You are looking at the largest United States military base to be found for 500 miles in any direction during the late 1800s. There was nothing bigger from Kansas to California. For 25 years, this frontier-era Army post was a federal government-run . . . — — Map (db m148970) HM
Between Fort Riley, Kansas and California you would have found no bigger or better medical facility than the one that once stood here. In 1864 it cost $45,000 to build. This six-ward hospital had from 10 beds to 126 beds over its life. Here a . . . — — Map (db m148976) HM
The Six Mule Army Wagon contributed to the military's success in the Southwest. With its simple design and iconic red and blue paint scheme, the Six Mule Army Wagon, nicknamed the "Old Army Six Mule", performed the critical role of linking . . . — — Map (db m148980) HM
The deep ruts etched into the earth in front of you are a record of Fort Union's role as the guardian of the Santa Fe Trail. Formed from a network of routes used for hundreds of years by American Indians, Spaniards, Mexicans, New Mexicans, and . . . — — Map (db m148988) HM
There were few chances for family life for any enlisted man in the United States Army on the frontier. Regulations did not allow new recruits to have a wife or child. No soldier could marry without the permission of his commanding officer. That . . . — — Map (db m148994) HM
”More like a village… than a military post” was how one soldier described the First Fort Union — located across the valley where you now see adobe ruins of the later Fort Union Arsenal.
Begun in the summer of 1851, First . . . — — Map (db m148995) HM
Soon after a Confederate army from Fort Bliss, Texas invaded southern New Mexico in July 1861, over 200 men found themselves here, working 4-hour shifts, day and night. With picks and shovels they raised a new Fort Union surrounded by earthworks. . . . — — Map (db m148996) HM
Unlike its predecessors, the Third Fort Union was carefully planned. Building materials included native stone, adobe bricks — fashioned from soil dug from a field north of the fort site — and bricks manufactured in the nearby town of Las . . . — — Map (db m148997) HM
Army officers assigned to the garrison here at Fort Union lived with their families in the row of nine houses you see along this side of the parade ground. Each building held two apartments and shared a common kitchen and dining room at the rear. . . . — — Map (db m148998) HM
Protective brick coping atop the adobe walls has not yet been added to most of the Officers’ Quarters shown in the top photo, dated 1866. The buildings, pictured ten years later, are complete with porches and fencing. — — Map (db m148999) HM
For 24 years the officer in command of the cavalry and infantry troops at Fort Union lived here. The post commandant issued the orders that determined the daily duties and routines for hundreds of enlisted men, non-commissioned officers, officers, . . . — — Map (db m149000) HM
In the distance you can still see the adobe remnants of the Fort Union Arsenal. This ordnance depot stored and issued the weapons and ammunition needed for all Army operations throughout the Southwest for 30 years. Longstanding Army practice was to . . . — — Map (db m149001) HM
Just ahead you would have seen a military general store. This was one place at Fort Union where people were always coming and going, every day. Soldiers from the Post, the Depot, and the Arsenal — as well as civilian travelers, Army wives, and . . . — — Map (db m149002) HM
To us today, Fort Union looks like a single, very large Army base. Soldiers who served here from 1863-1891 saw things in a completely different way. For them, the Post of Fort Union and the Fort Union Quartermaster Depot were like two small towns . . . — — Map (db m149003) HM
Imagine 2,000 to 3,000 freight wagons a year being off-loaded into these enormous buildings. In these five warehouses, the United States Army stored, inventoried, organized, and redistributed thousands of tons of food and equipment to support the . . . — — Map (db m149004) HM
In this early 1860's view, the Commissary Storehouse is hidden behind the shed-like structure on the right. This huge building housed tons of canned and bottled goods, salted meats and fish, as well as onions and potatoes to feed the garrisons of . . . — — Map (db m149005) HM
Think of what you see here as the forerunner of today's busy truck stops on the interstates. Now, freight rides cross-country safe inside boxes of steel and aluminum, rolling on rubber tires. In the mid-1800s, cargo rode under canvas on iron-shod . . . — — Map (db m149006) HM
This square, open yard was once full of men hard at work. The Santa Fe Trail and the rough, unpaved roads of New Mexico Territory in the 1800s were tough on freight wagons — and the livestock that hauled them. Inside this Mechanics' Corral . . . — — Map (db m149007) HM
Today it's tough to look at the low wagon wheel ruts of the Santa Fe Trail — just ahead of you and grasp how many tens of thousands of lives this road turned upside down. Comanche, Kiowa, Jicarilla Apache, Mountain Ute, and other American . . . — — Map (db m149008) HM
Throughout the 19th century, military sanitation was far ahead of most civilian practice in the West. The “sinks,” “privies,” “necessaries,” and latrines of the military kept contagious disease at a minimum and . . . — — Map (db m149184) HM
Although taken at different times, these two photos show the Transportation Corral (1) and Herders Corral (2). Dozens of wagons and scores of mules were kept here in readiness to transport supplies and troops. Towering haystacks can be seen in the . . . — — Map (db m149186) HM
For many of the years between 1851 and 1891, Fort Union was the greatest economic powerhouse in the New Mexico Territory. The single Army officer who controlled the huge complex that made up the Fort Union Depot — some 400 acres of . . . — — Map (db m148810) HM
We cannot sit down and have such a set of [horse] thieves run off with our stock with impunity. The Civil authorities seem to be powerless to cope with them. —James H. Carleton, lieutenant colonel commanding Fort Union, March 1867 For . . . — — Map (db m149180) HM
Depot Officers’ Quarters under construction in the early 1860’s. The gable-roofed building behind the unfinished Officers’ Quarters is the Sutler’s Store. Photo of the completed Quarters was taken in the 1870’s. — — Map (db m149181) HM
If you look straight ahead about a mile, you can see the site of the first Fort Union. There, at the foot of the mesa, soldiers quickly threw up buildings made from logs and uncured, rough-sawn lumber in the summer of 1851. Their mission was to . . . — — Map (db m149182) HM
“Here you get one night in bed… tonight you are on Guard, tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock you get relieved… one hour after coming off Guard You have to Saddle up and go on Herd. Come in with the Herd at 4 p.m., spend one hour grooming your . . . — — Map (db m149183) HM
Fort Union Arsenal (marker south side)West of Fort Union near the base of the mesa are the ruins of Fort Union Arsenal. The first Fort Union was built at this location in 1851. In 1867 this wooden fort was razed and the adobe Arsenal . . . — — Map (db m156765) HM
On the indigenous pathway that became the Santa Fe Trail, Native Americans long traveled and traded. After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the Santa Fe trail developed as an international commercial highway connecting Mexico with the . . . — — Map (db m156800) HM
On the hillside in front of you, the wagon ruts of the Santa Fe Trail bear silent witness to the passage of time and nations moving east and west. When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, legal trade began between the United States and . . . — — Map (db m156801) HM
The low line of trees to the south marks La Junta (the junction) of the Mora and Sapello Rivers. It is also known as La Junta because its location is where the Cimarron and Mountain Branches of the Santa Fe Trail join. Arriving with the U.S. . . . — — Map (db m156802) HM
The landscape before you has changed little over time. It remains remote and quiet, with little visible evidence of human influence. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains in front of you formed as ancient sedimentary rocks were faulted upward. Lying in . . . — — Map (db m156799) HM
Like surging tides upon the shore, a procession of human cultures has influenced this region. Each new wave of people left unique impressions on the landscape and each other. 1100-1900 Jicarilla Apache, Ute, Comanche, Pueblo, and other . . . — — Map (db m156804) HM
In 1848, the U.S. Secretary of War ordered Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner, as commander of the Ninth Military Department to "revise the whole system of defense (sic)" in the New Mexico Territory. The immediate goal was to move U.S. troops out of . . . — — Map (db m156808) HM
Rested and resupplied at Fort Union, traders headed west into the last 130 miles of the long and arduous trip to Santa Fe. They reached the trading post at Watrous first and then the small town of Las Vegas, founded as a trail stop in 1835. One of . . . — — Map (db m156972) HM
The Santa Fe Trail was a 900-mile overland road that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Near here, the trail split into the Mountain Route and the Cimarron Route and travelers had to decide which to take to continue east to . . . — — Map (db m156973) HM
