chivington was incensed by the brutal Indian attacks.  The Colonel met with Territorial Governor John Evans and discussed what to do about the attacks.  Sometime later after the meeting, Chivington mustered his Colorado Militia and they marched to old Ft Lyon. Here, Colonel Chivington moved about the local troops finding more soldiers to march with him to the Indians camp on the Big Sandy Creek. 

            Gaining more troops, the combined Militia and Army soldiers moved out for an early morning attack on the Indian Village. 

            Just five years later the Army would launch a similar attack on the Indians at Summit Springs.   They were on a rescue expedition of two kidnapped women.  Numerous Indians were killed in the attack and one woman was rescued, while the other captured woman was killed by the Indians.  The leading chief was hunted down and killed and the Indian village was burned to the ground.  The battle at Summit Springs will be in another chapter.

            Old Fort Lyon would not last much longer.  It was not well built and it was too close to the Arkansas River, susceptible to spring flooding.  A new site for Ft Lyon was chosen to the west a few miles.  The new post was completed in 1867 and the troops were moved into their new quarters.  The previous year the old fort had been seriously flooded and the troops were ready to move.  After they had moved to the new location a detachment was traveling back to the old place and found Indians in the old fort ransacking it and it had been set afire.  Today, outlines of Ft Wise adobe walls can still be seen a local ranchers pasture. 

           

            The summer of 1870 was the last major Indian attacks across eastern Colorado.  Ft Lyon would settle into a quite outpost on the western frontier.  The Army Post was marking time until its closure in 1897. The settlers were arriving and the Indians were gone.  The railroads had replaced the large wagon trains traveling on the Santa Fe Trail. 

            For almost ten years the empty breezes flutter through the vacant fort.  The Navy acquired and a new chapter was beginning for the frontier Army Post.  Soon the place would take on the appearance of a TB sanatorium.  Large brick buildings were constructed around the quadrangle for the new patients. 

                       

            The Navy operated the sanatorium until 1922 when the VA took over operations of the hospital.  The former Army Fort was now a mental health facility for veterans.  It would remain this way until the federal government gave it to the state of Colorado.  At that time the state made it into a minim security prison.  The fort was fenced off and inmates were now housed in the buildings.  The prison had a short life and was converted again.  Fencing was removed and new program was started there for homeless rehab work.  Today it is the homeless and their counselors that walk on the grounds of the venerable frontier post. 

                       

            On the north side of the post is a National Cemetery.  They began burials there in 1907.  There are soldiers there from the Indian wars to present day. 

            It is at the end of the road that leads to the chapel.  The construction of the chapel used some of the materials from the infirmary where Kit Carson died.

           

           

            Stroll the grounds, visit with the ghosts of the past, peer back into their day.  Listen to the ruffles of times past ebbing across the grasses.  There are moments that beg one to pause and look, listen….. let the imagination rum.