USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 15
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"Unfortunately, the inhabitants of the fort did not take this warning seriously, as we shall see. On the afternoon of Christmas a single Indian was seen gallop- ing his horse up the trail to the fort. Upon his arrival he met the men with a friendly greeting and suggested to Sandoval, who was in charge of the fort, that they set up a target and try their skill as marksmen. Sandoval, believing that no danger could possibly arise from the presence of one Indian within the enclosure, permitted him to enter. A target was set up and with the entire group of men standing by the shooting began. Sandoval fired first and was followed immedi- ately by the Indian; whereupon, two more Utes appeared riding up the trail. Upon their arrival they greeted the group with a friendly 'How' and took their places among the other spectators. The next time four shots were fired and four Indians appeared. It was evident that the firing of the shots was a signal for more Indians to appear. The shooting was resumed and in a short time the entire band of Indians, fifty in number, had arrived and were intently watching the contest.
"Blanco, the Ute chief, requested food for his followers, whereupon the entire group entered the fort. Food was given them as well as a liberal quantity of 'Taos lightning.'. Suddenly, at a given signal, the entire band of savages fell upon the occupants of the fort and begun their massacre.
"Against such odds these men were unable to contend and in a few minutes they were all killed except four, one woman, the two sons of Sandoval, seven and twelve years old, and one man who was shot through the cheek and left for dead. The woman was killed at a spring near by as they were leaving the fort, but the boys were kept as captives, and were finally restored to their people after peace was made."
No attempt was ever made to renew life at this post, and, among the Indians and trappers, the deserted rooms and walls were believed to harbor the spirits of the slain, whose wailings and moanings could be heard almost any night. The place was regarded with superstitious dread and rapidly fell into decay and demo- lition. Reliable authorities have placed the exact site of this post adjacent to the spot where the Ferris Hotel in Pueblo stood for many years. The other frontier post at Hardscrabble had disappeared several years before the massacre at Pueblo.
El Pueblo, or Fort Pueblo, was another small post established upon the north bank of the Arkansas, about five miles above Bent's Fort. This is not to be con- fused with the Pueblo trading-post mentioned in the preceding paragraphs. Two other small stations were built during this same period-both near the mouth of Timpas Creek, on opposite sides of the river. These three posts were inhabited and utilized mainly by Mexicans and Frenchmen, whose principal business, accord- ing to the general knowledge of the frontiersmen, was the smuggling of bad whiskey across the international boundary.
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FIRST POST ON SOUTH PLATTE
In 1832 the first fur-trading station was built along the South Platte. Vas- quez, a trader, brother to Pike's interpreter, is thought to have been the builder of this post, using cottonwood logs which he obtained in the vicinity. The site was about opposite the mouth of Clear Creek, almost within the present city limits of Denver. In this connection, it may be said that Clear Creek bore the name of Vasquez Fork at that time and until the middle of the Nineteenth Century.
Dr. F. A. Wislizenus in his narrative treating of his trip through the Rockies in 1839, and from which extensive quotations have been used in another part of this chapter, wrote of a fort owned by Vasquez and Sublette, located on the South Platte five or six miles above Fort St. Vrain. This was undoubtedly the same Vasquez and the other owner, William L. Sublette, one of the builders of Fort Laramie.
In 1833 Peter A. Sarpy, a St. Louis Frenchman, erected a log trading-post on the South Platte, five miles down the river from that of Vasquez. Little is known of this post, or that of Vasquez, as the amount of business transacted was small and the posts themselves were short-lived. Both Sarpy and Vasquez were veteran fur traders ; the former afterward entered the employ of the American Fur Com- pany on the Missouri, while Vasquez was known as a "free" trapper in the moun- tains until the late '40S.
FORT LANCASTER
In 1836 or 1837 Fort Lancaster was constructed on the east side of the South Platte, "about seven miles north of the south line of our Weld County." The builder was Lancaster P. Lupton, a lieutenant attached to Col. Henry Dodge's ex- pedition to Colorado in 1835 and in command of Company A, First Regiment, U. S. Dragoons. Lieutenant Lupton resigned from the United States service March 31, 1836, for the purpose of entering the fur-trading business, which, he had convinced himself, held great opportunities for money-making.
It is not known whether Lupton made money with his trading-post, but it is known that he abandoned it within the decade. Hunters and trappers called it "Fort Lupton" and "Lupton's Fort" rather than the original appellation of Fort Lancaster. In fact, some writers have stated that Lupton built two forts in the vicinity, one known as Fort Lancaster and one as Fort Lupton.
J. C. Smiley states in his History of Colorado (1913) that "The change gave rise in our settlement period to rather a general belief, which has been transmitted to the present time, that Lupton had built two trading-posts in that vicinity, the earlier being Fort Lancaster, which was supposed to have stood upon the eastward side of the South Platte, several miles above the mouth of St. Vrain Creek; and that the trader had bestowed his given name upon the first, and his surname upon the second. But some of our pioneers thought that Fort Lancaster was the prede- cessor of Fort Lupton, upon the same site.
"In a 'Table of Distances from Omaha, N. T. (Nebraska Territory), to the Cherry Creek and South Platte Gold Mines,' by way of the Platte and South Platte rivers, originally compiled and printed at Omaha in the winter of 1858-59. and published in the Rocky Mountain News, in the settlement at the mouth of
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Cherry Creek, in April and May, 1859, and which contained various references to the character of the route and also indicated the better camping-places, 'Fort Lancaster' is located seven miles above (south of) Fort St. Vrain; and 'Fort Lupton,' six miles above (south of) Fort Lancaster. Each of the two is noted as affording 'good camp.'"
Frémont visited Fort Lancaster and described it as it appeared on July 6, 1843; when he stopped to visit the lieutenant, as in a fairly prosperous condition with an abundance of live stock and poultry. Frémont, in his Memoirs, also mentions that, after leaving Fort St. Vrain for Fort Lancaster, he passed "two abandoned forts," one of which was undoubtedly that of Vasquez and Sublette. The other, it is thought, once belonged to obscure traders.
FORT ST. VRAIN
The trading-post known as Fort St. Vrain was the largest of its kind on the South Platte and was the third largest in the whole fur-trading region of the Central West, Fort Laramie and Fort Bent being of greater size and importance. It was constructed on the right side of the South Platte, about a mile below tlie mouth of St. Vrain Creek, by the Bent brothers and Ceran St. Vrain. The post was built of sun-dried bricks (adobe) and measured approximately seventy-five by one hundred and twenty-five feet in width and length, with fourteen-foot walls. The construction, or architecture, of the fort was similar to that of Fort Bent, having a central court, picketed walls, one gate and corner bastions.
During the few years of existence Fort St. Vrain was a lively competitor of Fort Lancaster, and was the half-way point between Fort Bent and Fort Laramie. It was located on the well-beaten trail which led from the upper Arkansas to Fort Laramie. This trail, of which 15th Street in Denver is a part, became one of the most important of the frontier highways and was for several years part of a pony-express route from Fort St. Vrain to Fort Bent, thence to Taos. Six and a half years Fort St. Vrain maintained its popularity among the emigrants, traders, trappers, adventurers and other what-not of the frontier. Parkman visited the place after its abandonment and in his "Oregon Trail" speaks of it thusly :
"At noon we rested under the walls of a large fort, built in these solitudes some years since by M. St. Vrain. It was now abandoned and fast falling into ruin. The walls of unbaked bricks were cracked from top to bottom. Our horses recoiled in terror from the neglected entrance, where the heavy gates were torn from their hinges and flung down. The area within was overgrown with weeds, and the long ranges of apartments once occupied by the motley concourse of traders, Canadians and squaws were now miserably dilapidated."
Like many of the frontiersmen, Ceran St. Vrain was of French descent and a native of St. Louis. All of his life he engaged in the fur-trading and trafficking business, operating a wagon-train over the Santa Fé Trail in trading with New Mexico. His death occurred at Mora, New Mexico, in 1870.
ANTOINE ROUBIDEAU
Antoine Roubideau was another St. Louis Frenchman who built for himself a log trading-station on the left shore of the Gunnison River, a distance of between
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one and two miles below the mouth of the Uncompahgre, near the present Town of Delta, Colorado. Roubideau started this small post some time in the '30s and continued his lonely trade for several years. He became unpopular with the Utes and finally they mercilessly burned his buildings and drove him from the vicinity. This intrepid Frenchman, in honor of whom a pass in the Sangre de Cristo Range has been named, was a wanderer over the entire West, following his trade and undergoing hardship and adventure wherever he went. He is known to have been in the western part of what is now Colorado as early as 1824, and in 1844 he was the proprietor of Fort Uintah, a hundred miles southeast of Salt Lake City. His garrison here was annihilated by the Indians, but Roubideau himself hap- pened to be absent on that particular day.
In the extreme northwestern corner of Colorado stood Fort Davy Crockett, or just Fort Crockett, on the left bank of Green River, just on or near the present state line. Three Americans-St. Clair, Craig and Thompson-constructed this post. Doctor Wislizenus visited the post and described it as a one-story adobe building, with three wings, but no stockade. This fort was abandoned in the early '40S.
Fraeb's Post, built by "Jim" Bridger and Henry Fraeb about 1840, was located on St. Vrain's Fork, but several miles beyond the northern boundary of Colorado. Fraeb and several of his men were killed during an engagement between his garri- son of over half a hundred men and a band of hostile Sioux. It is thought that the post was abandoned shortly after this occurrence.
FORT LARAMIE
Although Fort Laramie's history properly belongs to the history of Wyoming, within whose boundaries it was located, this historic fort played such an important part in the drama of the Great West that a few words must be said of it in con- nection with the other forts, which were situated within Colorado. Fort Laramie was located near the junction of the North Platte and Laramie rivers, and received its name from Jacques Loramie, or Laramée, a French trader who was killed in 1821. In 1834 William L. Sublette and Robert Campbell constructed a trading- post near the confluence of the North Fork and the Laramie, and named it Fort William, after Sublette. In the next year the firm of Fitzpatrick, Sublette & Bridger, with strong affiliations with the American Fur Company, purchased the post and renamed it Fort John in honor of John B. Sarpy. Notwithstanding the official cognomen of the post, the trappers soon began to call it Fort Laramie. Then, in the early '40s the owners of Fort John built a larger and stronger post a short distance farther up the Laramie River and called it Fort Laramie, old Fort John being abandoned at the same time. This new fort became the strongest and most important in the Central West. Surrounded by a sixteen-foot wall of stone and adobe, with bastions at two corners and a tower above the gate, the fort pre- sented an imposing appearance. Fort Laramie was a stopping point for all the emigrants to Oregon and California, and in 1849 the United States Government purchased the property, improved and enlarged it, and utilized it as a military post until the end of the Indian wars.
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL
The Santa Fé Trail, that great highway of trade and travel, which extended from the Missouri River to the capital of New Mexico, crossed the southeastern corner of what is now Baca County, in the State of Colorado. This trail was the principal highway through the Great West. Adventures of infinite variety and numerically greater than could be recorded in a work of this scope were experi- enced by the hundreds who journeyed along this trail.
When trade first began with New Mexico the traders usually followed a route straight west from the Missouri River to the mountains, then turned south to Santa Fé by the trail from Taos. It was not long, however, until the amount of travel increased to such an extent that an easier and quicker route had to be devised. The road then followed along the left bank of the Arkansas River until the stream turned to the northwest, and then crossed the river and went southwest to Raton Pass.
Baptiste La Lande and James Purcell (Pursley), in the years 1804 and 1805 respectively, were the first to open a regular trade with the New Mexicans, while representing American interests. Purcell liked the New Mexican country so well that he became a permanent resident of Santa Fe. In November, 1809, three other American traders -- McClanahan, Patterson and Smith- left St. Louis for Santa Fé, for the purpose of trading, but were never heard of afterward. Whether they were killed by Indians or met other mishap is not known. Another and larger party of Americans, including Samuel Chambers, James Baird and Rob- ert McKnight, went to Santa Fé to trade in 1812, but they were received as enemies and imprisoned at Chihuahua, where they remained for nine years, or until Mexico revolted successfully from Spanish rule.
After the downfall of the Spanish administration in New Mexico the Santa Fé Trail as a route from the Missouri to Santa Fé became an established highway. The revolution occurred in 1821 and late in the same year William Becknell, of Missouri, with a large party, went to the capital. He has been termed "the founder of the Santa Fe trade and the father of the Santa Fé Trail." His journey was undoubtedly the first of any importance after the Spanish were downed by the Mexicans, and for this reason was probably the first to obtain unmolested entrance to the markets of the southern province. His route led him straight west to the mountains, all the time following the Arkansas River, and then turned southward. In 1822 several caravans followed the trail to Santa Fé and in this year the trade may be said to have opened in earnest.
The original eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail was the small hamlet of Franklin, located on the Missouri River, about one hundred and fifty miles west of St. Louis. After ten years or so the terminus was changed to the town of Inde- pendence, Missouri, near the present Kansas City, then in the '50s to Westport and to Kansas City. From Independence the Trail ran southwest to the extreme northern point of the great bend in the Arkansas, then along the north bank to the 100th meridian. At this point a crossing of the Arkansas was made at a place known as the Cimarron Crossing, and the course continued southwest to the Cimarron River, thence along the north bank of this river, crossing the south- eastern corner of the present Baca County. Colorado, over the Cimarron Pass
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through Oklahoma, northeastern New Mexico to Santa Fé. The total distance covered by the Trail is estimated to have been 840 miles.
After the Mexican War traffic upon the Trail vastly increased. Mails were car- ried over its route, troops were marched and transported along its broad stretches and caravan after caravan of "prairie schooners," pack-animals, riders and pedes- trians followed its course to the mountains and the Far West .. The Bent brothers opened a branch road from their first trading-post, following the north bank of the upper Arkansas to the Santa Fé Crossing. This is now a public road from the mountains to the eastward. The trail from the upper Arkansas to Fort Laramie, via Fort St. Vrain, has been mentioned before. Another trail afterwards led from the second Bent trading-post, which was Fort Bent, into New Mexico by way of the Raton Pass, joining the Santa Fe Trail after entering the Territory of New Mexico. There were numerous other and smaller trails established during this period, many of them to suit the convenience of the trappers alone.
The Santa Fe Trail continued as a highway of commerce until after the Civil War and the coming of the first railroads. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway was built up the Arkansas Valley in the early '70s and as its steel rails were advanced the old Trail was just so much shortened. Freighters used the Trail only so far as to reach the beginning of the railroad. On February 9, 1880, the first train over this railroad by way of the Raton Pass entered Santa Fé and the famous Santa Fé Trail became a thing of the past.
THE LAST TRADER
William Bent was the last fur trader within the limits of the present State of Colorado. After he had wilfully destroyed Fort Bent, he constructed a few log houses on the left bank of the Arkansas at a point known as the "Big Timbers," in what is now Prowers County, Colorado. In 1854, having abandoned his cab- ins, he began the construction of the New Fort Bent, on the Arkansas, eight miles west of Lamar. Although smaller, in general appearance and equipment this new fort was very similar to the original Fort Bent. Bent maintained a trad- ing-post here and also negotiated with the government for its sale as a military post. In this latter he had better success than formerly, and in 1859 the govern- ment purchased the fort and renamed it Fort Wise, in honor of the Governor of Virginia at that time. In 1861 it was again renamed Fort Lyon, after Gen. Nathaniel Lyon. Afterward it was rebuilt and relocated at the mouth of the Las Animas or Purgatory River. Of the picturesque characters developed in the Great West during the fur-trading period more shall be said in a later chapter. Such men as "Kit" Carson, "Jim" Bridger, "Uncle Dick" Wooten and Tom Tobin were classed as "free" trappers, and, although possessing many of the rough traits of the frontier, were ever staunch defenders of law and order, valiant fighters, true friends and in all men of red blood and iron sinew.
DOCTOR WISLIZENUS' JOURNEY
In his journey to the Columbia River region in the year 1839, Dr. F. A. Wis- lizenus saw parts of Colorado, also passed through the state upon his return jour- ney. Doctor Wislizenus wrote a narrative of his trip, which was published in the
THE FEDERAL BUILDING, DENVER
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original German by Wilhelm Weber at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1840. In 1911 a translation was made of this book for the Colorado Historical and Natural His- tory Society by Mr. Alfred Patek. It is from this translation that the following excerpts are taken :
"About the middle of April, 1839, I left St. Louis for the purpose of traveling westward. I took the steamer St. Peter up the Missouri to 'Chouteau's Land- ing.' This took six days, as the water was low and it was a trip of no particu- lar interest. The little western border town of Westport lies six miles from Chouteau's Landing, and it was there that I determined to await the departure of the annual caravan westward. This little town contains thirty to forty houses and lies hardly more than a mile from the western border of Missouri. It is the ac- customed gathering place for travelers to the Rocky Mountains. Its neighboring town, Independence, which lies twelve miles away, is also a rendezvous for those who are traveling to Santa Fé.
"I bought a horse and a mule, the former to ride upon and the latter for'bag- gage. I prepared myself in other ways for a long journey. On the 4th of May the company that was to make this journey had arrived and prepared itself for the' trip, and the first stop was eight miles from Westport at a place called Sapling Grove. The journey to this point was through the land of the Shawnees, friendly Indians, who have settled here and who have become the owners of valuable farms. Their customs are very much like those of the whites, some of them even speaking English. My first day's travel was not auspicious, for I did not understand how to pack the baggage upon the mule's back. The usual way con- sists in dividing the luggage into two equal halves, tightening each separately and then with loops adjusting it accurately to the shape of the pack saddle. After this has been done a lash rope, made of buffalo leather, is bound around the belly of the animal and then effectively wound around the baggage. My entire outfit weighed from 150 to 200 pounds, which is the usual burden of one of the animals, but it was not properly divided, so that I was compelled to unpack repeatedly, and I did not arrive at the first stopping place until after dark and long after all the others had reached the place."
Speaking of the difficulties of pack-saddling, Doctor Wislizenus states later : "During the first days of a journey it is the custom to lead the pack animals with ropes, but later they are permitted to run free and are driven in front of the caravan. The amateur travelers have considerable trouble with their baggage. At one point the pack has turned to one side ; at another point it is under the very belly of the animal. At times when the animal sees its load falling, it stops and awaits the coming of the master, but some of them, frightened, start on a wild run and do their utmost to free themselves of their loads. But the caravan, like an army deserting its fallen, moves forward. The older ones repair the damage in silence, but with angry faces, and the younger ones do not hesitate to give vent to their feelings in picturesque language, to say the least."
Of the personnel of the company the Doctor says: "Our caravan was small, for it consisted of only twenty-seven persons. Of these, nine were in the employ of the Fur Company of St. Louis, Choteau, Pratte & Company, and were going to the annual rendezvous on the Green River with a transport of trading goods. Their leader was a Mr. Harris, a mountaineer of no particular culture, but with five healthy senses which he knew how to use. The others had joined the excur-
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sion for purely personal reasons. Among them were three missionaries, two of whom were accompanied by their wives and who were on their way to the Colum- bia, that they might aid in converting the tribes in the Northwest. Several others were talking of a permanent settlement on the Columbia River, others had Cali- fornia in mind, but nearly all were impelled by trading interests. The majority of the company consisted of Americans, the remainder were Canadians, French and Germans, with one solitary Dane.
"Our direction during those first two days was due west. For one day we traveled along the broad Santa Fé Trail, then turned to our right into a narrower road, which had been blazed by the early travelers to the Rockies, but which was often so faint in its outline that even the leaders lost it, and were governed by the camps. Our path took us through a prairie with rolling and fertile ground, watered here and there by brooks and streams. Upon these shores we found as a rule a narrow strip of undergrowth. On the prairie we found no timber. For several days we were forced to drink dirty and stagnant water, but usually we found pleasant and romantic places along clear streams. We saw but little animal life and shot only a few prairie chickens. The weather-beaten elk skull and elk horn were evidence to us that at some time those old residents of the wilderness were grazing in these regions. On the fifth day we arrived at the Kansas, or, as it was called, the Kaw River. We were now about one hundred miles above its junction with the Missouri."
On the afternoon of May 23d the party came into view of the Platte River. "A short distance below the junction of the two forks (North and South) the stream separates anew and forms a large and long island. It was at this point that we reached the Platte."
The caravan proceeded along the Platte to the forks and then followed the course of the South Platte for a few days. Shortly the journey was taken in a northwest direction, to the North Platte. Nothing of importance happened along this route, except a glimpse of a drove of wild horses. Wislizenus describes the country as follows : "The North Fork and its environment is much like the South Fork-much sand, very little wood and no buffalo. *
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