When I first started this, my intent was to write about the history of Fort Lyon. However, I cannot do that without going back many years when the Bent brothers, primarily Charles and William, started out with a wagon train loaded with trade goods. Charles had been making trips for sometime but it wasn't until 1829, at the age of 20, that William decided to accompany his older brother, Charles on one of those trips.
William's relationship with the Indians was to be determined early. Sometime in late 1829, early 1830, he had been on a trapping expedition and successfully hid two Cheyenne from their Commanche enemy. This was to be the beginning of a friendship that would span a lifetime until his death in 1868.
In 1831, he built his first stockade at the mouth of Fountain Creek, site of present day Pueblo. By 1832, his brother Charles, who had been in New Mexico, decided to pay his brother a visit at Fountain Creek. Charles was very impressed with the stockade that William had built but decided that they needed something stronger than a log stockade.
Seeking a new location, they met with Yellow Wolf, leader of the Cheyenne, and other tribe members, they agreed on a trading fort along the Arkansas River. A site was then selected near the Purgatoire River, but north of the Arkansas River.
By 1833 a trading license had been granted to "Fort William" in Kansas Territory. Fort William was be known later as Bent's Fort or Old Bent's Fort. Even though it was still under construction, travelers made their way to Fort William to avoid the dangers encountered on the Cimarron route of the Santa Fe Trail. This new trail became known as the Santa Fe Trail Mountain Branch.
For many years, the fort was a principal point for the wagon trains and a major trading post for all, including the Indians. It was also a military rest stop as well as the military's supplier for the War with Mexico, and then later with the owner's increasing disapproval, the Indian Wars.
Evidence also indicates that sometime during these years, several trading posts were established along the Arkansas, Canadian and Platte Rivers. According to 1873-1973 GRANADA CENTENNIAL-"The First One Hundred Years" "Colonel William Bent had a trading post on the site of Granada in 1844." This was documented in the Colorado Yearbook, 1959-1961. Other references state that there was a log stockade at Big Timbers. Since Granada, Prowers County, is located in the Big Timbers area (at one time Big Timbers encompassed land of about 40 miles east to west along the Arkansas River), it is possible the reference was made to the trading post at Granada. The trading post on the Canadian River was known as Adobe Walls and the location on the Platte was known as St. Vrain.
In 1849, after business started declining the year before, William Bent offered to sell Fort William to the Army, who declined hoping to acquire it without cost. William moved out of the fort, but not before leaving kegs of powder in the main rooms. He blew it up.
William continued trading with the Indians and by 1853 his business had grown enough that he built a new stone fort, east of the now demised Fort William. The actual location is near present day Amity in Prowers County. His business continued to grow for the next several years, right along with the growth of the military. In 1857, Indian Agent, Robert C. Miller, in response to the increased Indian harassment, decided to withhold the annual alottment of food, clothing, and other supplies. Because the goods were stored at Bent's New Fort, William became concerned at the possibility of raids. Bent offered to rent the fort to Miller, who accepted, and the following morning, William had packed and left for the states.
That summer also saw the start of the Colorado gold rush. With the massive influx of white men hoping to strike it rich, the Indians became more unsettled than they already were. To maintain peace and protect the settlers, a military fort was built a mile west of Bent's New Fort in 1860. But since Bent's New Fort had, at various times, troops stationed there, and had military supplies, Major John Sedgwick Jr. was given permission to build a stone structure on the river bed just below the bluffs of the new fort's location.
This new Army post was called Fort Wise after the then current governor of Virginia. But among the military personnel, it was known as Fort Fauntleroy. In 1861, the name was changed to Fort Lyon after General Nathaniel Lyon who had been killed at the battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri.
William again left this stone fort, and again rented it to the Army as a storage depot. He retired to a farm on the Purgatore, to an area which later became known as Boggsville.
The following lists some of the military units that were known to have been stationed at Fort Lyon.
It was from Fort Lyon that Colonel John Chivington marched his troops to the Cheyenne's Sand Creek Reservation on November 29, 1864. The command of about 250 men set out at 9 in the evening on a forced march of 42 miles to attack the Indian camp at dawn. The more than two hundred men, women, and children that were slaughtered by Chivington and his men was to become known as the Sand Creek Massacre.
In 1865, Fort Lyon was moved to its present site near Las Animas in Bent County. The move was due to a spring ice jam in the river which backed up the snow melt deep into the buildings. The old fort was then abandoned and units were moved to the new site. Bodies of dead soldiers that had been buried at the Old Fort Lyon Cemetery were hauled by wagon to Kit Carson and then shipped by train to be reburied in Fort Leavenworth.
Fort Lyon has gone from frontier fort to naval hospital, actually a tuberculosis sanitarium in 1917. In 1922 the Veterans Administration took over the facility and grounds. The Fort Lyon VA became a town in itself. Not only did it have a post office, it also had two newspapers (at different times). The Fort Lyon News was in operation in March 1923, and the Fort Lyon Scout was active from 1925-1928.
The facility was primarily a psychiatric care hospital although it later became home to many elderly veterans who needed a nursing home environment. Fort Lyon also became a National Cemetery.
Today, the hospital is still active, but for how much longer it is difficult to say. Some of our elected officials have no allegiance to our veterans as they are striving to close this historical and very fundamental hospital. Admitting Fort Lyon had a major black mark in our history when Colonel Chivington and his troops left there to murder an encampment of Cheyenne Indians at Sand Creek in 1864. Overall, the history is well worth preserving as a functional veterans hospital and national cemetery.
We are asking for your help in preserving this historic and national site. Please consider contacting anybody you know that cares about preserving our history. We each have one voice, but together maybe the government will listen.
Update as of 2001--The Veterans Administration has sold the hospital to the Colorado Prison System.
Sources:
Prowers County, Colorado-A Prowers County
History, by Ava Betz, Published by The
Prowers County Historical Society, Big Timbers Museum, Lamar,
Colorado 1986
1873-1973 Granada Centennial, June 16,
1973-"The First One Hundred Years",
Published by Robinson Printing, Lamar, Colorado June, 1973
Bent County The
Press Gang
Mary Thompson Saban, County Coordinator. Send comments to bentco-col@genealogyalongtherockies.com
Return to Bent County History Homepage
Fort Lyon
Created August 18, 2000
Copyright 1999-2004
Page Last Updated 06/19/2008
Web pages and graphics by Kathy Leigh and maintained
by Mary Thompson Saban
This nonprofit research network is affiliated with the American Local History Network, Inc. (ALHN), and American History and Genealogy Project, nonprofit historical and genealogical programs. No claim is made to the copyrights of individual submitters.