In the early 19^th century, various fur trapping companies set up posts along the front range of the Rocky Mountains in what is now Colorado: Bent and St. Vrain (Fort Lookout), Sublette and Vasquez, Fort Jackson, and Fort Lupton. These “forts” were built in the 1830s within 10 miles of the South Platte River” forming a chain connecting the fur traders.

Trappers based at these forts and working for larger companies went out into the wilderness to trap beaver and buffalo or to trade with the various native tribes living in the area including the Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and occasionally the Crows, Pawnees, Shoshones and Blackfeet. Many of the pelts collected by the trappers, either through trapping or trade, would be collected or sent back east for sale.

It is difficult to track the movements of the trappers as there is little written evidence of their travels, but a few were known to have traveled along the South Platte River and likely through the Fort Morgan area.

Gold Seekers through Fort Morgan: Journals from 1859

The earliest travelers set off for the Rocky Mountains even before it was certain there was gold. Confirmation wouldn't come late in the summer of 1858; anyone setting off after that point would face the cold winter of the plains and arrive when little gold could be prospected. So, most, left for the gold fields as soon as possible the following spring. 

Some of the travelers reported meeting Indians, there were Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and Sioux in the area at the time, but in 1859, the whites were more a curiosity than a threat. Edward Dunsha Steele reported passing “a Camp of Shians [Cheyennes] on Bever [Beaver] Creek” on July 23^rd and after remaining in camp on the 24^th “it being Sunday – were visited by Shian [sic] Indians – also by a distinguished Sioux called Red Plume”. 

Ed Chase: Gambling King at Fort Morgan

Edward Chase.

Edward Chase, Denver’s gambling king had a short history with the military and Junction Station as Fort Morgan was at the time and the Sand Creek Massacre. In August 1864, he volunteered with Company F of the 3^rd Colorado Cavalry. The men in the militia were called “100 day’s men” because their enlistment in the militia lasted for 100 days. 

Execution of Foster & Stone - 13th Missouri Cavalry

During the 1860s when Fort Wardwell [Fort Morgan] was the most active at fighting the allied tribes, the fort earned some unwelcome notoriety. On January 8, 1866, two soldiers from the 13^th Missouri Cavalry stationed at Camp Wardwell were arrested for the murders of Isaac H. Augustus and F. H. Sluman, freighters working for Carney & Stevens out of Leavenworth, Kansas.

Privates Frank Foster and Henry Stone of Company E, 13^th Missouri Cavalry were arrested for the murders and brought to Denver for trial. The soldiers were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. The details of the murders were reported as part of Franklin Foster’s confession reported in the newspaper on May 17^th:

Fort Morgan Burns: Hostilities Continue

On May 18, 1868, the flag was lowered for the last time at Fort Morgan and the cannon fired a last salute. Captain Powell and the 4th U. S. Infantry marched to Fort Laramie which would become the unit's home base. The fort lay amongst buffalo and buffalo grass and waited; the sod fort melting back into the plains.

Just months after Fort Morgan was abandoned, Indians attacked Brush’s ranch, killing William Brush, his cousin Jared Conroy and a hired man Halstead Olson Dunning and stampeding stock. With the fort deserted, the ranchers were on their own just as they had been in the early 1860s at the start of the Indian hostilities in the area. 

Did the military leave too soon? 

Artist Thomas Worthington Whittredge at Fort Morgan

In 1866, General John Pope, commander of the Military Division of the Missouri which then included the Colorado Territory, set off on a tour of the Plains, the Rocky Mountains and New Mexico. During his trip he would stay at Fort Wardwell on June 22nd through the 24th. The expedition was recorded by Colonel James Meline in his book Two Thousand Miles on Horseback. Meline wrote eloquently about the fort (see post "In View of the Mountains").

Also accompanying General Pope on this expedition was the landscape painter Thomas Worthington Whittredge. He was as enthralled as Meline with the plains and a number of his landscapes are set along the Platte River. 

Fort Morgan and Little Bighorn

Fort Morgan featured little in the Indian Wars of the 1860s and 1870s. The purpose of the garrison was to provide protection for emigrants to and from the gold fields of Colorado. The fort was never attacked, as such though there were a number of skirmishes on the prairies. The fort was abandoned in 1868, with the base of operations moving to Fort Laramie, Wyoming so little seems to link the fort with one of the major battles of the age – Little Bighorn. The link is limited, but it is there.

Desertions from Fort Morgan

At times, desertion was a major problem in the military. By no means a daily occurrence, monthly reports note how many soldiers – generally enlisted men – deserted during the month.

Notes were also made of soldiers captured and placed under arrest, sometimes court martialed, sometimes placed back into service. As can be seen on the following chart, desertions were relatively rare with occasional spikes (one of which, that of January, 1867, was detailed in the book In View of the Mountains).

Troops at the Fort

Federal troops arrived in Fort Morgan (or Post of Junction as it was first called) in May, 1865 following a winter of attacks by the allied tribes (Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Sioux). The Civil War was winding down and soldiers became available to man the post.

The 1st Colorado Cavalry was joined at the post by companies of the 3rd, 5th and 6th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, consisting of captured Confederate soldiers who volunteered for duty in the west in preference to imprisonment, and a company of the 1st Michigan Cavalry. More troops would arrive by the end of the year including the 13th Missouri Cavalry and the 21st New York Cavalry and for a time, nearly 400 men (along with more than 200 horses and 38 civilian employees) were stationed at the small fort.

Early Views of the Mountains

Early travelers through the Fort Morgan area write of long miles of prairie, huge horse-flies, and buffalo – thousands and thousands of buffalo. Sometimes these travelers encountered Indians and sometimes they did not, but nearly all rejoiced at their first view of the mountains which occurred around the Fort Morgan area.  

Early Explorers through Fort Morgan

The early history of Fort Morgan is unclear, but there is some evidence that French and Spanish explorers and traders were in the vicinity of Fort Morgan. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the Spanish and French fought for control over most of the western United States. On this map made in 1663, Fort Morgan lies in the highlighted area just over the word “Apaches” along what is labeled as the Padouca River.

Settling the Land

In 1866, Colorado's first bid for statehood passed Congress, but was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson who cited concerns with Colorado’s population:

The population [of Colorado] is small; some estimate it as low as twenty-five thousand, while the advocates of the bill reckon the number at from thirty-five thousand to forty thousand. The people are principally recent settlers, many of whom are understood to be ready for removal to other mining districts beyond the limit of the Territory, if circumstances shall render them more inviting

Guides to Gold

During the summer of 1859, an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 emigrants flooded into the Rocky Mountains in search of gold and the majority of the “Fifty-Niners” or “Pikes Peakers” traveled through the Fort Morgan area. Frank Root, a messenger for the Overland Stage described the route during the early 1860s when the Pikes Peak Gold Rush was in full swing:

The writer counted, from his seat on the stage-coach, along the Platte, between Fort Kearney and old Julesburg, in one day, during the civil war, nearly 900 wagons – to be exact, 888 – destined westward on the great overland route. These wagons were drawn by no less than 10,650 animals – cattle, horses, and mules.

Irrigating the Desert

Starting in 1872, the land around Fort Morgan began a dramatic change. Canals were constructed to bring the water from the South Platte River and the creeks feeding the river to the land. By 1889, about 150 miles of irrigating canals were complete and many of the canals are still in use today. A history of irrigation in Morgan County can be found in Lyman Baker's book Morgan County Colorado: What Ten Years of Irrigation has Done for a Part of the Colorado Desert and a later book by J. M. Dille Irrigation in Morgan County.

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).

The Fort

The building of Fort Morgan began in March, 1865 on the orders of Colonel Thomas Moonlight. He wrote to Colonel Samuel Browne, then commanding the 1st Colorado Mounted Militia:

Herewith inclosed [sic] please find plans* for the erections of fortifications quarters &c. at Junction, American Ranch & Spring Hill. I understand that Maj. Talbot, has the one for Valley Station. You will cause these works to be erected at once, for this purpose you will cause, every man not on other active duty to be employed in this manner. If you deem it necessary to detail an Officer who has experience in Engineering, do so, and keep him going from point to point, reporting to you the progress. A spirit of emulation should be encouraged among the Companies in this important work, the points indicated by Maj. Bennett will be strictly observed. This may require the changing of Station of Companies. Report weekly by letter the progress of work.