Fremont's Orchard

On the Overland Trail of the 1860s, the station west of Bijou Creek was Fremont’s Orchard named for one of the early explorers through the area, Captain John C. Fremont. The station lay approximately 20 miles from the Junction (Fort Morgan) and south of the South Platte River near modern-day Goodrich.

Attack on the Trail: October 1865

Fort Morgan (Wardwell) was most active in 1865 dealing with attacks along the South Platte River Trail in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre in November, 1864. Towards the end of 1865, as many as 11 companies of men from the 3rd and 5th U. S. Volunteer Infantry (Galvanized Yankees), the 13th Missouri Cavalry, and the 21st New York Cavalry were based at Fort Wardwell. These men protected supply trains and emigrants along the route.

Press Release: New Book Links Fort Morgan, Gold Rush

A new history of Fort Morgan links the town with the Colorado gold rush, the Civil War, and western expansion of the 19th century. The book titled In View of the Mountains: A History of Fort Morgan, Colorado covers the history of the Fort Morgan area from about 1700 to 1889 including the military history of the fort.

The book was written by a native of Fort Morgan, Jennifer Patten, currently a university professor living near St. Louis. On her blog, she writes about the project: “From my youth I brought with me only a vague impression of the history of the small town in which I was raised… Built on the site of a short-lived military fort in the heart of the great American desert; a fort that had never been attacked, never seen a battle. On little more than a whim I went in search of the fort’s operational dates (1864-1868), expecting this information would come readily to hand and that would end my curiosity... To my surprise, I instead found a door opening to the history of the west.”

Going Postal

Fort Morgan lies on what is often referred to as the Overland Trail, the road taken by the Central Overland California and Pike’s Peak Express Company to deliver mail to Denver in the early 1860s. The trail roughly followed along the south side of the South Platte River. There had been other mail services beginning in 1859, but Ben Holliday’s COC&PP soon became the primary service.

Custer and Fort Morgan

General George Custer was in the Colorado/Kansas area in 1867. There is no evidence that he was ever at Fort Morgan, but he would have been in the area with the 7th U. S. Cavalry chasing Cheyenne as part of what was known as the Hancock Expedition (after General Winfield Hancock). As part of the Hancock Expedition, troops from the 7th U.S. Calvary were stationed at Fort Morgan under the command of Captain Michael Sheridan (brother of General Philip Sheridan).