The Territories of Fort Morgan

The land on which Fort Morgan is built belonged to the Spanish from about 1540

until 1700. During the 18th century, the area containing Fort Morgan vacillated between Spanish and French control. In 1803, the French, who had again regained control in 1800, sold a large area of land, containing Fort Morgan to the United States. This transaction is known as the Louisiana Purchase and the land containing Fort Morgan was in the District then Territory of Louisiana. By the middle of the century, northeastern Colorado would become part of the Missouri Territory and finally the lands along the South Platte River would be part of the Nebraska Territory.





During this time, however, the South Platte River was also on the very northern most edge of lands designated as the Indian Territory, created in 1825 as an area of protection for the various Indian tribes. However, by the middle of the 19th century, as more emigrants moved west and land became more valuable, the Indian Territory was compressed . The Laramie Treaty (or Fitzpatrick’s Treaty) of 1851 between the U. S. government and the

Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Crow, Assinaboines, Gros-Ventre Mandans, and Arrickaras defined the lands given to the tribes and the area around Fort Morgan was designated for the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes . But the South Platte River wandered through prime hunting ground and within the decade would also become a major highway to the Colorado gold fields making it a center of conflict.
The Indian land was part of the Nebraska Territory in 1854, but at the time there was tension between the North and South Platte territories and in 1859, the South Platte country attempted to separate itself from the North Platte and secede from Nebraska, seeking to join the Kansas Territory . Instead, the area declared itself to be a new territory.

The people of Colorado first formed a provisional government under the name of Jefferson Territory, but the territorial government was not recognized by the United States, as it was still then a part of Indian land , . Another treaty, the Treaty of Fort Wise signed on February 18, 1861 limited Indian land and freed up the land along the South Platte River for white emigrants. Just ten days after the Treaty of Fort Wise was signed, Colorado became a territory (February 28, 1861).

While doing business as Jefferson Territory in 1859 and 1860, the land containing Fort Morgan was part of St. Vrain county. When Colorado became a state in 1876, Fort Morgan was part of Weld County, but in 1889, became the county seat for the newly formed Morgan County.

    

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Photo Source:
Claims on Colorado Territory before 1861. Source: Ubbelohde, Carl, Duane A. Smith, & Maxine Benson, A Colorado History (Boulder, CO: Pruett Publishing, 1995), p. 52.

Photo Source:
U. S. and Texas map 1839. Source: www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histus.html Fort Morgan lies just below the "D" in "Indian"

Sources:
Prucha, Francis Paul, Documents of United States Indian Policy (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1975), p. 84.

Kappler, Joseph (Ed.), “Treaty of Fort Laramie with the Sioux, etc., 1851,” Indian affairs: Laws and treaties, Volume 2(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), pp. 594-596.

“Laws of the Provisional Government of the Territory of Jefferson,” Rocky Mountain News, 25 January, 1860, p. 1.

Stone, Wilbur Fiske, History of Colorado, Vol. 1 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing, 1918), p. 199.