Fort Crawford

Fort Crawford. The Cantonment on the Uncompahgre. , During the years 1880-1890, a U.S. military fort with over 32 buildings spread across the fields before you... , , Tensions were high on the Western Slope of Colorado in 1879: white settlers had been trespassing on treaty-designated Ute land for years and the U.S. government demanded that the Ute Indians conform to white lifeways and culture. They wanted to make the Utes farmers, even though their sustenance and traditions had always come from hunting and gathering. This mishandling of the Western Slope's native population quickly led to an escalation of hostilities that culminated in the Meeker Massacre of September 29, 1879 at the White River Agency in northwestern Colorado. , , Although the Uncompahgre Utes played no part in the Meeker uprising, white settlers and politicians in Colorado demanded that the "Utes must go." In May 1880, U.S. cavalry and infantry under the command of Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie arrived in the valley to keep an eye on both the Utes and the white trespassers. , , Mackenzie's initial camp at the cantonment was just a line of supply tents between the Los Pinos Agency at present Colona and Chief Ouray's house on the southern end of what is now Montrose. While the U.S. government negotiated with the Utes to leave the Uncompahgre Valley, soldiers from the cantonment built a permanent fort in the fields before you. They called it the Cantonment on the Uncompahgre. It was complete by summer 1881. , , Negotiations with the Utes resulted in the removal of the White River Utes to the Uintah Reservation in Utah and an agreement with the Uncompahgre Utes on June 15, 1880 for their relocation to a smaller reservation, expected to be in the current Grand Junction area. In 1881, three Ute Commission members were tasked with identifying the exact location of the new reservation. They concluded that the expected location did not contain sufficient agricultural land. Using a clause in the agreement that other suitable land could be substituted, the commissioners (J.J. Russell, Thomas McMorris, and leader Otto Mears) decided the new reservation, known as the Ouray Reservation, would also be in Utah. Unhappy with this decision, and no longer benefitting from the leadership of Chief Ouray, who died in August 1880, the Utes delayed their departure as long as possible. Finally, under threat of military action, 1,500 Utes departed under military escort to their new reservation in Utah on September 1, 1881. , , After the Utes left, the fort was not necessary, but proved to be of economic benefit to area farmers and the new town of Montrose. In 1886, the post was renamed Fort Crawford after Captain Emmet Crawford, who had been killed by Apaches in Mexico. By 1890, the U.S. government could no longer justify the fort's maintenance. All troops were withdrawn by December and the buildings were auctioned off to local settlers. The land was acquired by James A. Fenlon, former postmaster and supply store owner at the fort. , , Fort Crawford Cantonment , In 1879, General William T. Sherman asked Congress to appropriate $100,000 to construct a permanent post in the Uncompahgre Valley, assuring them that their money was well spent considering the gold and silver being mined on the Western Slope. , , The layout of the post was typical of its time. Spread out around a 15-x-575-ft. parade ground, the buildings included a hospital, officers' quarters, soldiers' barracks, office, guardhouse, bakery, and ordnance storehouses of wood-frame construction. Other buildings were of jacal construction , wooden posts plastered with mud. These included two sutler (civilian merchant) buildings, two icehouses, an oilhouse, quartermaster and commissary storehouses, two washhouses, quartermaster and sergeant's houses, three laundries with associated quarters, and a shop. Also present were a shooting gallery and a gymnasium. The large corral had stalls for 100 horses, sheds for wagons, and rooms for grain and harnesses. Note that the layout of the post did not feature a defensive wall around its perimeter, as the design anticipated the Utes' relocation to another reservation. , , James Fenton Sutler, Postmaster and Businessman , James A. Fenlon began his career as a clerk for Field and Hill in their mercantile and forwarding business in Alamosa. In 1880, he was put in charge of the trader's stores of Kinney and Erwin that accompanied General Mackenzie to the Uncompahgre Valley. After the cantonment was built, he started a store there. The Uncompahgre post office was established at the cantonment on October 14, 1880 with Fenton as its first postmaster. After Fort Crawford was abandoned, he stayed on operating a general merchandise store serving the local settlers at what continued to be known as Uncompahgre. Fenton died on October 5, 1914 and is buried in Cedar Cemetery in Montrose.