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”. 

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? 

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.

Troops at the Fort

In all, 26 companies of soldiers were stationed in and around the Fort Morgan area from 1864 until 1868.

The first troops were Companies C and H of the 1st Colorado Cavalry stationed at Camp Sanborn near Orchard. Later, Companies C and F of the 11th Ohio Cavalry were sent to the area to protect the Overland Mail route.

Battle at Fremont's Orchard

On April 12, 1864, a company of about 20 soldiers from Companies C and H of the 1st Colorado Cavalry under the command of Second Lieutenant Clark Dunn based at Camp Sanborn (near Orchard, Colorado), set out to find a group Cheyenne who reportedly stole stock from a local rancher:

…Ripley, a ranchman, living on the Bijon [sic] creek, near camp Sanborn, came into camp and informed Captain Sanborn, commanding, that his stock had all been stolen by the Indians, requesting assistance to recover it. Captain Sanborn ordered Lieutenant Clark Dunn, with a detachment of troops, to pursue the Indians and recover the stock; but if possible, to avoid a collision with them. Upon approaching the Indians, Lieutenant Dunn dismounted, walked forward alone about fifty paces from his command, and requested the Indians to return the stock, which Mr. Ripley had recognized as his; but the Indians treated him with contempt, and commenced firing upon him, which resulted in four of the troops being wounded and about fifteen Indians being killed and wounded, Lieutenant Dunn narrowly escaping with his life….

The Indians recounted a different version of events:

[E]arly in April, fourteen young men, all Dog Soldiers, left the camp on Beaver Creek and started north to take part in the expedition against the Crows. Before they reached the South Platte they found four stray mules on the prairie and drove them along with them. That same night a white man came into their camp and claimed the mules. The Indians who had found them told him that he could have them if he would give them a present to pay them for their trouble. The man went away to a camp of soldiers nearby and told the officer that a party of hostile Indians had driven off his animals…. According to the statements of Indians who were of the party the troops charged on them without any warning. Four men were shot by the Indians, one of whom they supposed to be an officer. Of the Indians Bear Man, Wolf Coming Out, and Mad Wolf were wounded. The soldiers retreated and the Indians, thoroughly frightened, gave up their expedition to the north and returned to the camp on Beaver Creek. They took with them the head of the officer, which they had cut off, and his jacket, field-glasses, and watch.

The military accounts paint the Cheyenne as the aggressors and in the Cheyenne accounts, the military charged without warning. It is possible that that the fault lay on both sides, the battle resulting from a grave misunderstanding; the military attempting to take weapons away from the Cheyenne may have been misinterpreted as a hostile act and the Cheyenne responded accordingly to protect their own safety. The discrepancies also include the injuries. The Cheyennes reported wounding a soldier and cutting off his head. The military records report four wounded soldiers (two mortally) who were taken back to Camp Sanborn and does not mention a soldier killed on the battlefield.

The Battle at Fremont’s Orchard signaled the start of the war with the Cheyenne. Over the coming months, Indians raids along the South Platte River and the military response escalated, culminating in the Sand Creek Massacre.
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Sources:
Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Massacre of Cheyenne Indians, 38th Congress, 2nd Session (Washington, 1865), p. 107.

Grinnell, George Bird, The Fighting Cheyennes (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1915), pp. 134-6.

Life on the Trail

The diaries written by the female travelers along the South Platte River Road in the 1860s show a different perspective on both the Indians and life on the trail. Helen E. Clark and seven others left Plano, Illinois in April following her father and brother who had made the trip to Denver a year earlier taking the Santa Fé or Southern route. Helen mentions passing O Follers [O’Fallen] Bluffs on June 2nd and Fremont’s Orchard on June 14th. The following excerpt from her diary begins between these two landmarks likely around the area of Sterling: